Tulane University
IN-1: Innovation 1

Tulane University has sponsored a $1 million prize to be awarded to the team or individual that creates a significant and workable solution to hypoxia, which causes "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico and other fragile coastal and inland lake ecosystems throughout the world. As of 2014, the University finalized the competition details and began inviting entrepreneurs, researchers and inventors worldwide to participate in the prize competition. This competition is based on the assertion that a market based solution which rewards innovation and risk taking has the potential to create a sustainable and significant new technology for addressing hypoxia. Hypoxia occurs when excess nutrients flow from rivers to near-shore areas, depleting the oxygen required to support life. This can result in severe impairment of near-shore fisheries, consequently destabilizing the businesses, families and communities sustained by those fisheries. Further, nutrient enrichment can jeopardize the future of estuaries and coastal wetlands that depend on freshwater and sediment delivery for stability and persistence. In short, clean water is critical to the ecological, cultural and economic well-being of Louisiana, the nation and the world. Addressing hypoxia is a grand challenge because solutions must meet a suite of simultaneous and sometimes conflicting needs – from protecting water resources and near-shore ecosystems to ensuring the capacity and vitality of agricultural productivity.