XBRL US, the nonprofit nsortium for XBRL business reporting standards in the U.S. market has announced a ntest called the XBRL Challenge, which seeks to unver the first generation of open source analytic tools that will mine financial data in ways never before possible.

A grand prize of $20,000 will be awarded to the mpany, team or individual developer who will submit the most inventive and useful application leveraging XBRL-formatted data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange mission EDGAR database.

Tagging financial data acrding to a XML-based business reporting standard known as eXtensible Business Reporting Language will now be required by every publicly traded U.S. pany.

Approximately 1,800 mpanies, till date have filed financial statement data with the SEC (News - Alert) in XBRL format.

“We want to foster the development of a wide variety of innovative applications that will show the power of XBRL tags to deliver insights that are currently locked away in financial filings in basic text or PDF format,” said John. D. Rogers, president and CEO of the CFA Institute, a sponsor of the XBRL Challenge, in a press release.

“rporate data in XBRL format will clearly benefit investors, analysts, and a host of others by making more aurate, actionable data available in ways not even imagined today.”

Submissions will be aepted by XBRL US through January 31, 2012, with final judging and awarding of prizes in February, 2012.

BRL US will also provide participants with tools and support, including aess to a database of XBRL financial fundamentals from all public mpanies and technical documentation on how to work with XBRL data.

To help in working with the XBRL data, entrants will also have aess to XBRL expertise through a series of in-person and webinar meetings.

XBRL US has also assembled a panel of respected judges with a diversity of perspectives on financial data.

“We are excited to be involved with the XBRL Challenge,” said Paul Ratnaraj, director of Advanced Initiatives at Wharton Research Data Services, a sponsor of the XBRL Challenge.

In related news, XBRL International, Inc. has appointed Liv Watson as the mpany’s chief product officer and David Nitchman as director of munications and Marketing.