From this week’s Nature, News in Brief (447, 519; 2007).

US hedge-fund managers have teamed up with scientists to launch a competition for the next big idea in cancer research. Applicants must first be accepted by an Internet-based club , whose membership will be vetted by a scientific advisory panel that includes cancer experts such as Bert Vogelstein of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland. Members can then submit their idea — in fewer than 1,000 words — for a research project in basic cancer research, or in cancer diagnosis, prevention or treatment.

The person whose idea is judged to have the greatest potential will win US$1 million, even if they will not themselves be carrying out the research to test it. Another prize of $250,000 will be given in paediatric oncology. The ideas that emerge will be shared with other cancer-research funders.

The organizers say that current funding opportunities tend not to support untested ideas and that the annual Gotham prize will help fill this gap.