Eyes on the prize

The design for the U.S. Capitol in 1792. Canned food in 1809. Lindbergh's transatlantic flight in 1927. Different centuries, different fields of study, but these groundbreaking innovations share one common thread: they were invented in response to national prize competitions. The battle against the novel coronavirus is no different—with the right incentives, American innovation will triumph again....There is bipartisan agreement that the way out—the only way to regaining confidence that it is safe to return to work—is through testing....We propose that solution is the same one that incentivized reliable food and commercial flights: a federal prize competition.