CAREERS TAKE THE LEAP Collaborations lead to Pfizer BLOG Personal stories and careers counsel NATUREJOBS For the latest career post for long-time NIH researcher p.131 http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs listings and advice www.naturejobs.com

used to find layers of coal or minerals below ground. She and a wetland ecologist from Duke put together an international team that includes geophysicists, foresters and environ- mental consultants. The team is now one of

AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK five finalists for the prize, whose winner will be announced in February 2018. “It’s been an exciting adventure,” says Silvestri, who leads the DAG4Peat team. “This prize gave me the opportunity to follow a new direction in my career, but it was also risky, something that would have been difficult to get funded via traditional grants.” The use of goal-driven prizes to spur innovation has increased since the success of the Ansari X Prize in 1996, which aimed to acceler- ate the development of low-cost space flight (see ‘Glittering prizes’). The X Prize Foundation in Culver City, California, offered a $10-million prize for the first non-governmental organiza- tion to launch a reusable crewed craft into space. By the time the prize was awarded, in 2004, some 26 teams had signed on. Innovation prizes offer cash incentives to solve vexing problems. They are now a staple throughout US federal agencies, including NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as well as in phil- anthropic organizations such as the Rod- A prize for mapping Indonesia’s peatlands could help to stop illegal clearances, which are a fire risk. denberry Foundation in Encino, California. These one-off contests pit teams of scien- COMPETITIONS tists — from companies, consulting agencies and academia — against each other. Prize competitions typically offer a substantial purse to the first team to achieve a Grand challenges specific goal. Some competitions offer mile- stone cash awards to help teams continue to develop their idea. ‘Challenges’ — for Scientists lured by big-prize competitions should weigh example, those offered by the US Agency for contests’ aims and non-monetary benefits before entering. International Development (USAID) or by Cancer Research UK — often aim to spark innovation in a research area, and typically BY VIRGINIA GEWIN vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the reward a set of selected teams with seed atmosphere: in 2015, fires in the region emit- funding to develop their ideas and to com- onia Silvestri was trained to use satellite ted hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon pete for more funds to conduct research or imagery to map coastal vegetation and dioxide. To boost the enforcement of a nation- commercialize the project. salt marshes. But when a colleague wide moratorium on peatland development, Unlike conventional federal investment Se-mailed her last year about the Indonesian the Indonesian government worked with the in research and development — roughly Peat Prize — a competition to determine how David and Lucile Packard Foundation in the $113 billion in 2016 in the United States best to map the extent and depth of peatlands United States to create the prize, which carries alone — or awards such as the Nobel prizes, in Indonesia — it sparked her interest. a US$1-million purse. which honour scientists’ past work, these Peatlands result from the accumulation Silvestri, then a remote-sensing researcher at prizes and challenges typically aim to of dead plants on wetlands to form thick, Duke University in Durham, North Carolina translate science into tangible solutions, carbon-rich layers. In Indonesia, where peat- (where she maintains a courtesy appoint- such as new devices or research capabilities, lands are drained and cleared for oil-palm ment), theorized that scientists could map that will further the awarding organization’s plantations, resulting fires often send thick peat by combining satellite images with air- aims. The competitions typically take at least smoke throughout the region and release borne electromagnetic data, which are often one year, if not several, and often require

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competitors to reach project milestones. GLITTERING PRIZES Europe took longer than the United States Some high-profile competitions launched in the past decade. to warm to the trend, says Olivier Usher, research manager at the Challenge Prize Prize competition Duration Stated goals Prize money Centre at Nesta, an innovation foundation Wendy Schmidt Ocean 2013–15 Low-cost, durable pH US$2 million; awarded 2015 based in London. However, the European Health X Prize sensor to monitor ocean chemistry Commission (EC) is inviting submissions for nine Horizon Prizes up to 2019, including a Roddenberry Prize 2016 Innovations for the Winner ($400,000) and four €1.5-million (US$1.8-million) prize to find future runners-up ($150,000 each); awarded 2016 ways to help cut atmospheric CO2 emissions. Yet competing for prize or challenge Longitude Prize 2014–19 Reduce the use of £10 million ($13.16 million) antibiotics funding can be tricky for academic research- ers, particularly those in the early stages of Shell Ocean Discovery 2015–18 Advance ocean $7 million their careers. Unlike grants, prizes pay off in X Prize exploration prestige, expanded networks and media atten- Horizon Challenges 2013–20 Solutions to social €1 million to €2 million tion for the finalists, but typically only one issues in the European ($1.18 million to Union $2.24 million) winner gets the purse (although some compe- titions, such as the Google Lunar X Prize or the Roddenberry Prize, reward finalists with articulation of the problem statement, the accomplished through his academic research smaller sums). competition’s eligibility requirements and cri- alone. “It’s phenomenal that the prize money Aspiring prizewinners will need to secure teria for winning. Aspirants should also make has helped a small research group like ours to funding to compete. They should seek com- sure that the research will help them to reach affect millions of people,” he says. petitions whose goals and winning criteria their career goals whether they win or not. are clearly articulated, and will need to dis- Muhammad Zaman, a biomedical engineer WILL IT BE WORTH IT? cern whether entering the competition will at Boston University in Massachusetts, Prizes create the infrastructure and significantly improve their science. won a $2-million award in 2014 to scale up competition necessary to launch new branches PharmaChk, his fast, portable device to screen of scientific exploration, but competition SUCCESS STORIES for counterfeit or substandard medicines. The rules may shift or be unforgiving, which Silvestri, now based at the University of Padua Saving Lives at Birth challenge winner was can disrupt the playing field. And the final in Italy, admits that her gamble paid off. Earlier funded by USAID, the Gates Foundation, purse may not be what the prize organiza- this year, she won a Marie Curie Fellowship, Grand Challenges Canada and others, and tion had originally advertised. Anil Vaidya, a funded by the EC, to expand on how the tech- built on an earlier $250,000 seed grant from London-based medical engineer and industry niques that her team is exploring could be used the programme. Before this, most of Zaman’s consultant, assembled a team to compete in the to map peatlands on a global scale. Entering funding had come from the US National Insti- $10-million Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, the prize competition allowed her to develop tutes of Health or the US National Science launched in 2012, to develop SCANurse, a new capabilities that could prove useful to any Foundation. “Through competing, we forged precision-diagnostics device. He was happy to country with peatlands. new collaborations with people in East Asia take the risk to develop and promote the team’s Hao Hu, a photonics scientist at the Technical and West Africa that wouldn’t otherwise have device, but doubts that he’d want to invest as University of Denmark in Lyngby, and his team happened at all,” he says. much (his team spent at least $100,000) to were already working on an international pro- Zaman marvels that his work will now compete again. As it was, his team had to ject, funded by a €9-million Danish Research have an impact beyond what he could have drop out of the competition because of a US Council grant and an EC–Japan grant, when Customs and Border Protection glitch. they won the €500,000 Horizon Prize in 2016 John Thornton, chief executive of for breaking optical-data transmission barriers Astrobotic, a space-robotics company based in tele­communications. “The prize opened new in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered his com- doors for me,” says Hu. “It’s the start of brand- pany into the Lunar X Prize competition to be new research.” the first private firm to land on the Moon; the Although only the winner or winners get competition initially promised $20 million to financial benefits, the organizations that run the winner. His team alone met the three mile- prize competitions argue that all entrants stand stones, netting $1.7 million in prize money, KIRAN/AFP/GETTY MANJUNATH to gain recognition. “While the competition but Thornton says that the team spent far winner reaps the most benefits, other entrants more than that throughout the competition. also get increased visibility,” says Walt Reid, Astrobotic dropped out of the competition who directs the Packard Foundation’s conser- late last year, saying that it could not acceler- vation and science programme and came up ate its research and development to meet the with the idea of the Indonesian Peat Prize. launch deadline. Competing also expands entrants’ reputation The paperwork required to enter a prize and experience, adds Robert Benedict, a co- competition is minimal compared with that for founder of Context Partners in Portland, most grants, but entrants need immediately to Oregon, which designed the Peat Prize. grab the interest of reviewers who are unlikely He urges scientists to consider the perks to specialize in their research area. “You have of competing, such as enhancing their CV, to explain how you are going to change the expanding their network or gaining access to world to a panel that is not in your scientific a particular field site to test an experiment. domain,” says Trey Ideker, a systems biologist Charlie Brown, co-founder of Context Partners, Model of an unmanned lunar rover developed by at the University of California, San Diego. As a advises would-be participants to look for clear Team India for the Google Lunar X Prize. runner-up in the inaugural Roddenberry Prize

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competition in 2016 — which sought ways to address social issues such as education or poverty — his team received $150,000 to TURNING POINT create cancer-cell maps. Competitions often draw a huge number of entrants, lowering the likelihood of Industry immigrant winning and making it difficult to capital- ize on the marketing value of the prize or to raise interim funds, says Thornton. A People develop collaborations, but they are $30-million USAID competition in 2016 to fragmented. At Pfizer, groups interact seam- combat the Zika virus received more than lessly. I get to work with geneticists, chemists, 900 applications in just 9 weeks, but only molecular biologists and bioengineers. The

ELENA DRUMMOND 21 applicants received funding for further culture is different here — it is focused on development. More than 600 groups sub- translating the best ideas into new medicines. mitted proposals to the Roddenberry Prize, which awarded a cash prize to one winner How did the move affect your NIH research and four runners-up. group? The financial cost of entering a contest It was a slow process accepting the job here can deter aspirants who cannot devote time because of worrying about my research fam- and resources to a project when they are ily at the NIH. Nothing stopped immediately. not getting paid up front. Zaman, who has Most of my lab is still there. Three members participated in several competitions, has have accepted positions at Pfizer. Everybody received discretionary funds from his depart- has until 2018 to finish up projects, publish ment and the university in the early stages of Immunologist Thomas Wynn left a 20-year and make their own career moves. prize-project development. “If I didn’t have career at the US National Institutes of Health those, it would be a challenging situation,” (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, earlier this How did you come to work at the NIH? he acknowledges. He says that the university year to lead research on inflammation at After getting my PhD at the University of provided him with a line of credit for insti- Pfizer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wisconsin–Madison, researching how macro­ tutional funds, which allowed him to meet phages kill tumour cells, I wanted to work more initial competition milestones. Why did you leave the NIH for industry? on disease pathogenesis. My PhD mentor was But universities’ familiarity with prizes I’ve collaborated with big pharmaceutical married to a parasitologist. They suggested I and their potential benefits varies, as does and biotechnology companies since the mid- merge my interests in molecular immunol- their support. Silvestri struggled to secure 1990s. I worked with Amgen to investigate the ogy and parasitology. I wrote to several people interim funding to compete in the peat prize. therapeutic potential of different antibodies in doing parasite immunology at the NIH and was She couldn’t get university funds to cover her models of inflammation and fibrosis, and with invited to work as a postdoc in the laboratory fieldwork; administrators cited concerns Genentech we examined inflammatory path- of parasitic diseases at the National Institute of about whether the university could recover ways in asthma. I’ve negotiated agreements Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda. the expenses even if she won, because prize with Pfizer and other pharma­ceutical com- funders often do not allow the purse to be panies to move basic science on fibrosis into Describe your NIH career. used for recompensing institutions’ indirect preclinical trials conducted collaboratively I was a postdoc at the NIH from 1991 to 1995, costs. Eventually, Silvestri got funding from with the NIH. I was doing so much with and then a staff researcher until 1997. Opportu- Stanford University in California and the industry that I decided to explore what it nities for full-time employment at the NIH were Duke University Wetland Center for her would be like to do this work full-time. few and far between, so I began interviewing for fieldwork outside Indonesia. jobs outside. But a retirement opened up a slot Prize administrators encourage entrants Did the current US administration affect your for a tenure-track investigator. I had other offers to explore a range of funding options. decision? on the table when the NIH began recruiting, but Paul Bunje, a senior scientist for energy and It’s not a major reason for my move at all. It’s I ended up with the position in 1997. environment at the X Prize Foundation, unfortunate that the administration is not, at advises contacting networks of alumni, who least outwardly, as supportive of science as Do you think you’ll get more accomplished in are often eager to see their alma mater in previous administrations were. But I put my industry? high-profile competitions. faith in Congress and the US Senate, which That hits the nail on the head — it’s what I find Collaborative networks may also be able have always shown support for science and most exciting. to help. Many competitions require inter- for the NIH. disciplinary efforts, which can diffuse the You did a lot of mentoring at NIH. What made financial load, says Reid. “Having team How would you describe morale at the NIH? for successful mentees? members at a variety of institutions can help Surprisingly upbeat despite what’s going on I mentored more than 20 postdocs, as well raise initial funding,” he says. in the news and the threat of NIH budget as graduates and undergraduates, during my Despite the large purses that many prizes cuts. The fact that NIH director Francis time at NIH, where I was also scientific direc- carry, Bunje says that his organization never Collins is still at the top has helped. tor of an NIH–Oxford–Cambridge Scholars hears competitors report that they entered programme. The junior scientists who tend the challenge for the money alone. “These are How did your colleagues react to your move? to stumble are the ones who don’t reach out driven, caring people,” he says, “who want to A lot of people were shocked. for help or forge collaborations with people. do something big and exciting.” ■ It’s important to take advantage of expertise. ■ What will be your biggest challenge as you Virginia Gewin is a freelance writer in move into industry? INTERVIEW BY VIRGINIA GEWIN Portland, Oregon. At the NIH, labs are a one-person show. This interview was edited for clarity and length.

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