Are you ready for the Rolls-Royce India Open Innovation Challenge?

Chesbrough, who coined the term “Open Innovation” describes in his book “Open Innovation: the New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology” how companies have shifted from so-called closed innovation processes towards a more open way of innovating. Open Innovation can be described as combining internal and external ideas as well as internal and external paths to market to advance the development of new technologies.

Following this model, Rolls-Royce launched its India Open Innovation program (IOiN-RR) in New Delhi and Bangalore on 22nd July and 24th July respectively. IOiN-RR is designed to help identify and then buy or license technologies or techniques outside Rolls-Royce’s traditional areas of operation that are new and potentially beneficial to Rolls-Royce.

India is the second market for this initiative, after Japan, where 250 companies were called to participate in the scheme. When asked about the reasons for choosing India, Paul Stein, Chief Scientific Officer at Rolls-Royce explained, “India has 1 million engineering graduates a year and we want to tap into this growing talent pool.”

The challenges will focus on three critical areas: test and measurement; repair, inspection and servicing technologies; and novel designs and manufacture of large components and tools. Organizations that have been in existence for minimum two years are eligible to apply. The solutions submitted by the participants should be beyond concept stage and should lie between a successful prototype and ready for industry stage. Participants with the winning solution/s will have the opportunity to see their solution be integrated into Rolls-Royce global operations through a collaborative relationship with Rolls-Royce.

The launch event in Delhi took place at the British High Commissioner’s residence and was hosted by Julian Evans, Acting British High Commissioner to India. The launch was preceded by a roundtable focused on ‘Corporate Innovation’. The roundtable chaired by Andrew Soper, Counsellor (Prosperity) saw participation from the key movers and shakers in the UK-India science and innovation space. The participants around the table deliberated on how the UK and Indian Governments, industry and academia can work together, as innovation partners, to benefit both countries. There was a consensus that programmes such as IOiN-RR are a positive development.

Media coverage of the competition: Economic Times, Business Standard