Technology Challenges and Opportunities to Special Operation Forces in 2027
Paid individual authors up to $2,500 for essays forecasting technology's impact on Special Operations Forces.
SOCOM ran this as an InnoCentive ideation challenge lasting just 21 days, due to its own constrained timeline. It drew 108 submissions. The Seeker judged submissions itself, with no published scoring rubric, and paid the best papers — at least five and as many as ten, entirely at its own discretion — $1,000 each, then asked those authors to expand their summary into a more detailed paper. Authors …
SOCOM wanted forecasting essays on which new or evolving technologies, military or civilian, would most shape the world and Special Operations Forces by 2027, including the economic, social and military effects. It was framed as an open call for ideas, not a request for a working product, prototype or company.
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