[APWG] Any "Weed Contests" to find innovative management methods?

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

Has anyone ever held an "Weed Contest" to encourage or find inventors of
new, innovative or more efficient methods of weed management?  

There's many weeds here in California that for 20 years or more, have
resisted all the traditional weed management tools, like the Yellow Star
thistle, Centaurea solstitialis.  

You can see where Yellow Star thistle has resisted tilling, burning, 
herbicides, and trying to replant the local native plants in its place, 
and where nearly 1/2 million dollars failed to get rid of only two acres
(about one hectare), at http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html.

What if that 1/2 million dollars instead, had been invested in an annual
"Contest", where all the professionals and all the interested academics
came to set up small scale test-plots, to show off whatever weed
management technologies they had invented to manage the star thistle?

And the winner, if any, would receive a substantial prize---plus perhaps
a contract to use their successful technologies on a larger scale; or be
paid a licensing fee to use their technologies if they were trade
secrets or patented, on a larger scale? 

Has anyone in the United States or Canada ever approached encouraging or
getting innovation in weed management technologies through the "Contest"
route, and how did you do it, what weeds and what prizes were offered,
and did you actually get any innovations at the end of the contest?

Have a nice holiday, and I'll look forward to hearing from folks next
year.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333