EDF is the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund that looks for solutions to environmental problems. The partnership between InnoCentive and EDF is based on the premise that “we is smarter than me,” and their first initiative together has produced a clever solution to an old agricultural problem. Using InnoCentive’s Internet platform, the two companies challenged the public to find ways to battle agricultural nitrate pollution.

The winner, Patrick Fuller, a PhD student in chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, has won $5,000 for his contribution. He presented a report on the benefits of recycling nitrogen-rich water to grow algae as fertilizer, which when implemented will cut down on fertilizer run-off and algae-filled dead zones.  Rest