If you've got a great idea to help the economy or health of the Mississippi Delta, there's a $20,000 prize up for grabs in a new contest.
The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a nonpartisan health policy center, is leading the Rural Innovation Alliance's "Delta Innovator Search," which is looking for innovators who want to help the Delta economies in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the Clarion-Ledger reports.
Ten to 15 finalists will go through an incubator period in August in which they'll be mentored by the alliance.
They'll then be given cash awards of $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000.
"The Delta region is homogeneous in its needs, so there's a real opportunity here to build a new opportunity for companies that want to test new products, new technologies," says Arkansas Center for Health Improvement President Joseph Thomas.Ideas can aim to solve a wide range of issues facing the Delta, from technological to healthcare-related issues.
"We want to set a test bed for healthcare technology for rural America in the Mississippi Delta," Thomas says.
"If it works in the Delta, it'll work in rural Nevada, rural Montana, or anywhere else."
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