I refer to the report Universities forking out millions for dubious awards in which the credibility of the Geneva International Exhibition on Inventions, Products and Services is questioned.

As a European with 40 years of experience over there and as someone who has remembered the Geneva salons since he was 10 or 12, I might offer the following thoughts.

The whole convention in Geneva was set up for a good reasons including for tapping the potential of the small inventor and motivating the individual to come up with a simple solution for an everyday problem

This is in recognition of the high potential that non-professional lay people have at solving simple everyday problems. Therefore, you'd see hundreds of individuals exhibiting their ideas in Geneva, for tiny little things, things that do not need great research funds.

Think of a person who cut herself when using a can opener. She might think of an improvement to the opener that prevents injury.

Think of a person who wants a sparkling drink not to become stale after opening it and so creates an air-tight cap.

Think of a person who, after three flat tires, wants to be able to drive to the next garage and so devises a system to support the deflated wheel.

In the good old days of the Geneva salon, you could not even participate if your invention had to do with your paid job. Let us not forget that these inventors are doing what they do in their free time, after working hours, and paying for it from their own purse.

Surely, dishing out a reward in the form of medals is thought as an incentive, and many would come home with one of these honours.

Throughout the seven years I worked for the German Ministry for Research and Technology, we would never even think of 'going to Geneva'. In those days, funded, academic research and the solitary inventor exhibiting in Geneva were considered two very different, though likewise valuable, non-competing institutions.