The University of Washington and the X Prize Foundation announced a new partnership that will have grad students, faculty and others develop ideas for new X Prizes.

The Playa Vista, Calif.-based nonprofit gave its first award -- for $10 million -- in 2004 for a reusable spaceship backed by Paul Allen and designed by Burt Rutan.

Future competitions may be dreamed up at the new X Prize Labs@UW in the Evans School of Public Affairs, where "graduate students aided by faculty members and community stakeholders will research the prize philanthropy model, producing ideas and criteria for judging new X Prizes in space and ocean exploration, life sciences, energy and the environment, education and global development," the release said.

It's the second X Prize Labs, following another at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The UW lab will "tap into Evans School strengths in interdisciplinary public policy as well as regional strengths in science, technology and business management," Dean Sandra Archibald said in the release.

Foundation spokesman Michael Timmons said in the release that it wants to "create innovative ways for students to approach problems and the Evans School is the perfect place to do it. We believe that in the X Prize laboratory, UW students will extend the idea of incentivized problem solving."

UW alum Nelson Del Rio, a Los Angeles developer and investor, connected the school and the foundation.

The first lab will begin in January and last for a quarter, after which students will present their ideas to the foundation leaders and trustees.