LAUNCH News

It’s our favorite time of the year! And while we love the holidays, it's bringing our amazing Innovators together with our committed Council Members at the LAUNCH Forum that we look forward to the most. Last week in Bentonville, Arkansas, ...
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This week, a group of brilliant, talented, and resourceful Innovators are descending in Bentonville, Arkansas for the LAUNCH Forum. Joining them will be experts in circular economy, sustainability, and innovation, corporate pioneers, leading government agencies, investors and more, all with ...
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Customers are sending a clear message - consumption patterns are changing, and changing quickly. But in order to truly shape a circular society, we need to mainstream these inspiring efforts. This year, LAUNCH has found 9 Innovators whose inspiring ideas ...
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We are thrilled to announce that we have received 125 applications from 36 different countries, all hoping to become one of the 10 selected innovators for the 2018 LAUNCH Challenge. Thank you all for your help, support, and excitement - ...
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Are you also curious on what happens after you have applied? In the following you will learn why dozens of Innovators have joined our LAUNCH ecosystem and the benefits they have received. As a LAUNCH Innovator you will get access to ...
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VERGE 18 is happening in Oakland this October 16-18! LAUNCH has partnered with GreenBiz to get the word out about this amazing opportunity for innovators with solutions in energy, transportation, or the circular economy. VERGE is seeking entrepreneurs with early-stage ...
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Imagine a world where all products are services. Instead of buying new expensive gear for every adventure - gear you might never use again - you rent it. Rather than buying a fleet of brand new bikes every time your ...
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How do we make circular and more sustainable choices accessible and affordable for customers, and profitable for businesses? This question was at the center of this year’s LAUNCH Big Think that was held on April 9th at the eBay HQ ...
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How do we accelerate the transition to a circular economy? How can customers, corporations, and governments help to shape a Circular Society? On April 9, 2018, eBay hosted the LAUNCH Big Think on Customer Engagement and New Business Models. It ...
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What role can we, as customers, play in the transition to a Circular Society? WE HAVE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE... WE NEED TO SORT OUR TRASH, BUY SUSTAINABLY LABELED PRODUCTS, CHOOSE PRODUCTS WITH LESS PACKAGING, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME ...
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Wendy Snowdon works in the World Health Organization’s Division of Pacific Technical Support. Her work involves designing, implementing, and measuring the success of new strategies to combat the spread of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Wendy advised LAUNCH on the design of ...
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Above: Innovator Joanna Kane-Potaka at the LAUNCH Food Forum. The LAUNCH Food accelerator period has proven to be a busy and exciting time for our innovators-- some are on the cusp of expansion, while others are gaining ground with newly ...
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LAUNCH Food has seen an unprecedented number of collaborations between innovators in this cohort. Here are just a few of the collaborative projects in the works: Biofilta has installed their Foodwall vertical gardening system at the George Institute, where innovator ...
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LAUNCH Forums have been described as “brain feasts” — opportunities for innovators and industry leaders to work together, finding ways to make high-impact innovations soar. The newest group of LAUNCH innovators gathered in Ebeltoft, Denmark last week for the 2017 ...
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Above: Robert Oliver at the LAUNCH Food Forum. The food of the Pacific Islands has always been close to Chef Robert Oliver’s heart. Born in New Zealand, Oliver moved to Fiji with his family when he was about ten years ...
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Above: Habib Saqib presents at the LAUNCH Food Forum.  Many LAUNCH innovators find and realize new dimensions of their work through the LAUNCH process. For innovators Habib Saqib and Obaid Khan of Telenor Mobile Agriculture, the epiphany was that their ...
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Pictured above: Elena Dieckmann and Ryan Robinson, co-founders of AEROPOWDER IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE YOU RATHER THAN OWNING ALL OF YOUR FURNITURE JUST HAD IT DELIVERED AS A SERVICE? OR A WORLD WHERE SMARTPHONES WERE MODULAR AND YOU COULD EASILY REPLACE ...
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Kush Varshney and Aleksandra Mojsilović at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY where they lead research on artificial intelligence and machine learning. (Photo: IBM) What does the future of food look like through the lens of ...
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Pictured above: Katrine Hesseldahl and Victor Strimfors, founders of StrataLayer. The LAUNCH Innovation Challenge 2017: Design and Manufacturing for a Circular Economy received an outstanding 112 submissions from innovators representing 39 different countries. Thank you to everyone involved in the ...
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As we round out our LAUNCH Food Accelerator, our innovators are busier than ever. Read on to see what they’re up to. HarvestPlus has been selected for the next round in the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition! They are now one ...
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Jackie Saumweber has served as a LAUNCH Food Council Member since March 2017. Most recently, she worked as a senior manager on Walmart's global food sustainability team. In that role, she worked with government, nonprofits and industry to develop programs ...
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On September 28, 2017 in Washington, DC, in coordination with Global Innovation Week 2017 (September 28 - 29), LAUNCH will host the #InnovatingNow Digital Event. This will also serve a digital showcase of the various, exciting ways in which innovation ...
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By Matt Scott On Wednesday, September 20, 2017, LAUNCH Fabrics innovator Ecovative, in partnership with Danielle Trofe Design, kicked off a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for GROW, a grow-it-yourself mushroom mycelium lamp inspired by nature and designed in Brooklyn. As of ...
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Leaders from across the Pacific, including Julie Bishop, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, have come together in the city of Suva, Fiji this week to discuss regional challenges and priorities. On Saturday, Bishop was joined by Fijian Minister for Health ...
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At LAUNCH we are currently reaching out to communities, companies, academia, networks/hubs, incubator, accelerators, embassies and municipalities all around the world to find up to 10 innovators that should be part of the new generation of circular innovators. This year’s ...
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By LAUNCH Editorial Team With our planet’s growing population, rapidly decreasing land availability and increasingly unpredictable climate, we need to take a closer look at how we feed ourselves. Are we making the most of the space we have? Are ...
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By LAUNCH Editorial Team Growing food is about much more than putting a meal on a plate. Producing high quality food has repercussions on the economy, our health, and our educational outcomes… in fact, agricultural production and nutrition is essential ...
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PRESS RELEASE Imagine a world where every product was a service. A future of zero ownership. A future where all products were designed to last, to be reused, repaired and recycled keeping products and materials in the loop. It sounds ...
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By LAUNCH Editorial Team Knowledge is power, so the saying goes. But real change is effected when that knowledge is applied to real-life situations, influencing behaviors and enacting change on an individual, corporate, and even legislative level. This is the ...
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by Davar Ardalan Dynamic conversations that explore game-changing systems shifts towards a circular economy On March 2-3, the LAUNCH Circular Innovation Summit brought together leading entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and business executives to the Nike’s world headquarters in Portland, Oregon, for ...
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LAUNCH Legends roundtable included VR pioneers in the Bay Area, DFAT’s innovationXchange, co-President of the VR/AR Association in San Francisco, and experts in food systems and movement building as well as LAUNCH and SecondMuse team members. (Photo credit: Longfei Wang) ...
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We’re reporting this week from the LAUNCH Food Forum in San Francisco. We’re here with our Innovators and the LAUNCH Food Council, a 50-strong group of experts, strategists, and decision-makers from across the food system who are committed to helping ...
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By LAUNCH Editorial Team Each mouthful of food we eat has its own story. Just think about your last meal. Where was it grown, how and by who? Can you picture its journey to your plate? Around a third of ...
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By LAUNCH Editorial Team Chef Robert Oliver has been investigating ways to put food at the heart of discussions to solve the health crisis, an endemic which is very close to his heart. Pacific Islands Food Revolution (PIFR) aims to ...
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By Davar Ardalan Constraints on the planet are driving demand for resource-efficient and closed-loop products, services, and corporate models. But how do we create circular systems, material streams, and new business structures to support the transition to this new paradigm? ...
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Between September and December of 2016, nearly 300 innovators submitted proposals to the LAUNCH Food challenge. The applicant pool spanned 74 countries across six continents, and their ideas ranged from farming hacks to more efficient processing methods to creative ways ...
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The results are in! The LAUNCH 2016 Chemistry Innovation Challenge has ended and five winning innovations will help accelerate a shift towards more sustainable molecules, mixtures, and materials. All five will all attend a Circular Innovation Summit at Nike headquarters ...
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From all of us at LAUNCH, happy 2017! We couldn’t have done it without your support! Together we launched three global challenges aimed at disrupting the way we eat and the things we make. We had innovation convenings in Australia, ...
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How can we improve health outcomes by enabling people across the world to make healthy food choices? In September, the LAUNCH team asked innovators to answer that question. Our call for applications closed last week, and we are thrilled to ...
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Imagine a world where bacteria helped recycle plastic. Or a world where designers could access fabrics that would otherwise end up in landfills. Or a world where your old office chair was given a second life at a start-up or ...
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Could your innovation help disrupt the way we do food? Learn how to develop and submit your idea here. As innovators from six continents prepare to send in their LAUNCH Food ideas, we’re taking a look back at the insights ...
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LAUNCH Food is thrilled to request global proposals following our recent VR/AR Reality Hack in Canberra, AU. The Hack created a space to ideate around the capacity of 360° video, virtual reality, augmented reality and gamification to strengthen public health, ...
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By Kendra Yoshinaga Since 19 September 2016, we’ve been asking people to contribute to our Global Food Diary: a crowdsourced picture of what healthy eating looks like around the world. In honor of World Food Day, we’re wrapping up the ...
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By Sissel Mai Ødegaard The LAUNCH Nordic Innovation Challenge 2016: Closing the Loop received 120 submissions from innovators based in thirty six different countries. Today, we are proud to announce the six selected Innovators: Globechain is a platform to connect ...
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By Keira Havens Recently, Rafa Gomez Bombarelli, a post-doctoral researcher at Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, joined me for a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ Q&A about chemistry innovation and the #LAUNCHChemistry Innovation Challenge. The Challenge, developed by ...
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We live in a world that revolves around its countless moving parts. It is ripe with creative ideas, unique perspectives and constant reminders that innovation may come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. This exposure to a diversity of thoughts ...
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With our newest cycle, LAUNCH is taking on a challenge we’ve never tackled before: food. Why food? Let’s walk through the numbers. The global community has made great strides in curbing hunger worldwide: in the past 25 years, the number ...
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By Kendra Yoshinaga Update September 19, 2016 at 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time: The Global Food Diary response has been fantastic! Tweets & stories continue coming in from around the world for our Global Food Diary. The #LAUNCHFood hashtag has ...
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By Keira Havens Have you ever been curious about where the things you use come from? You’re in good company: the Discovery Science show “How It’s Made” lets people peek behind the scenes at manufacturing and has been going strong ...
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By Matt Scott The expo hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center this past Monday was a maze of giant platforms and posters depicting the future of chemistry— unlocking the power of nanobubbles for instance and our latest innovation challenge, #LAUNCHChemistry ...
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By Kendra Yoshinaga As a virtual team, LAUNCH is able to work all over the world at the same time. But there’s nothing quite like sitting together, sharing chocolate, and allowing the sticky notes to flow and inspire. That’s why ...
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By Matt Scott LAUNCH is looking to transform the system of chemistry. Beginning today and through October 31, the 2016 LAUNCH Chemistry Innovation Challenge is calling for innovators, entrepreneurs, companies, and organizations to enable predictive chemical design through innovative applications ...
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By Eleanor Greene Kiverdi has created a bioprocess which recycles carbon dioxide into high-value oils, raw renewable materials, and proteins, to be used in a variety of applications from everyday consumer goods to industrial products and fish feed. Since co-founder ...
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By Eleanor Greene In 2014, Rey Banatao brought Connora Technologies’ first thermoset polymers, called Recyclamines, to LAUNCH’s Green Chemistry cycle. Recyclamines are a game-changing technology for composite manufacturers and the environment, in that they lower the overall cost of goods ...
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by Eleanor Greene When BioAmber came to LAUNCH for 2014’s Chemistry cycle, this sustainable chemicals company was looking for major traction to find investors and connections. Now, it has found that traction, as in 2015 it opened the world’s largest ...
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Imagine a world where instead of owning everything you leased it. We know it sounds a bit crazy. But what if it wasn’t? What if it was the birth of a sustainability revolution, where waste is turned into resources and ...
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by Eleanor Greene In 2012 Sandra Sassow participated in LAUNCH’s Beyond Waste cycle on behalf of her company, SEaB Energy. SEaB is the designer and manufacturer of "micro power plants" that turn organic waste into heat, hot water or electricity ...
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by Eleanor Greene Back in 2010, Dr. Aydogan Ozcan’s innovation, LUCAS by Holomic LLC, was chosen by LAUNCH advisors as one of the standout health innovations. The innovation was a miniaturized microscope and sensor that attaches to a cell phone ...
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by Eleanor Greene Six years ago, Julien Harou, innovator and professor at The University of Manchester (UK), participated in LAUNCH’s first cycle, Water. He represented a consortium of researchers working on Hydra Platform, an open-source software platform with apps that ...
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As the LAUNCH team gears up for the start of our 2016 cycles, we thought we would take a look at some our past innovators (One from each of our five earliest cycles: Water, Health, Energy, Beyond Waste and Fabrics) ...
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Everybody is talking about the potentials in the Circular Economy. But how do we create closed loop systems and material streams? How do we design and manufacture for disassembly and recycling? And how do we shift to new business models ...
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by Eleanor Greene What happens when two innovators collaborate? They can make history. That’s what Ecovative, from System Challenge: Fabric of 2013, and Connora Technologies, from Green Chemistry cycle of 2014 are doing. Those companies, along with Enjoy Handplanes, Entropy ...
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IKEA GROUP, NIKE INC., NASA, NOVOZYMES, KVADRAT, LEADING SCIENTISTS, INVESTORS, NORDIC AND U.S. GOV. REPRESENTATIVES WILL TEAM UP IN MALMÖ NOV. 4-5 TO SUPPORT 10 INNOVATORS IN SHAPING A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD OF MATERIALS. LAUNCH Nordic is a global innovation ...
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This year the LAUNCH program and 23 small businesses, six individuals and two supporting programs are being recognized with a Tibbetts Award presented by the Small Business Administration (SBA). LAUNCH is receiving the Tibbetts Award for advancing the success of ...
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Congratulations to Connora Technlogies for winning Best in Show at the the California Tehnology Council's First Pitch: Renewables event. The California Technology Council has posted a Q&A with Connorra CEO Rey Benato and remarks, "The win for Connora reflects excitement ...
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North America is projected to emerge as the global leader of the rapidly growing bio-based & sustainable chemicals and plastics industry. The industry received nearly $1B in investment in 2014, and North America has captured $2.2B over the past three ...
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"SEaB Energy, a leading smart city innovator, has been selected to pilot their containerised, waste-to-energy technology at Canary Wharf after winning the second phase of the Cognicity Challenge. This will be the first time in thirty years that shipping containers ...
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"BioAmber Inc. has been chosen by Bayer MaterialScience as the supplier of bio-succinic acid used to produce a new range of innovative, bio-based polyurethanes for textile applications that Bayer MaterialScience has begun commercializing." ...
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NASA, IKEA Group, Novozymes, Nike Inc., Kvadrat, Nordic Government Institutions, leading scientists, designers and materials innovators join the LAUNCH Nordic Summit April 28 in Copenhagen, to shape a better world of materials. Materials have a significant impact on the planet ...
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LAUNCH founders NASA, NIKE, Inc., the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State will host the LAUNCH Green Chemistry Forum at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on January 23 and 24, 2015. LAUNCH is an open ...
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Forbes has announced their 30 Under 30 list which features a pair of LAUNCH innovators from past challenges. Eben Bayer, 29 and Gavin McIntyre, 29 are recognized on the Forbes list for their work using mycelium to create mushroom-materials through ...
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USAID is incubating start-ups to tackle poverty problems ...
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IKEA Group, NOVOZYMES, KVADRAT, LEADING SCIENTISTS, INVESTORS AND NORDIC GOV. REPRESENTATIVES WILL TEAM UP IN MALMØ TO SUPPORT NINE LAUNCH NORDIC INNOVATORS. As part of LAUNCH Nordic, a newly established US-Nordic collaboration, 30 industry executives, materials experts, government officials and ...
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Wired.com features LAUNCH Alumni Ecovative in this article titled "This Lamp Is Grown From Mushrooms". Ecovative worked with Brooklyn-based studio Danielle Trofe Design to create the Mush Lume lamp. Wired writes, "Aesthetically, the Mush-Lume was crafted to pay homage to ...
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The U.S. Department of State has released their "State of Global Partnerships Report". LAUNCH is featured on Pages 22-23. Check it out! (36.8mb PDF) ...
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Nike was named by Fast Company as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies ...
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Andrew Winston at the Harvard Business Review has written a great top ten list meant "...to summarize some of the latest stories about the big environmental and social pressures on business, and how some innovative companies are dealing with them." ...
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The Guardian describes why "wasted milk may one day be converted to a silk-like fiber replacement for cotton, thanks to an innovative technology called Qmilk." ...
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"Aquagenx, a UNC-spinoff that provides microbial water testing products, is deploying its "compartment bag test" at the request of the Philippines’ government." Congratulations to Mark Sobsey and team for their continued efforts to help the world identify safe water sources ...
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We are proud to share that Ecovative, a LAUNCH: Systems innovator, has won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge this year. "Each year, the Buckminster Fuller Institute awards $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential ...
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"The careful orchestration required for a space mission, from pre-launch through final landing, is similar to a startup’s process of mapping and executing complex decision trees." LAUNCH Council Member Kathryn Lewis describes what she learned at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ...
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Mashable discusses this year's LAUNCH Systems Challenge innovations and asks, "Do you think these innovations might actually change the world?" ...
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Join us from 9am-12:30pm PDT on September 27 and 28 for the LAUNCH: Systems Challenge 2013 Forum. We'll be livestreaming the event on http://mindmapr.launch.org and using the hashtag #LAUNCH2020 to talk about the ten remarkable innovations that will be presented ...
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The LAUNCH Valuation Report aims to capture the impact of LAUNCH as a social entrepreneurship enterprise beyond conventional return on investment. To better understand the value impact of LAUNCH, the valuation model developed for LAUNCH explores the underlying motivations, approaches, ...
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Congratulations to the 2013 Top 10 LAUNCH Systems Challenge Innovators Ambercycle Recycling Artificial Honey Bee Silks by CSIRO BARKTEX by Bark Cloth Ltd Benign by Design by University of California at Santa Barbara Biocouture Ltd Blue Flower Initiative by Eileen ...
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As you may recall from our last update, 6 months ago we had just closed our Joint Venture with India's most successful ice equipment manufacture in Mumbai, received our biggest purchase order to date, and closed a round of funding ...
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There is a vibrant LAUNCH innovations conversation happening throughout Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and Flickr. Let us know what you think about the top 20 innovations in our current challenge ...
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With an enthusiastic tweet of, "Public. Voting. Now. Please share, we need you. http://vote.launch.org " we have turned on public voting to select the final 10 LAUNCH innovations for this year's Systems Challenge. A wide variety of technologies and innovations ...
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"LAUNCH 2020 hoped to harness the collective wisdom of the experts in the room to encourage innovation, collaboration, and transparency in business and beyond." In this summary of the LAUNCH 2020 summit, designer Eric Benson describes how the the two-day ...
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Bioneedle, an innovator chosen during our LAUNCH: Health Challenge has released this lnformative and lighthearted video about how they are improving vaccination technologies ...
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"Get lost in the woods, but don’t lose your charge! The HALO powers devices for the outdoor enthusiast and emergency preparedness." LAUNCH: Energy Alumni Point Source Power has started a kickstarter for their HALO fuel cell to gather funding for ...
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SEaB Energy, a LAUNCH: Beyond Waste alumni won this year's Resource Revolution Award with their micro-anaerobic digestion system that can be installed in a transportable shipping container. The Resource Revolution Award was presented to SEaB CEO Sandra Sassow on May ...
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Popular Science has posted an article featuring LAUNCH: Energy alumni Point Source Power. Enthusiastically, PopSci explains that, "VOTO is a new device that turns fire into a power source for cell phones. Now, where there's fire, there can be modern ...
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The LAUNCH team is proud to have been chosen as a leading example of innovation in the US federal goverment ...
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by Liz Muller I was recently invited to participate in a special LAUNCH event, which was held at Nike's headquarters this week. I was so impressed with the event that I wanted to share some highlights with you. Founded by ...
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Nike hosts LAUNCH 2020 Summit to collaborate across the system of materials ...
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We are interested in innovations with potential to scale in 2 years, as well as game-changing early stage technologies and prototypes. Innovations can be business models, financial instruments, technologies and programs that accelerate research, education and capacity building ...
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Running under the headline of "SEaB Energy – allowing your business to convert its waste into energy. For free." is a great piece about LAUNCH: Energy innovator SEaB Energy. Read about how SEaB is able to convert waste into energy ...
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“Asthma alone is a $50 billion problem in the United States. We look forward to accelerating our commercial efforts to improve asthma control and produce sizable economic savings,” said David Van Sickle, CEO and co-founder of Asthmapolis. Mark Gehring, Asthmapolis ...
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Yashraj Khaitan of Gram Power presented an integrated microgrid technology at LAUNCH: Energy on November 12, 2011. After receiving an email about Gram Power's recent successes we caught up with Mr. Khaitan to talk. Yashraj had this to say about ...
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The core team met with a variety of sustainability experts on March 1st, 2012. The all-day round table discussion, we call it a Big Think, was to identify areas of interest that could be addressed by a LAUNCH: Beyond Waste ...
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Last week, we held our West Coast LAUNCHpad Salon with the LAUNCH team to talk lessons learned from two successful events, LAUNCH:Water and LAUNCH:Health; and start planning LAUNCH:Energy. The Cazneau Group, one of our implementation partners, hosted the Salon at ...
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Asthmapolis was one of the companies selected to participate in the LAUNCH Health program which began last fall with the Forum. In collaboration with a diverse group of experts and innovators, the LAUNCH Forum provided a great opportunity to share ...
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Beth, Diane and Victor, members of The LAUNCH Team, visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory last week (January) as part of a recon for the next LAUNCH forum. That's right - looks like LAUNCH is headed west this time to Pasadena, ...
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Hydrovolts was recently featured at LAUNCH: Energy at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as one of ten transformative innovations demonstrating promise to make a tangible impact on society. Hydrovolts is a floating hydrokinetic turbine technology deployed in artificial water ...
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This is our future. Instant non-battery charges. Heat generated pumping. Charging mobile phones and LED lights with a cookstove. Collective genius for a better world. It was an energetic week for entrepreneurs in Orlando at the third LAUNCH Challenge, headlining ...
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Start with the partnership of four forward-thinking organizations. Add in ten teams of innovators with clear visions and unwavering passion. Combine with a council comprised of esteemed scientists, formidable entrepreneurs, and thought leaders from various realms. Blend together, and what’s ...
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As someone immersed in the day-to-day work of attempting to drive a large organization’s approach to innovation, I have sometimes thought about permanently banning the word “innovation” from my own lexicon. The term “innovation” is being bandied about pretty broadly ...
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We recently received an update from Turbococina founder René Nuñez Suarez. After attending the LAUNCH Energy Forum René has received media interest from throughout Latin America. Mr. Suarez has since been highlighted in an article in his country's El Salvador ...
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The "Fierce 15" champions innovation and creativity. The 2012 Fierce 15 winners are: Richard Boly, Director, office of eDiplomacy, State Department Bureau of Land Management's Renewable Energy Program, Interior Department Kathryn Catania, Plain Language and Content Management Division Chief, United ...
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Goonj, a voluntary organisation working with poor communities and helping preserve the environment by recycling cloth and other waste material was given the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year India 2012’ award here on Tuesday. The award was given by the ...
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LAUNCH innovator LUCAS is rated #7 in 30 Innovations That Will Change The World ...
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Asthmapolis announced today that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance to market its asthma sensor system and associated software to healthcare providers and their patients. ...
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Gram Power: Yashraj Khaitan's 'smart microgrid' produces, stores renewable energy on location ...
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Ashok Gadgil is a professor at UC Berkeley. But in his spare time, he’s come up with solutions for water, cooking, and energy quandaries, improving lives from the Sudan to India. How does he do it? He just likes a ...
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by Ron Garan As a participant of the first LAUNCH forum, LAUNCH: Water, and someone who recently returned from six months experiencing the orbital perspective of our planet from 240 miles above the Earth, I invite innovators from around the ...
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ITN Energy Systems, Inc. to Demonstrate Flexible Electrochromics at ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Technology Showcase ...
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A plan to capture micro-hydropower bubbling up out of wastewater treatment plants ...
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We are proud to announce, that the Solanterns Initiative, run by Renewable Energy Ventures (K) Ltd., signed an agreement with the Energy and Environment Partnership Programme with Southern and East Africa (EEP S&EA). Under this agreement, EEP provides a grant ...
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From November 11-13, the U.S. Department of State is partnering with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NASA, and NIKE, Inc. to host the LAUNCH: Energy Forum at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ...
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Sparks fly when innovative thinkers join together to address critical issues — like solving the world’s sustainability problems. ...
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Rebecca Taylor serves as Senior Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. She is a member of the LAUNCH core team and the LAUNCH Council. As I look ...
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During the second day of the LAUNCH: Energy Forum, the mood was a bit lighter, as the group had bonded the previous night over an informal dinner. ...
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During the first day of the LAUNCH: Energy Forum, innovators from around the world gathered in one of NASA's Mission Control Rooms to present their energy-related technologies. In the audience, I was joined by more than 30 government and business ...
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The U.S. Department of State is partnering with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NASA, and NIKE, Inc. to host the LAUNCH: Energy Forum November 11-13, 2011 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ...
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WASHINGTON D.C. – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), NASA, the U.S. Department of State, and NIKE, Inc. have partnered on a unique initiative called LAUNCH. The LAUNCH: Energy Challenge, announced today, formally begins the third module of the ...
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Partnering To Address Global Energy Issues Through the LAUNCH Energy Challenge by Jim Thompson, Deputy Special Representative for Global Partnerships in the Global Partnership Initiative within the Office of the Secretary of State. ...
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NETRA is an inexpensive mobile visual testing tool, which is a clip-on eyepiece for mobile phones that can instantly screen for eye conditions and transmit data to an optometrist, allowing for early treatment of common refractive eye disorders and cataracts ...
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Tiny blood card offers easier tests for remote areas A cheap and portable blood test could provide a breakthrough for diagnosing infections in remote areas of the world, a scientific study says ...
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Rapid, cheap HIV test finds success as first of its kind tested in the field The first field trial for a “lab on a chip” accurately detected both HIV and syphilis among a Rwandan population, researchers reported Sunday. ...
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USAID and its partners in the LAUNCH program (NASA, the State Department, and NIKE, Inc.) have issued our LAUNCH: Energy challenge statement, formally beginning the third module of the LAUNCH program. ...
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Secretary's Office for the Global Partnership Initiative partners with NASA on LAUNCH: WATER ...
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9 MIT Media Lab Ideas That Are Changing Lives (or Will Soon) We may not know what the future holds, but we can take a pretty good guess where it will come from: MIT's Media Lab. ...
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(Kigali, Rwanda 20 June 2011) Manna Energy Limited, an international leader in combining carbon finance markets with developing communities, today announced the registration of the world’s first United Nations Clean Development Mechanism carbon program for water treatment. ...
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NASA's LAUNCH aims for innovation Biodegradable needles that dissolve inside the body are just one of the innovative technologies NASA's LAUNCH program is helping get off the ground. ...
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NASA's shuttle program may be over, but that doesn't mean the space agency has stopped in its tracks. NASA has created the Launch program that bridges the gap between the public and private sectors. The government and businesses are working ...
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2011 Finalist—Science and Environment Medal Diane Powell and the LAUNCH Team Position: Team lead, LAUNCH, Office of the Chief Technologist Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Achievement: Created a unique government and private-sector partnership to identify, support and help take ...
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A cheap holographic microscope capable of detecting E. coli and other bacteria has been developed by researchers in the US ...
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I’m SO excited to share details about NASA’s newest, coolest, never-been-done-before sustainability initiative, LAUNCH:Water. ...
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WASHINGTON -- Reporters are invited to the signing of a formal agreement between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote collaboration on scientific and technological solutions to worldwide problems. The memorandum of understanding addresses such challenges ...
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have agreed to expand their joint efforts to overcome international development challenges such as food security, climate change, and energy and environmental management. ...
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When confronted with a challenge, it’s often helpful to achieve some distance from the problem. By taking a few steps back, we’re suddenly able to take in a broader and more holistic view of the matter than we can with ...
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A team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab)’s Ashok Gadgil is the recipient of the 5th Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water ...
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Goonj featured in a David Bornstein article in the New York Times... "Goonj is bringing efficiency and integrity to work that is often handled carelessly and without consideration for the lasting effects on communities." ...
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LAUNCH: Beyond Waste Forum July 20-22, 2012, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Twitter: @Launchorg | #BeyondWaste › Watch Live and Join the Conversation ...
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MuckBuster technology developed by Southampton, UK based biowaste to energy specialist, SEaB Energy has been selected as one of nine 'game changing' innovations that have the potential to transform the current waste management systems and practices by NASA backed sustainability ...
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From Beth Beck's Blog: We are the LAUNCH Borg, the Collective Genius for a Better World. ...
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NASA is turning to innovators for ways to re-purpose waste in space. The space agency is partnering with the State Department, USAID and Nike to solicit sustainability plans that could be applied to space missions. The LAUNCH: Beyond Waste challenge ...
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PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA and partners from the LAUNCH: Beyond Waste forum will discuss innovative ideas for waste management during a 3-day forum July 20-22. Waste management is important for planning long-duration human spaceflight missions to an asteroid, Mars or ...
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and fellow founding partners NASA, the U.S. Department of State, and NIKE, Inc. announced today the nine innovators selected to participate in their LAUNCH: Beyond Waste challenge. ...
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LAUNCH, a public-private partnership, facilitates the discovery of transformative technologies to create a sustainable future. Innovators trying to solve world problems often take years to develop technologies and their dedication shows in the submissions we receive. We on the LAUNCH ...
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WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) along with fellow founding partners NASA, the U.S. Department of State, and NIKE, Inc. announced today the ten innovators selected to participate in their LAUNCH: Energy challenge. ...
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The guys at Re-Char, a small startup that makes carbon-negative products, were faced with a problem. They wanted to ship products to Kenya, but the options available were wasteful, costly, and not nearly as efficient as simply manufacturing near to ...
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LAUNCH Innovator Sanergy is featured in USAID's Frontines publication. Sanergy hosts a marketing event in a Kenyan community to generate demand for its low-cost, hygienic sanitation centers. The toilet facilities are proving to be one solution to the long-standing problem ...
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News from LAUNCH: Health Innovator Samuel Sia: OPKO Health, Inc. (OPK) has been awarded a contract and selected to participate in a development project directed by NASA to implement the OPKO point-of-care diagnostic platform (Claros-1™) with the objective of in-orbit ...
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Gram Power's Yashraj Khaitan and Jacob Dickinson featured in USAID's Frontlines publication. Yashraj Khaitan (left) and Jacob Dickinson, both founders of Gram Power, stand next to several solar panels in India. The panels are part of Gram Power’s central infrastructure ...
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Got milk? I know some people who do. Promethean Power Systems is revolutionizing the Indian dairy market with their commercial refrigeration systems that eliminate the need for backup diesel generators. The path of Promethean is an impressive one: from a ...
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In the developing world, a billion people go without clean water. Across the developed world, storms and failing infrastructure threaten to contaminate water supplies. Is there any hope to be found? ...
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Indian blackout held no fear for small hamlet where the power stayed on. At the end of July, India experienced the worst blackout in modern history. At least 20 states lost power in three huge grid failures covering an area ...
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World Economic Forum recognizes 23 pioneering tech companies for innovation and leadership in IT/new media, energy/environment and life sciences/health ...
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