The eBay of science

If you're a scientist with some spare time to work on extracurricular projects, there's a company that wants to reward you with as much as $100,000.

Here's how it works: An organization that relies on R&D, such as Eli Lilly and Company – which created the company, InnoCentive, as a spinoff – posts a challenge on the InnoCentive Web site http://www.innocentive.com. Challenges are typically technical dilemmas that a company's own work force can't solve, such as "Synthesis of 3-difluoromethyl-1-methyl-4-pyrazole carboxylic acid" or "High-throughput format for a biological assay."

Rather than hire extra technically-minded staffers, companies offer one-time rewards from a few thousand dollars to as much as $100,000 to scientists from around the world who can find a solution. "We've been called the eBay of science," says Ali Hussein, vice president of marketing at the Andover, Mass., company.

Some 80,000 scientists from 175 countries have registered for free on the ...