Make the most of innovative finance: Prizes and other innovative financing mechanisms and incentives definitely have a place in funding research and development for neglected and global health needs.
After learning of his employees' enthusiasm for literature, Irwin agreed to finance the prize.
Robert Kaplan, director of communications for the company's international group, said Philip Morris, which has a worldwide program of arts awards, might continue to finance the prize.
The K Foundation, an offshoot of the KLF rock band, financed its prize through hit records such as Justified and Ancient and 3am Eternal.
In addition to averaging a novel a year, Mr. Harrison wrote about 100 short stories and a science-fiction textbook; edited more than 30 anthologies and a science-fiction literary journal; and financed a prize for writers who had advanced the genre.
Equally important -- since legal wagering ultimately finances our prize money and other costs -- a wagering record for Breeders' Cup day was set: a total of $116 million, including $100 million handled through hundreds of off-track facilities and through authorized telephone or computer account wagering services.
Alfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".
And since 2008, the foundation has also financed biennial prizes of $1 million each to recognize top researchers in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.
Mr. Branson has also joined forces with Al Gore, the Nobel laureate and former vice president, to finance a $25 million prize for finding an effective way of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The legislation creating the "H-Prize," modeled after the privately financed Ansari X Prize, passed 416 to 6.
