A Place to Stand

We don't yet know the full details of this prize - will it be for a particular achievement assessed in advance - however this has clearly been thought of as an X-Prize & is being sold in that way.

A £10m prize for innovation in renewable marine energy is to be announced by the first minister during his trip to the US....

The government hopes its offer of £10m will inspire scientists from across the world to work out new ways of cashing in on marine renewables.

It will be the world's biggest prize in marine renewables and it will be treated extraordinarily seriously

It has been billed as the world's largest single prize for marine power technology.

To be eligible for the prize, innovations must be commercially viable and be demonstrated in Scotland.....

"The history of such innovation prizes shows that they repay their investment many, many times over."

I am unconvinced about the wonders of renewables & very much doubt if anything can be produced which is truly "commercially viable" when compared to nuclear, but for that reason the comparison may not be made. However if it can be done this is the way to do it. Good marks to the SNP for doing this even if they are doing it on the wrong subject. Still if this is seen to be popular it makes it all the more likely that Scotland, or indeed some other state could issue the sort of £20 million X-Prize motion I suggested to the LudDims some years ago for landing a probe on an asteroid, or something similar.

Lets see if New Mexico (or even old Mexico) or Singapore, or I would love to think Scotland or the UK, might like to put up a more useful X-Prize.