2021 Cade Prize for Innovation Accepting Entries

GAINESVILLE, Fla., June 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2021 Cade Prize for Innovation is accepting entries from inventors and entrepreneurs in Alabama, Georgia and Florida from June 1 - August 2, 2021. This is the second year the competition has expanded beyond Florida to include Alabama and Georgia.

The Cade Prize is one of the largest cash prize competitions for innovation in Florida. Since 2010, it has drawn hundreds of creative thinkers with groundbreaking inventions that have significant market potential. This year's Cade Prize will award $50,000 in prizes: $21,000 for first place, $13,000 for second place, $8,000 for third place, $5,000 for fourth place and $3,000 for fifth place.

The Cade Prize celebrates innovation by identifying, recognizing and celebrating inventors and entrepreneurs in the Southeast who demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Entry categories include: environmental, biology, technology, energy and a wild card category.

"Cade Prize is one of the only prizes that awards early-stage ideas with promise to change the world," said Richard Miles, the Cade Museum's co-founder. "While most prizes are designed for seed stage companies, Cade Prize is available for pre-seed stage ideas. This means it may take a decade to see the fruition of Cade Prize funding and recognition. In fact, only in the past five years have we seen initial winners begin making their impact on the world."

"As a young company at the time, winning the Cade Prize validated our efforts and technology, resulting in a higher profile in the region," said 2013 Cade Prize Winner, Dr. Chris Morton, founder & CEO of NanoPhotonica.  

Morton and his team developed an innovative nanomaterial layering technique that will be used to build the next generation of electronic displays to make them brighter, thinner and cheaper to produce. Since winning the Cade Prize, Samsung Ventures made a two-stage investment in the company, that included $3.5 million, to further commercialize its technology that will help make electronic devices affordable to more people around the world. NanoPhotonica has since springboarded into new markets, applying its patented technology to the next generation of taillights. 

The Cade Prize entry period opens June 1 - August 2, 2021. The first round of judging, to determine the 21 Fibonacci Finalists, named after the 11th century Italian mathematician who created the building blocks of Western mathematics, will be announced on August 16, 2021. The event culminates with final judging and the Cade Prize Awards Ceremony to be held at the Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention in Gainesville, Florida on September 29, 2021. 

The Cade Prize is sponsored by Florida Trend, the Gainesville Sun, Modern Luxury, Community Foundation of North Central Florida, and Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk law firm.

To learn more about the Cade Prize, visit cademuseum.org/cadeprize.

About the Cade Museum
The Cade Museum's mission is to transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. In 2004, Dr. James Robert Cade and his family established the Cade Museum Foundation to build the Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Cade, a physician and professor of medicine at the University of Florida, was best known as the lead inventor of Gatorade in 1965. The Cade Museum is located at 811 South Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601. An independent 501(c)(3) public foundation, the museum receives no operational funding from federal, state, or local governments, or the University of Florida. Visit CadeMuseum.org for more information.

Contact:

Kathryn Rohlwing
[email protected]

SOURCE Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention

Related Links

http://cademuseum.org