$1 MILLION prize for Nitrogen Reduction Challenge

I received the following e-mail, and I wanted to share it. This might be an amazing opportunity for someone to show the world the applicability of biochar, for example, or other appropriate technologies and design implementations.

The project website is to be found, here; Tulane Water Prize

Dear Tulane Challenge Supporter,

We are pleased to announce that the Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge has re-launched and is NOW OPEN for registration! The Challenge has expanded from the original to allow for more diverse innovators and entrepreneurs be part of the competition to win the $1 million prize!

The primary difference in this updated Challenge is that it is expanded from sensor technologies to in-field innovations. (However, in-field innovations could still include sensor technologies.)

Please see attached Press Release and Media Card for details. Please also follow us on Social Media and our website (links at bottom) for the latest updates.

We encourage you to share this information with your relevant partners and colleagues who may be interested in creating a Team and being a competitor. Feel free to print the attached card or Press Release and post or share with relevant departments (i.e. at Universities) or offices.

Note that the Registration Deadline is JUNE 30, 2016, and we welcome Teams from around the world to compete. Teams can include for-profit, non-profit, universities, government entities, individuals, or a combination thereof.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank in advance for your support as we work to address hypoxia and the environmental dead zones.

Sincerely,
The Tulane Challenge Team

Press release;

Tulane expands chance to win $1 million for “dead zone” solution

Tulane University has expanded its Nitrogen Reduction Challenge to allow more entrepreneurs, researchers and inventors the chance to win $1 million. The cash prize will be given to the team that presents the best solution to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the earth’s waters via fertilize-laden runoff from farmlands. Such runoff is a leading cause of hypoxia, a deadly deficiency of oxygen that creates annual “Dead Zones” in the world’s lakes and oceans, killing marine life and threatening the economies of coastal regions, including the Gulf of Mexico. Hypoxia solutions already submitted to the Challenge, which launched in 2014, will be automatically registered for the grand prize along with new submissions that must register by the June 30 at tulane.edu/tulaneprize/waterprize. Up to five semi-finalists will be selected by November 2016 and provided a plot of farmland in northeast Louisiana to field test their innovation.

The winning entry, which must maintain or increase agricultural yields while reducing nutrient runoff, will be selected by the Challenge Advisory Committee and awarded the grand prize in December 2017. The Challenge’s grand prize is funded by Phyllis Taylor, president of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation. “We are so grateful and applaud Mrs. Taylor for inaugurating the Tulane Nitrogen Challenge and targeting hypoxia, a threat to water regions everywhere,” said Tulane University Challenge Director Rick Aubry. Supporters of the Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge range from Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey at the headwaters of the Mississippi River to Louisiana’s Agriculture Secretary Mike Strain and include private industry and academic partners around the country.

The Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge is a response to President Obama’s call for more organizations, philanthropists, and universities to identify and pursue the Grand Challenges of the 21st century.

Good luck!

Hi, Yea, I went and registered. I don't think they want any of us to provide a solution. I read the "submission" rules and there is a list of technologies they want and what they do not want.

Here is that:

The Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge is seeking innovative in-field solutions that will reduce crop fertilizers and runoff, with the goal of combating hypoxia and global “Dead Zones”.
Some examples of in-field solutions could include, but are not limited to:
• Cloud based models
• Decision support systems
• Database management systems
• In-field sensor technologies
• Experimental application strategies
• Fertilizer stabilizers
• Alternative fertilizer products
• Novel fertilizers

In-field solutions should not include:
• Biological systems including cover crops
• Irrigation best management practices (BMPs)
• Edge-of-field BMPs

The first bullet on the "not include" is "biological systems". WTF? Do they not want a solution?

They also state in the premise of the prize that they buy into the idea that yield is only about "bushel per acre" and the "feed the world" fallacy. Very common for people to ask for innovators an bind the problem with fallacy and limit the scope (just farming).

It almost seems like, Tulane has placed a bounty on OUR (permies) heads.

The top 2 "Innovators" will have a test plantation in Louisiana for testing of the new technology for a year. The winner will get the prize.

Anyway, I am registered, I will monitor the situation. Who knows, I might be able to come up with something that satisfies their criteria and then I could win the million. Then, when I have the attention of the farming community of the Mississippi, I would publicly denounce the technology I created and spend the $1 million trying to get the farmers to implement a "biological system including cover crops".

Edit: There are some very smart people on this forum and I would be glad to entertain any ideas you all have as well. Please, PM me with subject line "1 million" or post on this string. The help would be appreciated.