Scientists Without Borders is a web-based collaborative community dedicated to generating, sharing, and advancing innovative science and technology-based solutions to the world`s most pressing global development challenges. Through our dynamic and free web platform, we harness the collective and creative problem-solving capacity of our worldwide community of experts and our strategic partner network to tackle specific scientific or technological challenges in areas of critical need. We enable our users to connect and exchange resources and expertise, and to forge cross-cutting collaborations and knowledge-sharing to accelerate progress and breakthroughs. We leverage technological connectivity to promote open innovation, collaboration, and transparency, so that solutions, information, and capacity can be accessed and sustainably deployed wherever needed.

The Scientists Without Borders ecosystem includes individuals and organizations working on science and technology-based activities at all levels of academia, NGOs, government, and the private sector, across a variety of regions, disciplines, and subject matter areas. On our platform, we enable passionate and creative problem-solvers of every stripe to connect, collaborate, innovate and have an impact on our urgent and shared global challenges.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is Scientists Without Borders?

Scientists Without Borders is a web-based collaborative community dedicated to generating, sharing, and advancing innovative science and technology-based solutions to the world's most pressing global development challenges. Through our dynamic and free web platform, we harness the collective and creative problem-solving capacity of our worldwide community of experts and our strategic partner network to tackle specific scientific or technological challenges in areas of critical need.

Why Was Scientists Without Borders Created?

We all know that our planet faces many great challenges. From the constellation of development issues stemming from the extreme poverty faced by over 1 billion people, to the serious and growing burdens related to climate change, environmental degradation, energy issues, food security, urbanization, and new emerging diseases and epidemics, there are numerous urgent problems that demand immediate action and attention.

Scientific and technological expertise and innovation are absolutely necessary to generate the breakthrough solutions that challenges of this magnitude demand. And because these challenges are so multi-dimensional, complex, and interrelated - and reach across borders and boundaries - transformative solutions are going to have to be generated by meaningful collaboration and disruptive insights shared openly across disciplinary, sector, and geographical borders and boundaries. Important and potentially path-breaking work that can improve the conditions on our planet happens every day, from the bench to the field. The problem is that it is often happening in silos - sometimes inadvertent ones. This impedes the rate of innovation and progress, and we cannot afford that.

That's why we're here. Scientists Without Borders leverages the unprecedented connectivity and transparency enabled by technology to break down these silos and connect these individuals and activities, foster collaboration among them to generate innovative solutions, and make those solutions and resources transparent and accessible so that they can be deployed for impact. We do this in a neutral, credible, and noncommercial way, and without being affiliated with any particular issue or sector.

Who is Behind Scientists Without Borders?

Scientists Without Borders is a public-private partnership that was conceived of by the New York Academy of Sciences in conjunction with the United Nations' Millennium Project. We are fortunate to have an Advisory Council is comprised of leading government, academic and NGO leaders from around the world, and we benefit from a global network of partner institutions that support our mission.

Who Uses Scientists Without Borders?

The Scientists Without Borders community includes individuals and organizations working on science and technology-based activities at all levels of academia, NGOs, government, and the private sector, across a variety of regions, disciplines, and subject matter areas.

What if I am not a Scientist, Can I Still Use Scientists Without Borders?

Of course! We welcome you here. Our platform focuses on generating science and technology-based solutions to global development challenges, but we know that relevant expertise, insight, and experience reside in all disciplines. In fact, the most important insights for a particular problem are often generated by people looking at it from a different angle who are not experts in the domain. And the efficacy of scientific and technological solutions can often be impeded by non-scientific or technological barriers, such as cultural and socio-economic forces, or basic logistics and on-the-ground factors. We need all of that expertise for solutions.

One great way to make your unique experiences and expertise known and help people find you is to create a full and rich profile on the site.

What Can I Do on Scientists Without Borders?

On our free web platform, we enable creative and passionate problem-solvers and organizations of all stripes to:

Connect

-         Create a profile highlighting your expertise, interests, resources, and work and bring it to the attention of a global network

-         Find and connect with individuals and organizations across sectors, disciplines, and geographies and use those connections to share resources, leverage respective expertise, and take collective action

-         Use social media to share your profile activities and stay aware of new information, resources, and challenges on Scientists Without Borders

Collaborate

-         Interact with other users to solve specific challenges posted on the site and collectively refine and combine each other's ideas and insights.

-         Distribute problem-solving by openly sharing information in order to leverage other users' particular insights and resources and willingness to help

-         Share and transfer expertise, best practices, ongoing developments in the discipline or field, and identify areas of mutual benefit or need for which you can join forces

-         Use the Scientists Without Borders Exchange to list resources that you can offer or that you need - anything from expertise, equipment, services, facilities, or support.

Innovate

-         Use our open innovation framework to frame and post your own challenges and leverage the diverse insights and expertise of a global network of solvers to generate or surface novel solutions

-         Partner with Scientists Without Borders to frame and issue open innovation challenges with incentives or prizes attached in specific areas of critical global development need and harness our user base and network to generate innovative, practicable, and scalable solutions

-         Use our unique collaborative solution-generation framework to submit and share a solution you have developed or an idea for one, or work with other users to generate a solution to a specific challenge

-         Use social media to share the challenges and solutions with your network or a larger community

-         Exchange and have access to solutions and ideas that may spark new thinking through our transparent and open platform

Impact

-         Highlight successful solutions, innovations, programs, and models, and leverage our multi-sector user base and network to rally resources and capacity to take them to implementation and scale

-         Utilize our transparent platform to disseminate solutions and ideas to anyone who needs them so that they can be used and implemented as widely as possible

-         Bring attention to specific barriers to implementation and scale in the field, or in specific areas of need, and track progress and feedback around the solutions generated

What Do You Mean by "Open Innovation" and "Challenges"?

Most simply, "open innovation" is the term used to describe a process of driving innovation and breakthrough ideas by looking outside of traditional and closed spheres of expertise for answers and inviting in as many diverse problem-solvers as possible for fresh eyes, new perspectives, and novel approaches. This means looking beyond the discipline, network, company, region, or preconceived notions about where we would expect the answer to a problem to be found.

In an increasingly networked and connected world, there is unprecedented opportunity use open innovation and tap into the knowledge of creative problem-solvers around the globe and apply it to concrete global development challenges. "Challenges" are one of the ways we do this on our platform. A challenge is simply an identification of a specific or particular problem or barrier by an individual or entity, and a call to a network of third-party solvers to identify a solution. There are two basic kinds of challenges we host on the platform.

-         User-generated challenges: Through our unique framework, any user can frame their own challenge and post it on Scientists Without Borders to take advantage of the insights and ideas of a network of diverse solvers to generate a solution. This framework empowers as many people and organizations as possible to have a voice in identifying the problems and challenges that need solving in their field of work or communities, and avail themselves of all the creative thinking out there. We think this is itself a needed innovation and untapped source of information in global development work.

-         Partnered challenges: We work with other established organizations - private sector, government, NGO, academic - to frame and issue challenges in areas of critical global need for which practicable solutions are needed to generate significant impact, and with incentives or prizes awarded for the best solution. We are committed to scientific independence, neutrality, and integrity in these challenges. We convene world-class experts to work with us to independently frame the challenges and select winning submissions, and ensure appropriate sensitivity to stakeholder representation and community needs. We then leverage our user base, our partner networks, and social media to open the challenges to as many solvers as possible. In our partnered challenges, we are also committed to making the solutions generated open and transparent, and to moving them into implementation and scale.

These two challenge models work in tandem and allow Scientists Without Borders to be home to the widest array of challenge and solution identification.

Do My User-Generated Challenges have to be Technical or Complex?

Not at all. A challenge can be as simple as a call for innovative ideas about how think about a problem you've identified, or even for innovative ideas about what problem you should be tackling. But challenges can also be much more complex and involve detailed solution requirements in highly technical areas, or proofs of concept or validation in the form of field testing, data, or review, or prototypes, or already implemented solutions requiring scale.

What Should I Keep in Mind When Framing a Challenge?

First, it is helpful to be specific about the problem you are trying to solve and to provide as much relevant detail as possible, in the form of barriers you have encountered, approaches you've already tried, why you are seeking new ideas and approaches, relevant statistics, data, models, and literature. It is important to give guidance about what you need in a solution (e.g., cost, necessary inputs, usable in certain environments) and also what you do not want in a solution.

But remember, other than being clear and detailed about what you need from the solution, it is probably good to be as flexible as possible about how the solution is generated or where it comes from, to enable as many unique approaches as possible.

Also, it is very helpful if you provide relevant information (e.g., statistics, data, facts) explaining why your challenge matters and how a solution will generate impact and progress in an area of need. You can even attach pictures and images to help connect potential solvers to the real world implications.

Remember, when you post a challenge on our site, you are the project manager for that challenge, so you should keep it up-to-date with relevant information, engage with the solvers who submit solutions, observe relevant deadlines, and let the community know when you've selected your solution. Treat your ownership of the challenge with importance, because the challenge is important.

It is also worth keeping in mind that a "challenge" is not simply a request for funding or material support. We realize that often, a lack of resources is the greatest barrier to solving a problem, but the beauty of open innovation is that it might unearth a lower-cost or frugal innovation that could help everyone. That said, our unique framework allows you to identify resources you need or that are related to your challenge, so that is the best way to make your resource requirements known.

Finally, remember to share your challenge with your networks and on your social media profiles so that the word spreads to as many solvers as possible.

Please note that we reserve the right to remove challenges we deem illegal, offensive, dangerous, or for any other reason.

Do I Need to be an "Expert" or Have an Advanced Degree to Solve a Challenge?

Absolutely not! First, everyone has useful information, insights, and experience -and you never know when yours will be the catalyst for innovation or a breakthrough. So we urge you to get involved in solving challenges that interest you regardless of whether you believe you have any relevant expertise. In fact, a lot of the best solutions to difficult problems are generated by people outside the relevant field of expertise.

What Should I Keep in Mind in Participating in Solving a Challenge

One of the most important features of the Scientists Without Borders platform is how we enable people to collaborate to generate solutions. We urge you to take advantage of this feature. Why? Because one of the virtues of open innovation processes is that they enable a problem to be broken down and distributed to various solvers. This enables more innovation and transparency because you have to share information. Plus, you might forge connections and generate insights that are useful outside of the challenge.

In the same vein, we urge you to start or participate in discussions around the challenges. This is a great way to relate the challenge to other work or ideas that might not be directly applicable to developing a solution, but still important.

When you do submit a solution or participate in creating one, share it and the challenge across your social media networks. The more people know about various proposed solutions, the more they can get where they are needed.

Finally, remember that when you post a solution any Intellectual Property ownership will remain with you and will not be transferred to the challenge sponsor, but the challengers will have a non-exclusive right to use the winning solution(s). It is your sole responsibility to ensure that you have a legal right to share any information you post and that you are not infringing on the Intellectual Property rights of a third-party, or that you are precluded from sharing for any other reason. Scientists Without Borders is not responsible in any way for validating your Intellectual Property rights, requirements, or obligations.

If you have any concerns about the Intellectual Property issues in your solution, do not post it publicly until you have conclusively resolved them and can validate that you have a right to share it. If you do have a right to share a solution, but do not wish to do so publicly or to make the solution freely available to the public at large, you might wish to contact the challenge sponsor directly and discuss how you can make your solution available. Scientists Without Borders is not responsible for any contacts, conversations, or agreements related to or emanating from this.

However, we do encourage everyone to freely share as possible so that the largest number of people can benefit from your solutions and ideas.

Please note that we reserve the right to remove any solutions or content that we deem illegal, offensive, dangerous, or for any other reason.

How Do I Tell the Community About a Successful Solution?

As much and as loudly as possible! Broadcast it across your social media networks and post it in your Scientists Without Borders profile. Most importantly, tell us about it (and any other successes you have experience on our platform) at info@scientistswithoutborders.org. We will highlight the solution and the solvers on the platform, across our own social media and partner networks, and on our blog.

What Can I Post in the Scientists Without Borders Exchange?

The Scientists Without Borders Exchange is the place for you to post any resource that you have to offer or that you need. Resources can include equipment, expertise, (for example translation, or data analysis), facilities or distribution networks, mentorship, time, research opportunities, or even funding or other support.

Remember, Scientists Without Borders reserves the right to remove any resource posted that we believe to be illegal, dangerous, offensive, or for any other reason.

Does Scientists Without Borders Facilitate the Exchange of Resources or Take Receipt of Resources?

No. Other that providing the platform for the Exchange, Scientists Without Borders does not get involved in and is not responsible for any transactions between the Poster of a resource and its Requestor. We do not have the capacity physically take receipt of or facilitate the actual exchange of resources that you can offer. Parties must contact each other directly to arrange transfer, execution, or delivery and Scientists Without Borders is not responsible for any actions or representations resulting from those contacts.

Does Scientists Without Borders Send Scientists into the Field or Arrange for Scientists to Work on Specific Projects in Specific Countries?

No. We do not organize projects or sponsor trips or missions or send groups of scientists, or anyone else, into the field. However, our platform is a great resource for you to find a project or organization or institution that can provide you with such an opportunity, or with whom you can collaborate to develop such an opportunity. The best way to do this is to enhance your profile so people can find out where you are willing to work and what you are interested in, and post your opportunities and requests for opportunities in the Exchange.

Scientists Without Borders Looking for Partners?

Yes, Scientists Without Borders is actively interested in partnering with organizations that share its approach of collaborative, innovative, and creative solution generation, and its commitment to deploying science and technology to improve the quality of life in the developing world. We are fortunate to have a world-class network of partners in place already and we are eager to expand that network. We join forces with academic and research institutions, NGOs, media outlets and private sector organizations to develop knowledge and foster resource-sharing opportunities.

For more information on how to partner with Scientists Without Borders, please email info@scientistswithoutborders.org

How Can I Support Scientists Without Borders?

Scientists Without Borders seeks initiative support from innovative foundations and corporations to scale all of the activities of our initiative and novel web platform, including our open innovation and challenge-based model for addressing major global development issues.

We also are committed to and appreciative of grassroots support. If you like what we do here and you would like to make a donation, click on the donate button on our homepage.

For more information on how to support Scientists Without Borders, please email info@scientistswithoutborders.org