"The river interceptor design was clearly based on existing solutions" like Mr. Trash Wheel, Dr. Richards says. "Rather than work with the organizations who had successfully been removing trash from rivers for years, they ‘reinvented’ a similar design, at a much higher cost, and claimed to be innovators."

This is a great summary of lots of flashy commercial and non-profit work. Proposal for a product: AI-assisted "Who is already doing this?" database. Extra credit for linking to audited annual reports.

Reminds me of the endless "12 year old wins $25k young innovator award for inventing a solar panel that can go on the roof of an EV to charge while you drive!" type proclamations

And extra extra credit for NGOs (and startups) that openly advertise "competitors".