The X-Prize Foundation announced June 28 that it is developing another multimillion-dollar engineering and inventing contest. This time, contestants will tackle the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The “oil spill cleanup X challenge” will ask entrants to find best solutions for shorelines and open water sullied by oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which has been gushing since April 20, 2010.

Frances Beland of the X-Prize Foundation announced the new contest at the TEDxOilSpill conference in Washington, D.C., saying that some $3 million will be offered for the best cleanup solution. According to Beland, the foundation wanted competitors to find a solution for capping the well, but discovered that data for designing such a challenge was scarce, so organizers decided to focus on the cleanup, instead.

The X Prize Foundation has created several similar contests, including a popular challenge to create an eco-friendly and mass-production-capable vehicle. The non-profit group garnered public attention for its previous $10 million award for private spacecraft production.

“Every time we have a challenge, you know who wins?” Beland asked a group of about 300 spectators, as well as online viewers via a live feed. “It’s not someone from the industry; it’s a maverick, a freethinker.” He added that around 35,000 solutions to the spill have been proposed to British Petroleum, along with the government and other groups like the X Prize Foundation.

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