Calling all young inventors! (deadline May 7)

The next big thing: Will one of your Scouts invent it?

Encourage that future Ford, Fulton, or Bell to enter the Boy Scouts of America and Edison Nation Challenge, where creative thinkers could get help turning their ideas into products.

Edison Nation, an “idea-to-shelf product developer,” has teamed up with the BSA to promote this challenge. But despite the collaboration, the challenge is open to boys and girls ages 7 to 21, regardless of BSA membership.

Couple this news with the recent release of the Inventing merit badge, and there’s no better time to get your Scouts to think about their new ideas.

Here’s how it works:

  • Inventors submit their ideas by Monday, May 7, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. PST.
  • Edison Nation will select winning inventors and invest up to $1 million to develop the selected ideas and help bring them to market.
  • Selected ideas will receive a $2,500 minimum advance on 20 years percentage of sales. Plus, Edison Nation will split the royalties 50-50 with inventors on the products they select.
  • Selected inventors will be named the “inventor” on any issued patents and will have an opportunity to appear on the award-winning Everyday Edisons television series on PBS.
  • It’s $25 to submit an idea (or $10 for current BSA members).
  • Ideas should be “well-communicated” and include sketches, images, or other media to support them.

Find more information and get started at the official Edison Nation page.

Some day soon, perhaps one of these inventions will appear in Scouting magazine’s Great Gear section. How cool would that be?

Check out this video for more details:


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.