Britain has announced a prize of £10 million -- $16.8 million -- for a solution to one among several of the most pressing scientific problems faced today by the world, with a public being allowed to choose the challenge.

Six categories of candidate challenges have been announced for a new Longitude Prize, ranging from the environment to healthcare.

The announcement comes 300 years after the original Longitude Prize, a 1714 competition to invent a clock that would let 18th-century sailors determine their exact location at sea.

That prize was won by John Harrison, whose clock was a milestone in nautical history, saving many lives as well as creating a trading empire for Britain by providing accurate navigation around the world's oceans.

The new prize is a project of British innovations foundation Nesta, and after presentation on the British science documentary television program Horizon, the public is going be invited to vote on the challenge to be tackled.

"If you want to solve a scientific problem, one method is to go to top universities and top scientists and ask them to solve it," says Nesta head Geoff Mulgan.

"But over the years, and this was something pioneered by the Longitude Prize in the 18th Century, it's often better to open it up to anyone to come up with a solution."

The challenge categories include how to ensure a sustainable food supply; how to make clean and safe water to all the world; how to combat the rising problem of antibiotic resistance; how to continue to allow growth in aviation without causing damage to the environment; how to conquer paralysis and give movement back to people; and how to help people suffering from dementia continue to live independent lives for longer.

"There are a broad range of societal problems that demand fresh thinking and require us to galvanise a new generation of innovators to address them," Britain's Astronomer Royal Martin Rees who led the challenge selection committee, said.

The public will be given the chance to vote on the challenges from May 22 to June 25.

Although the prize competition be accessible to entries from anywhere in the world, submissions will have to demonstrate "direct economic benefit" for the United Kingdom through job creation or tax revenue, organizers said.