Challenges: Worth Exploring

I’ve been looking at Challenge Works this week, and I think it is worth putting on your radar.

Not because every opportunity listed there will be relevant to you. Most probably won’t be. But because it is a useful example of a funding pathway many founders overlook: challenge prizes.

Challenge Works is part of Nesta, the UK research and innovation foundation. It designs and runs challenge prizes backed by governments, foundations, philanthropies and major organisations. These prizes are usually built around a defined problem — health inequality, water efficiency, clean energy, AI, care, data, cities, climate or social innovation — and invite innovators to bring forward credible solutions.

That is what makes the model interesting. The funder is not saying, “Here is the activity we want delivered.” They are saying, “Here is the problem we want solved. Show us your approach.”

For founders, that creates a different kind of funding opportunity.

It is not quite a grant. It is not an accelerator. It is not an equity investment. It sits somewhere else: a structured competition where the funding, visibility and support are attached to solving a specific problem.

And ... the amounts can be meaningful.

Current and recent Challenge Works examples include:

• The Longitude Prize on ALS, a £7.5 million challenge focused on AI-driven drug discovery, with 20 teams initially receiving £100,000 each and one team ultimately receiving £1 million.

• Water Efficiency Lab 1, with up to £5 million available for water efficiency innovation.

• The Manchester Prize Round 2, focused on clean energy systems, with a £1 million grand prize.

• The Good Start Challenge, focused on parental wellbeing innovation, where finalist teams receive €50,000 and up to six winners may receive a further €200,000.

• The West Yorkshire Mayor’s Big Ideas Challenge, a £1 million initiative focused on tackling health inequalities.

• The Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge, with a £300,000 grant for work that improves how novelty in research is measured.

This is not one narrow funding stream. It is a platform showing where serious funders are trying to pull innovation forward.

Health. AI. Climate. Water. Clean energy. Cities. Care. Data. Social innovation. Research systems.

If your work sits in one of those areas, Challenge Works is worth knowing about.

Not necessarily because there is an open opportunity for you today, but because it gives you a clearer view of the kinds of problems institutions are prepared to fund. And that can be useful funding intelligence.

The important point is that challenge prizes are rarely designed for founders at the raw idea stage. They are usually better suited to teams with something already in motion: a prototype, pilot, model, evidence base, technical capability, community insight, research, traction or delivery experience.

This is usually not funding to begin. It is funding to test, prove, validate, accelerate or scale.

I would not look at Challenge Works and ask, “Could I apply for something here?”

Instead, I would ask:

• Is one of these challenges aligned with a problem we are already working on?

• Do we have evidence that our approach works, or could work with the right support?

• Can we explain why our solution is credible?

• Is there a realistic path to adoption?

• Would being selected help us build credibility with partners, funders, customers or investors?

• Would the opportunity accelerate our existing strategy, or pull us away from it?

That last question is important.

A good funding opportunity can still be the wrong opportunity if it asks you to reshape your work around someone else’s agenda. But when the fit is strong, a challenge prize can offer more than money. It can bring validation, profile, expert support, sector introductions and a clearer pathway into the market.

That is why I think Challenge Works is worth watching.

Look at the challenges. Look at the funders behind them. Look at the problem statements. Look at the kinds of teams being selected. Look at the evidence they are asking for.

Even if there is nothing relevant for you right now, it may help you understand where the next opportunity is forming. And if there is something relevant? Then assess it properly.

Not as something to chase, but as something to test against your growth and funding strategy.