Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: 

Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

A Report from the

Office of Science and Technology Policy

In Response to the Requirements of the

America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010

August 2016 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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ABOUT THE OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) advises the President on the effects of 

science and technology on domestic and international affairs. The Office serves as a source of 

scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, 

plans, and programs of the Federal government. OSTP leads an interagency effort to develop and 

implement sound science and technology policies and budgets. The Office works with the private 

sector to ensure Federal investments in science and technology contribute to economic prosperity, 

environmental quality, and national security. For more information, visit http://www.ostp.gov. 

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

This document is a work of the U.S. Government and is in the public domain (see 17 U.S.C. 105). 

DEPARTMENT, AGENCY, OFFICE, AND DIVISION ABBREVIATIONS

ASA Office of the HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration (part of HHS)

CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (part of HHS)

CNCS Corporation for National and Community Service

CPSC Consumer Product Safety Commission

CTTSO Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (part of DOD)

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (part of DOD)

DHS Department of Homeland Security

DOC Department of Commerce

DOD Department of Defense

DOE Department of Energy

DOI Department of the Interior

DOJ Department of Justice

DTRA Defense Threats Reduction Agency (part of DOD)

EDA Economic Development Administration (part of DOC)

Education Department of Education

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EERE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (part of DOE)

FDA Food and Drug Administration (part of HHS)

FMC Federal Maritime Commission

FTC Federal Trade Commission

GSA General Services Administration

HHS Department of Health and Human Services

HRSA Health Resources and Services Administration (part of HHS)
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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HUD Department of Housing and Urban Development

IARPA Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NIC National Institute of Corrections

NIEHS National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (part of NIH in HHS)

NIH National Institutes of Health (part of HHS)

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology (part of DOC)

NIJ National Institute of Justice (part of DOJ)

NNCO National Nanotechnology Coordination Office

NNI National Nanotechnology Initiative (coordinated out of NNCO)

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (part of DOC)

NSA National Security Agency

NSF National Science Foundation

OMB Office of Management and Budget (part of the Executive Office of the President)

ONC Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (part of HHS)

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy (part of the Executive Office of the 

President)

SAMHSA Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (part of HHS)

SBA Small Business Administration

TSA Transportation Security Administration (part of DHS)

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USBR United States Bureau of Reclamation (part of DOI)

USDA Department of Agriculture

USFWS United States Fish and Wildlife Service (part of DOI)

USGS United States Geological Survey (part of DOI)

USSOCOM United States Special Operations Command

VA Department of Veterans Affairs
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................7

Section 1. BENEFITS OF PRIZES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR ...............................9

Section 2. SUPPORT FOR SCALING THE USE OF PRIZES................................15

Section 3. HIGHLIGHTS AND TRENDS FROM PRIZES AND CHALLENGES 

CONDUCTED IN FY 2015..............................................................................23

Section 4. HIGHLIGHTS FROM PRIZES CONDUCTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY 

PROVIDED BY COMPETES IN FY 2015......................................................34

Section 5. SUMMARY OF PRIZES CONDUCTED UNDER COMPETES IN FY 2015 

...........................................................................................................................40

Appendix 1. AGENCY PRIZES AND CHALLENGES CONDUCTED UNDER THE 

AMERICA COMPETES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2010

Appendix 2. A SELECTION OF AGENCY PRIZES AND CHALLENGES CONDUCTED 

UNDER AUTHORITIES OTHER THAN THE AMERICA COMPETES 

REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2010
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report is being provided by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to the Senate 

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Science, 

Space, and Technology under the requirements of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act 

of 2010.

On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into the law the America COMPETES 

Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES). Section 105 of COMPETES added Section 24 

(Prize Competitions) to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (StevensonWydler), granting all agencies broad authority to conduct prize competitions to spur innovation, 

solve tough problems, and advance their core missions.

The authority to conduct prize competitions provided in COMPETES has led to significant new 

efforts, applying prize competitions and challenges to national priority areas including energy, 

space exploration, health, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. Since its creation, 134 prize 

competitions have been offered through the authority provided by COMPETES by 35 agencies. 

In FY 2015, 47 prize competitions were conducted under COMPETES authority, as well as 69

challenges conducted using authorities other than COMPETES. By June 2016, Challenge.gov 

had featured more than 700 prize competitions and challenges—conducted under the authority 

provided by COMPETES and other authorities—from over 100 Federal agencies, departments, 

and bureaus.

Prize competitions and challenges have an established record of spurring innovation in the 

private and philanthropic sectors. This report details examples of how well-designed prize 

competitions and challenges, integrated into a broader innovation strategy, have enabled Federal 

agencies to:

• Pay only for success and establish an ambitious goal without having to predict which 

team or approach is most likely to succeed;

• Reach beyond the “usual suspects” to increase the number of solvers tackling a problem 

and to identify novel approaches, without bearing high levels of risk;

• Bring out-of-discipline perspectives to bear; 

• Increase cost-effectiveness to maximize the return on taxpayer dollars; and

• Establish clear success metrics and validation protocols that themselves become defining 

tools and standards for the subject industry or field.

The Obama Administration has taken important steps to make prize competitions and challenges 

a standard tool in every agency’s innovation toolbox. The Strategy for American Innovation1

—

first issued in 2009 and most recently updated in October 2015—recognizes the potential for 

prizes to mobilize America’s ingenuity to solve some of the Nation’s most pressing challenges. 

Among numerous other forms of support to agencies, in March 2010, the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) issued a formal policy framework2 to guide agency leaders in using prize 

 

1 https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/strategy_for_american_innovation_october_2015.pdf

2 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-11.pdf
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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competitions and challenges to advance their core missions; and in September 2010, the 

Administration launched Challenge.gov3

, a one-stop shop where entrepreneurs and citizensolvers can find public-sector prize competitions and challenges. 

The prize authority provided by COMPETES supports this Administration effort. By giving 

agencies a clear legal path, the legislation has made it dramatically easier for agencies to use 

prize competitions, subject to the availability of appropriations or other allowed sources of funds. 

Policy and legal staff in OSTP and OMB jointly developed a Fact Sheet and Frequently Asked 

Questions memorandum4

, issued in August 2011, which provides guidance to assist with 

implementation of the government-wide prize authority. The legislation has enabled agencies to 

pursue more ambitious prize competitions with robust incentives, and has inspired the use of 

other authorities to operate prize competitions and challenges. For example, during the fifth year 

since the COMPETES Act was signed into law, the Department of Health and Human Services 

(HHS) continued its use of the authority to stimulate, solicit, and implement effective solutions 

to problems large and small. In FY 2015, HHS designed and administered complex prizes and 

challenges; used bigger cash incentives than in prior years; established partnerships within and 

outside the Federal Government; and used prizes to tackle ambitious and critical problems. HHS 

completed a total of 18 competitions5 and launched additional competitions during FY 2015, 

totaling $2.1 million in cash incentives and more than doubling the total number of HHS 

competitions conducted in FY 2014.

Some agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), HHS, the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 

the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 

have established specific strategies and policies related to prize competitions and challenges, and

dedicated personnel to lead prize competition and challenge design and administration efforts at 

their agencies, providing internal support to program managers interested in making use of prize 

competitions and challenges.

Twenty-three agencies offered prizes in FY 2015 enabled by the prize authority provided by 

COMPETES—including the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the 

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Defense Advanced Research Projects 

Agency (DARPA), USDA, the Department of Energy (DOE), DHS, the Department of Housing 

and Urban Development (HUD), the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the Federal Trade 

Commission (FTC), the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Institute of 

Corrections (NIC), NIST, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Small Business Administration (SBA), the U.S. 

Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and seven component agencies of HHS. Eight of these agencies 

 

3 http://www.challenge.gov/

4 https://cio.gov/wpcontent/uploads/downloads/2012/09/Prize_Authority_in_the_America_COMPETES_Reauthorization_Act.pdf

5 Thirteen of the18 competitions completed by HHS leverage the COMPETES Act Authority.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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offered prizes under COMPETES authority for the first time, including CNCS, NIST, NOAA, 

USDA, DHS, USBR, FMC, and OMB.

As agencies expand their use of the prize authority provided to them under COMPETES, some 

agencies—including HHS, DOE, the Department of Defense (DOD), EPA, NASA, DHS, 

Department of Interior (DOI), and USDA—have continued to administer prize competitions and 

challenges developed under other pre-existing authorities, including agency-specific authorities, 

grant-making authority, and procurement authority, adding additional lessons learned and best 

practices regarding the use of prize competitions and challenges. 

Comparing the 116 prize competitions and challenges conducted in FY 2015 under all authorities 

with previous years’ reports shows several trends in public-sector prizes:

• Increased ambition and sophistication of prize designs enabled by partnerships;

• New models for engaging the public during competitions;

• Applying prizes as one tool in a broader portfolio of actions within a program; 

• Conducting series of challenges to build momentum for specific issue; and

• Commercialization of solutions found through prizes to address market failures.

A review of the 47 prize competitions conducted under COMPETES in FY 2015 shows that 

agencies continue to leverage this new authority to conduct their first prize competitions and 

increase the ambition of their prize-competition efforts. This report indicates that this authority 

will continue to help agencies across the Federal Government reap the benefits of high-impact 

prize competitions and challenges.

INTRODUCTION

From the 1714 Longitude Prize that led to the world’s first practical method to determine a ship’s 

longitude, to the Orteig Prize that inspired Charles Lindbergh to fly nonstop from New York to 

Paris, to the 2011 Oil Cleanup X Challenge6 that rewarded a company from Illinois for 

demonstrating more than four times the previous best tested recovery rate for cleaning oil from 

the ocean’s surface, prizes have an established record of spurring innovation. A 2009 McKinsey 

report found that philanthropic and private-sector investment in prizes had increased 

significantly between 2000 and 2007.7

Inspired by the success of philanthropic and private-sector prizes, the Obama Administration has 

taken important steps to accelerate public-sector adoption of these innovative tools. By June

2016, Challenge.gov had featured more than 700 prize competitions and challenges from over 

100 Federal agencies, departments, and bureaus. Tens of thousands of citizen “solvers” have 

participated in these competitions directly on Challenge.gov, with additional entrants joining the 

 

6 http://www.iprizecleanoceans.org/ 7 McKinsey & Company, “And the Winner Is...”; Capturing the promise of philanthropic prizes, 2009, 

http://www.mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Social-Innovation/And_the_winner_is.pdf
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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competitions through other means. A 2014 Deloitte report8

 found that between 2010 and 2014 

“incentive prizes have transformed from an exotic open innovation tool to a proven innovation 

strategy” with $64 million in total prize money9

 being offered through Challenge.gov. 

On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed COMPETES into law.10 Section 105 of this Act 

added Section 24 (Prize Competitions) to Stevenson-Wydler, providing all agencies with broad 

authority to conduct prize competitions in order to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and 

advance their core missions. The legislation requires OSTP to submit an annual report to the 

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives on activities under this prize 

authority during the preceding fiscal year. 

This report documents the benefits the Federal government has already reaped from using prize 

competitions and challenges, the steps the Administration has taken to establish a lasting 

foundation for use of the prize authority provided by COMPETES, and detailed examples from 

FY 2015 of how the COMPETES authority and other authorities are increasing the number of 

agencies that use prize competitions and challenges to achieve their missions more efficiently and 

effectively. 

Figure 1. Reported number of prize competitions conducted by Federal agencies,

FY 2011–FY 2015 

8 Deloitte University Press, “The Craft of Incentive Prize Design”; Lessons from the Public Sector, 2014. 

http://dupress.com/articles/the-craft-of-incentive-prize-design/ 

9 Based on 319 challenges listed on Challenge.gov between 2010 and 2014.

10 Public Law 111-358. 

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015

Number of agencies

Number of prizes

Prizes under other authorities

Prizes under COMPETES authority

Agencies offering all prizes (COMPETES and other)
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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Note: Reporting of prizes not conducted under COMPETES authority is not required, and in FY 2011, only COMPETES prizes

were reported. Thus, these total values are minimum values and more prize competitions than are represented in this figure were

completed (and not reported) during each fiscal year. Values for this figure and the number of agencies conducting COMPETES 

prizes are provided later in this document in Table 2.

The scope of this report includes a detailed description of every prize conducted in FY 2015 

under the prize authority provided by COMPETES (as reported by Federal agencies to OSTP), 

with project descriptions in Appendix 1, and selective summaries of prize competitions and 

challenges conducted under other authorities in Appendix 2.

SECTION 1. BENEFITS OF PRIZES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

The unique benefits and diverse outcomes of prizes have been well documented in the private, 

philanthropic, and public sectors.11 Early adopters in the public sector have seen the value of 

well-designed prizes over the last decade. For example, the Chief Technologist of NASA reports 

that “NASA recognizes the value of the public as a strategic partner in addressing some of the 

country’s most pressing challenges. The agency is working to more effectively harness the 

expertise, ingenuity, and creativity of individual members of the public by enabling, accelerating, 

and scaling the use of open innovation approaches including prizes, challenges and 

crowdsourcing. These methods present an extraordinary opportunity to inspire the development 

of transformative solutions by offering a means to engage with non-traditional sources of 

innovative ideas, all in a remarkably cost-effective way.”12

Even with demonstrated value in previous years, there exists a need to continue to communicate 

the benefits and lessons learned from Federal prize competitions. HHS reports that even after six

years of prizes across 11 HHS divisions, “the availability of the prize mechanism is not widely 

known among program offices, and its potential benefits and drawbacks are not clearly 

understood.”13 At the same time, HHS has seen its competitions “evolve, with increasing 

complexity of design and problem statements better aligned with programmatic goals.”14 The 

agency sees this continuing evolution as part of the benefit of conducting challenges, and each 

year a different part of the agency finds a new use for the authorities that enable prize 

competitions.

 

11 See e.g., McKinsey & Company, “And the Winner Is...”; Capturing the promise of philanthropic prizes, 2009, 

http://www.mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Social-Innovation/And_the_winner_is.pdf and Deloitte 

University Press, “The Craft of Incentive Prize Design”; Lessons from the Public Sector, 2014. 

http://dupress.com/articles/the-craft-of-incentive-prize-design/ 12 NASA Report to Office of Science and Technology Policy on Prize Competitions for Fiscal Year 2015, submitted 

by Jim Adams, NASA Deputy Chief Technologist, to the Office of Science and Technology Policy, February 9, 

2016.

13 HHS Report on Prize Competition Activities Conducted in Fiscal Year 2015, submitted by Susannah Fox, HHS 

Chief Technology Officers, and Colleen Barros, Acting Assistant Secretary for Administration to the Office of 

Science and Technology Policy, January 5, 2016.

14 Ibid.
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Specifically, prizes have enabled the Federal Government to:

A. Pay only for success and establish an ambitious goal, without having to predict 

which team or approach is most likely to succeed

With a focus on proven results, prizes empower new, untapped talent to deliver unexpected 

solutions to tough problems. For example, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), part of the 

Department of Justice, utilized prize competitions “to generate fresh ideas and new 

perspectives,” and the organizers “hoped to mobilize researchers and technology innovators who 

may not have applied for Federal R&D grants and cooperative agreements.”

DOE’s SunShot Catalyst Program

Through a series of prize challenges, SunShot Catalyst makes it faster and easier for American 

innovators to launch cutting-edge solar companies, while tackling time-sensitive market 

challenges. Catalyst’s prize-challenge framework introduces the business community to the vast 

array of tools, capabilities, data assets, and additional resources developed by DOE and its 

National Laboratories. Catalyst’s open, fast-paced innovation cycle allows crowd-sourced 

engagement and frequent partnerships with the nation’s growing networks of technology 

mentors, incubators, and accelerators. By the end of 2015, DOE ran two Catalyst Cycles. For 

each Cycle of the program, the primary incentive is over $1,000,000 total in prize awards given 

across the four steps of Catalyst prize program: Ideation, Business Innovation, Prototype, and 

Incubation. There are two rounds of Incubation: “seed” and “growth.” Five teams won $30,000 

in prizes by successfully completing the “seed” round of the Incubation step, and were eligible to 

receive up to $70,000 in additional funds, contingent upon meeting product milestones. Of the 

final five teams, 3 fully met product milestones during this round, securing a total of $100,000 in 

prize money per team. The five companies have collectively raised over $1 million from private 

investors in 2015.

IARPA’s Automatic Speech Recognition in Reverberant Environments (ASpIRE) Challenge

ASpIRE challenged teams to apply and refine state-of-the-art speech-to-text (STT) techniques to 

transcribe recordings of native speakers of American English. Typically, speech-recognition 

systems are trained on speech recorded in environments very similar to those in which they are 

expected to be used. The ASpIRE challenge tackled a more ambitious problem of building 

accurate systems for automatically transcribing speech recorded in noisy and reverberant 

environments without any training data that resembled the challenge’s final test conditions—and 

without knowing anything about the recording devices used, the placement of the talker relative 

to the recording device, or the acoustics of the rooms where the speech was recorded. Despite 

this ambitious goal, the winning solutions were significantly more accurate than IARPA’s 

baseline system. The four ASpIRE challenge winners developed systems that delivered 50

percent error reduction or greater compared to the IARPA baseline system. IARPA structured 

this prize competition so that prize payments would be made only if the desired performance 

requirements for the challenge were met or exceeded. Since the requirements were exceeded and 

the baseline significantly improved upon, IARPA considers the results to be quite successful for 

the cost.
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B. Reach beyond the “usual suspects” to increase the number of solvers tackling a 

problem and identify novel approaches, without bearing high levels of risk

As Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy is credited with saying, “No matter who you are, most 

of the smartest people work for someone else.” That is true for the Federal government as well. 

Prizes are one tool to tap the top talent and best ideas wherever they lie, sourcing breakthroughs 

from a broad pool of both known and unknown sources of innovation. As challenge solutions are 

delivered prior to payment, the Government can benefit from these novel approaches without 

bearing high levels of investment risk.

DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge

The DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) utilizes a series of competition events to test the 

abilities of a new generation of fully automated cyber-defense systems. CGC teams create 

automated systems to compete against each other to evaluate software, test for vulnerabilities, 

and generate and apply security patches to protected computers on a network. Utilizing prize 

authority under the America COMPETES Act made it possible to work with academic 

institutions and affiliated teams, large commercial interests not involved in defense contracting, 

small businesses, small teams of experts, and individuals, most of whom had not worked with 

DOD previously. The competition drew teams of top experts from across a wide range of 

computer-security disciplines. Collectively, the automated systems participating in CGC were 

able to mitigate all currently known security flaws in the sample software (no individual system 

accomplished this). Competitors’ systems were able to identify 96 of the 131 security 

vulnerabilities (73 percent) in the software challenges without human assistance. The automated 

synthesis of input proofs and secure replacement software without human involvement 

demonstrates a groundbreaking level of autonomy.

SBA’s 2015 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition

In August 2015, SBA completed the second installment of the Growth Accelerator Fund 

competition with a total prize purse of $4.4 million to continue building the support structure 

needed to help startups become commercially viable and create more jobs quickly. This

opportunity for qualified accelerators provides resources to boost the startup and 

entrepreneurship communities. In running this competition, SBA hoped to support both new and 

existing accelerators from all across the country that were not yet familiar with the SBA’s 

services nor being fully serviced by the traditional venture-capital or angel-capital community.

Because these accelerators do not traditionally work with the SBA, this prize competition 

allowed the SBA to work with entirely new groups to support the startup ecosystem and create 

jobs. SBA awarded $4.4 million of Congressionally appropriated funds to 88 accelerators 

located in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, with 14 being in rural counties, 

24 focusing on manufacturing and marketing, 39 owned by women, 21 owned by minorities, 21 

focused on women, 36 focused on the underserved, and 13 focused on veterans. Last year’s 

accelerator winners have helped create 5,000 jobs, launched approximately 1,400 startups, and 

raised collectively over $600 million in additional funding.
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C. Bring out-of-discipline perspectives to bear

Empirical research conducted at the Harvard Business School has found that breakthrough 

solutions to scientific challenge competitions are most likely to come from outside the scientific 

discipline or at the intersection of two fields of study.15 Challenges posed under COMPETES 

authorities often seek and enable these interactions.

USAID’s Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge

The Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge sought out solutions to combat the challenges faced by 

health care workers. These challenges include personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of 

adequate health centers, difficulty in tracking person-to-person transmission, the absence of rapid 

point-of-care diagnostics, and a need to accommodate traditional burial ceremonies involving 

direct contact with a deceased body. The purpose of USAID’s open ideation challenge was to 

engage a wide variety of creative thinkers with diverse expertise around the globe to rapidly 

source and develop potential solutions to this epidemic. The Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge 

sourced over 1,500 ideas and potential solutions. The selected awardees fell into the following 

six categories: improving PPE, cutting-edge tools for enhanced patient care, reimagined health 

care settings, decontaminants, behavior change, and information-communication technology 

solutions. As an example of the diversity of ideas and the reach of the Challenge, the founders of 

a sportswear apparel start-up learned about the Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge on Twitter and 

believed their wearable cooling packs for athletes could be adopted for use by health care 

workers. They posted about their product on the open ideation platform and were ultimately 

among those entrants selected to undergo rigorous testing of their products. 

D. Increase cost-effectiveness to maximize the return on taxpayer dollars

Prizes can be efficient and cost-effective approaches for identifying solutions from the private 

sector. Teams in prizes and challenges compete for not just the cash purse, but also for the 

associated validation, prestige, and satisfaction that result from solving important problems. 

Therefore, prizes can incentivize significant additional private-sector and philanthropic 

investment, leveraging the prize purse’s impact. In the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh in 

1927, nine teams spent a cumulative $400,000 to win the $25,000 prize purse.16 The $10 Million 

Ansari X PRIZE was won in 2004 by Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne, after the 26 competing 

teams spent more than $100 million attempting to win the prize.17

NASA’s Disruption Tolerant Networking Challenge Series (DTN)

The DTN Series is an ambitious, multi-year series of challenges to develop data networking 

protocols that can extend the Internet into the Solar System. The challenges helped improve the 

security, performance, and application of network protocols that can withstand the time delays 

 

15 Jeppesen, Lars Bo, and Karim R. Lakhani. “Marginality and Problem-Solving Effectiveness in Broadcast Search.”

Organization Science 21 (September - October 2010): 1016-1033. 16 http://www.innovationinthecrowd.com/examples/orteig-prize.pdf 17 http://space.xprize.org/ansari-x-prize 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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caused by the immense distances between planets and the disruptions and non-contiguous paths 

of the space communication links. The series of challenges included two challenges in 2013, two 

challenges in 2014, and three challenges in 2015. The most significant challenge to close in 2015 

was the Astronaut Email Challenge. This challenge aimed to fix an existing problem with the 

International Space Station (ISS) email system’s ability to handle large file attachments for 

astronauts by developing an architecture that uses the DTN protocols to solve the problem. The 

Astronaut Email challenge received 24 entries for 18 contests, and awarded 12 winners a total of 

$23,638. The Astronaut Email software will begin the process of flight certification for eventual 

use on the ISS. If this issue had been fixed in-house, NASA estimates it would have cost 

$193,000. In the challenge format, this challenge cost NASA about $81,000, 42 percent of the 

estimated in-house solution cost.

E. Establish clear success metrics and validation protocols that themselves become 

defining tools and standards for the subject industry or field

In order to evaluate solutions submitted by entrants in prize competitions, managers of those 

competitions sometimes develop clearer success metrics, validation protocols, and standards than 

currently available in a given industry. These new methods for measurement can create new 

ways to evaluate solvers and solutions head-to-head, both for the prize competition and the

industry or technology field more broadly.

DOE’s Wave Energy Prize

The Wave Energy Prize will double the state-of-the-art performance of wave energy converters 

(WECs) through an 18-month design-build-test prize competition. Ninety-two teams registered 

to participate in the prize competition during the registration phase, three times greater than the 

expected response. The Prize is not yet completed, but there have been huge successes so far, 

including the development of rigorous metrics to evaluate diverse WEC configurations. Unlike 

wind turbines that extract energy from a two-dimensional flow through one degree of freedom of 

motion of the turbine, WECs can be designed to move in six degrees of freedom like an aircraft 

or spacecraft, which makes the devices complicated. The National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory’s (NREL) standard metric for measuring the efficiency of a technology is the 

levelized cost of energy (LCOE). LCOE is calculated based on the full life-cycle cost of an 

energy technology’s installation, operations, and financing. For an emerging technology such as 

WECs, life-cycle cost information is not available, and so NREL developed a new metric (the 

Average Climate Capture Width per Characteristic Capital Expenditure, or the “ACE”) to assess 

the performance of WECs that could serve as a proxy. The ACE is a simple benefit-to-cost 

metric, much as LCOE is a cost-to-benefit metric ($/kWh). The ACE is a brand new evaluation 

metric and will be rigorously tested on proposed technologies in a testing campaign that will 

determine which teams are eligible to win the $1.5 million grand prize.

The use of incentive prizes by Federal agencies offers the above benefits, as well as numerous 

other advantages, such as the ability for prizes to inspire risk-taking, and give entrepreneurs and 

innovators license to pursue an endorsed stretch goal that otherwise may have been considered 

overly audacious.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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Prizes are not the right tool for every problem, but, if aligned with a broader strategy and used 

systematically within an agency, they can be a powerful mechanism for spurring innovation. The 

prize authority provided by COMPETES has been instrumental in unleashing that potential. 

Section 4, Section 5, and Appendix 1 of this report focus on the prizes developed under the 

specific prize authority provided by COMPETES. Appendix 2 provides a brief summary of 

prizes conducted under other authorities. Reporting of prizes under other authorities is not 

comprehensive, as agency reporting to OSTP on prizes under authorities other than that provided 

by COMPETES is voluntary.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

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SECTION 2. SUPPORT FOR SCALING THE USE OF PRIZES

Since 2009, the Obama Administration has taken important steps that are helping to scale the 

successful use of prize competitions and challenges across the entire Executive Branch. 

COMPETES plays a key role in the Administration’s work to make prize competitions and 

challenges a standard tool in every agency’s toolbox by granting clear, broad authority to all 

Federal agencies. The Administration has laid the policy and legal groundwork to take maximum 

advantage of the new authority. Actions taken by the Administration include:

• The September 2009 Strategy for American Innovation18—first issued in 2009 and most 

recently updated in October 2015— recognized the potential for prizes to mobilize America’s 

ingenuity to solve some of the Nation’s most pressing challenges. 

• In March 2010, OMB issued a formal policy framework19 to guide agency leaders in using 

prize competitions and challenges to advance their core missions. 

• In September 2010, the GSA launched Challenge.gov,20 a one-stop shop where entrepreneurs 

and citizen solvers can find public-sector prize competitions and challenges. 

• Policy and legal staff in OSTP and OMB jointly developed a Fact Sheet and Frequently 

Asked Questions (FAQ) memorandum, which was issued in August 2011.21

• In the Second Open Government National Action Plan (2013),22 the Administration 

committed to “convene an interagency group to develop an Open Innovation Toolkit for 

Federal agencies that will include best practices, training, policies, and guidance on 

authorities related to open innovation, including approaches such as incentive prizes, 

crowdsourcing, and citizen science.” The first half of this toolkit23, for citizen science and 

crowdsourcing, was released to the public on September 30, 2015. OSTP, GSA, the Federal 

Community of Practice for Challenges and Prizes, and a project team identified through 

GSA’s Open Opportunities Program are working to release the second half of the toolkit, for 

prizes and challenges, in 2016.

• On October 7, 2015 the White House, in conjunction with the Case Foundation, the Joyce 

Foundation, and Georgetown University hosted “All Hands on Deck: Solving Complex 

Problems through Prizes and Challenges24 to catalyze the next generation of ambitious 

prizes. This event included over 150 Federal agency managers, along with state and local 

government leaders, representatives from foundations and other non-government 

 

18 https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/strategy_for_american_innovation_october_2015.pdf

19 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-11.pdf 20 http://www.challenge.gov/ 21 Prize Authority in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act: 

http://www.cio.gov/documents/Prize%20Authority%20in%20the%20America%20COMPETES%20Reauthorizati

on%20Act.pdf

22 http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/us_national_action_plan_6p.pdf

23 www.citizenscience.gov/toolkit

24 https://spi.georgetown.edu/prizes
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

16

organizations (NGOs), and private-sector supporters, and provided concrete tools for 

designing more ambitious prizes and effectively using incentive prizes to improve outcomes 

in addressing complex social, policy, and technological challenges.

• On October 8, 2015 the GSA hosted a 5-year anniversary event25 for Challenge.gov to 

acknowledge the rise of the Federal prizes and challenges community, which has grown 

steadily in size and influence over the past 5 years. Challenge.gov presented nearly 50 

awards26 recognizing individuals, agencies, and teams for public-sector prize competitions 

across categories ranging from creative and entrepreneurial to most groundbreaking and 

trailblazing. 

Building on the support provided by the Administration, both GSA and NASA continue to 

provide support to the Federal prizes and challenges community through the Challenge.gov 

program and NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI), respectively. 

Assistance and support from GSA

GSA provides support and assistance to all Federal agencies operating prize competitions and 

challenges. In addition to managing the online platform Challenge.gov, providing tier-one 

helpdesk support, the GSA program office manages outreach to a Federal community of practice 

of over 690 challenge practitioners, an active listserv, and a growing base of public solvers. The 

program also provides a variety of resources, research, best practices, and templates for the 

challenges community on DigitalGov.gov. These resources, along with case studies and step-bystep process guidance, will be incorporated into the Prizes and Challenges Toolkit slated to be 

released in 2016. Through a partnership with DigitalGov University, the program has developed 

a comprehensive, monthly in-person and digital training curriculum for the community, and has 

trained over 2,000 people across government. 

Section 24(n) of Stevenson-Wydler called on GSA to “develop a contract vehicle to provide 

agencies relevant products and services, including technical assistance in structuring and 

conducting prize competitions to take maximum benefit of the marketplace as they identify and 

pursue prize competitions to further the policy objectives of the Federal Government.” In 

response, GSA launched Advertising and Integrated Marketing Sub-Schedule 541 4G, 

“Challenges and Competitions Services”27 in July of 2011. Contractors on the schedule offer 

agencies options for technical assistance, prize platforms, and communities of individuals and 

teams interested in entering prize competitions. GSA continues to assist agencies in taking 

advantage of the available services and to inform private-sector vendors and agencies about the 

schedule and its benefits.

In September 2015, GSA built the framework for a mentoring program, bringing together 20 

experts in public-sector prizes from across government to serve as force-multipliers for the 

 

25 http://www.digitalgov.gov/2015/10/13/challenge-gov-honors-federal-agencies-staff-for-raising-the-bar-on-publicsector-prize-competitions/

26 https://www.challenge.gov/challenge-gov-celebrates-five-years-of-open-innovation/

27http://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/sinDetails.do?scheduleNumber=541&specialItemNumber=541+4G
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

17

Challenge.gov team. The goal of this program is to advise and educate novice agencies on prize 

design and strategy from the earliest planning phases through competition execution and 

reporting. 

GSA has continued to evolve the Challenge.gov web platform to assist agencies in running prize 

competitions at no cost. With input from agency administrators, the GSA team has continued to 

advance the platforms capabilities and functionality to support more advanced hosting and 

reporting features. 

Government-wide Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation

In 2011, the Administration launched the Center for Excellence for Collaborative Innovation 

(CoECI), a NASA-led, Government-wide center of excellence to provide agencies guidance and 

support in implementing certain types of prize competitions and challenges. In 2015, CoECI 

awarded 10 contracts under its fixed-price, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) NASA 

Open Innovation Services (NOIS) procurement. That procurement forms a foundation for 

expanded use of challenges across the Federal Government for the next 5 years. NOIS provides a 

robust, yet competitive, mechanism to expand the number, variety, and skill sets of vendors

available to continue the successful use of challenges to meet agency missions. The contracts 

were awarded in early June of 2015, and CoECI competed and awarded eight task orders for an 

array of technical challenges within and beyond NASA, which are all scheduled to launch in 

2016.

Since its inception, CoECI has launched over 156 crowdsourced challenges, including those 

launched on its internal NASA@Work platform and 16 challenges of various complexity for 

other agencies. CoECI has worked alongside the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), 

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), USAID, OPM, DOE, EPA, the National 

Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as those agencies

garnered their own expertise in how best to apply the use of challenges. In 2015, CoECI 

continued to provide consulting services and worked with DOD, DOJ, DOI, DHS, the National 

Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIIO), and 

USGS to offer guidance on subjects ranging from challenge design to legal and procurement 

advice. Continuing to improve the mechanisms by which other agencies can leverage CoECI’s 

expertise, efforts were applied this year with its legal and financial management teams to 

streamline CoECI’s inter-agency agreement (IAA) process. In addition to gaining practical and 

operational knowledge on day-to-day best practices for the use of challenges, CoECI continued 

to facilitate academic research on the use of open innovation practices, both through its contract 

with Harvard University, as well as its grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Sloan School of Management Innovation Lab. At the end of the fiscal year, the Harvard contract 

was drawing to a close and resulted in 15 peer-reviewed papers focused on stratagems for 

repeatable practice, examining such topics as motivation, incentives, team formation, and userfocused metrics. CoECI also launched a pilot to determine how prize administrators at agencies

can use a government credit card to engage a challenge-based model for a small dollar value.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

18

Beyond these Federal Government-wide sources of assistance and support, many agencies have 

reported building various types of infrastructure to support developing and operating prize 

competitions and challenges at their agencies (summarized in 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

19

Table 1), including:

Issuance of department-wide policy or guidance on the use of prize competitions and 

challenges

Agencies have established strategies and policies to further accelerate widespread use of prize 

competitions and challenges. HHS has been at the forefront of agency implementation efforts of 

the new prize authority granted under COMPETES since 2011. On October 12, 2011, Secretary 

Sebelius issued a memorandum notifying HHS of the new prize authority, outlining the strategy 

to optimize the use of prize competitions, and calling on the heads of operating and staff 

divisions to forecast their future use of prize competitions to stimulate innovation in advancing 

the Agency’s mission. The full set of HHS’s policy statements, guidance, and resources is

available online.28

Additional departments and agencies have since issued agency-wide policy and guidance 

including NASA (2013),29 EPA (2013),30 DHS (2014),31 USDA (2015),32 and DOI (2015).33

NIST plans to issue agency-wide prize guidance in 2016. As a result of new authority granted to 

USAID in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113) to make innovation 

incentive awards, USAID is also developing guidance to further integrate prizes into its work by 

utilizing no more than 10 new awards through this authority of $100,000 or less during FY

2016.34

Common contract vehicles

Leveraging the work done by GSA to develop the Sub-Schedule 541 4G, several agencies have 

developed agency-wide prize and challenge-service contract vehicles to streamline access to 

vendors to support the design and implementation of prize competitions and challenges. These 

contract vehicles support the groups currently operating challenges, and also lower the barrier for 

new groups within the agency who intend to develop challenges. In addition to NASA’s open 

innovation platforms, HHS (2013), DHS (2014), and the Department of Education (2014) have 

developed agency-wide contract vehicles to provide management and technical support to prize 

competitions within their agencies.

For example, the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education in the U.S. Department of

Education awarded a five-year IDIQ Contract to a small business through a competitive 

procurement process to provide maximum flexibility to organize, design and conduct that 

 

28 http://www.hhs.gov/idealab/what-we-do/hhs-competes/

29 http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayDir.cfm?t=NPD&c=1090&s=1

30 This development was originally documented in the FY 2013 COMPETES report (page 13).

31 DHS Secretary Johnson delegated the prize authority granted under COMPETES to the DHS Science and 

Technology Directorate, which developed a DHS Prize Competitions Directive and prize-competition instruction. 32 http://www.ocio.usda.gov/document/departmental-regulation-2405-001 33 http://www.doi.gov/techtransfer/prize-competition-guidelines.cfm

34 Fiscal Year 2015 Report on Use of Prize Authority in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act: United 

States Agency for International Development (USAID), submitted to the Office of Science and Technology 

Policy, January 5, 2016.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

20

office’s challenges. A task order is issued based on the design and intent of each challenge. The 

contract is available to all program offices in the department and can be used for a variety of 

challenge formats and activities. Additionally, EPA is working on a blanket purchase agreement

(BPA) in order to more efficiently work with GSA prize contractors. The agency anticipates that 

the BPA will be signed in 2016.

Coordinated external communications

As agencies increase the volume of prize competitions and challenges they support, some have 

developed coordinated communications strategies for engaging with solver communities across 

the various prize competitions and challenges they conduct. Agencies have used websites, 

listservs, and social media outreach to better promote opportunities to the public. For example, 

EPA maintains a public website that provides the public with links to EPA challenges. NASA 

manages the NASA Solve website, a one-stop shop where the general public can learn about and 

engage with the challenges, prize competitions, and crowdsourcing activities that aim to solve 

tough problems related to NASA’s mission. The site has consistently generated approximately 

30,000 unique visitors weekly and program managers have reported this portal to be a major 

point of entry for solvers. 

Supporting agency personnel working on prize competitions

Agencies are assigning personnel to work on institutionalizing and designing prizes in a number 

of different ways including:

• Assigning dedicated, central prize and challenge leads. Several agencies have dedicated 

personnel to lead prize and challenge design and administration efforts at their agencies and 

to provide internal support agency-wide to program managers interested in making use of 

prize competitions and challenges. Prize design, management, and oversight are full-time 

jobs for these employees in response to the demand for the use of prize competitions and 

challenges within their agencies. They are often responsible for policy and guidance, internal 

and external agency communication strategies for prize competitions and challenges, the 

development of common contract vehicles, and consultation for specific prize and challenge 

designs. Agencies that use this approach include NASA, HHS, USAID, DHS, EPA, and 

NIST.

• Assigning an agency prize and challenge point of contact. Other agencies have identified 

agency points of contact for prize competitions and challenges who have taken on 

responsibilities such as policy and guidance development, but who are not devoted full time 

to prize competitions and challenges. DOD, NSF, USDA, DOE, and DOI have identified 

prize points of contact who fill a variety of part-time roles including developing guidance, 

conducting annual reporting, and convening communities of practice.

• Enabling distributed networks of prize managers and points of contact within agencies. At 

some agencies, personnel are distributed across groups engaged in operating prize 

competitions and challenges, and there is no central coordination. “One-off” prizes or prize 

programs are conducted without a centralized agency strategy. In some of these cases, central 

coordinators or agency personnel with experience designing prizes and challenges work with 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

21

a distributed network within their agencies to spread the use of prizes and competitions 

through the agency’s divisions and organizations.

Providing training and design support to agency staff

NASA has been providing prize-specific consultation services and training to NASA staff 

through CoECI since 2012. As the number of staff supporting prize competitions across 

government has expanded, the number of training and consultation services provided within 

agencies to agency employees has also increased to support scaling the use of prizes in a more 

sustainable way. For example, DHS conducted five training sessions for DHS components, 

leaders, and program managers, and sponsored two brownbag discussions in FY 2015. 

HHS, taking a customer-centric approach to the institutionalization of prize activity, determines 

what support for prize activity it will centrally provide, depending on the demands of those HHS 

offices that recognize value in the tool. HHS recognizes that the novelty of the challenge 

mechanism still presents a steep learning curve for offices who wish to use it. In particular, the 

majority of likely prize sponsors in the agency have little interest in gaining expertise in its 

nuances; rather, similar to establishing contracts and grants, they seek to rely on the expertise of 

others to guide them. As a direct response to this observation, HHS piloted a 2-week virtual 

bootcamp in July 2015 that provided HHS teams an opportunity to develop a prize idea in an 

accelerated, peer environment with access to mentors and experts within and outside HHS. HHS 

enrolled 11 teams initially, two dropped out, another two merged into one, and another decided 

to collaborate with one of the mentors. Two challenges have already launched out of this 

bootcamp effort. HHS received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the participating teams, 

in particular regarding the access to prize/challenge mentors and legal, policy, procurement, 508 

compliance, and Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) compliance mentors. Building off the pilot’s 

success, a full, expanded version of the bootcamp was conducted in March 2016. 

In part as a result of HHS’s centralized, broad outreach efforts, HHS has seen great diversity of 

usage among the 11 HHS Operating Divisions (“Divisions”), as evidenced in Error! Reference 

source not found., which shows the challenges grouped into Division and Fiscal Year.

Figure 2. Grouping of competitions by HHS Division and Fiscal Year in which the entire or 

one phase of a challenge was completed, FY 2011–FY 2015

Note: The area of each circle is proportional to the number of challenges conducted by the associated HHS Division. The number 

of competitions conducted in each year from FY 2010 to FY 2015 is 2, 16, 21, 30, 18, and 18, respectively.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

22

Developing centers for interagency challenges in specific topic areas

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) within DOI established the Water Prize Competition 

Center in FY 2015 to launch prize competitions under the authority provided by the COMPETES 

Act. The Reclamation Water Prize Competition Center has begun to launch prizes that seek 

innovative solutions related to several mission-critical areas including infrastructure 

sustainability, ecosystem restoration, and water availability.

USBR forged collaborations with other Federal agencies that have a stake in these mission areas 

to collaboratively design, launch, and judge the prize competitions. Federal collaborators 

currently include USGS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), NASA, EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USDA, and 

NIST. The Federal collaboration will enable agencies to leverage Federal capabilities, catalyze 

interagency working relationships, better define and solve joint problems, avoid duplication, find 

solutions that have a broader impact across the mission of multiple Federal agencies, and 

advance the interests of their stakeholders and the public good.

During FY 2016, USBR plans to launch several challenges in each of the 3 subject-matter 

themes. USBR also plans to explore ways to combine the authorities provided by the 

COMPETES Act with Technology Transfer Act of 1986 authorities (15 USC§ 3710a) to forge 

partnerships with non-Federal organizations, including the private sector, to accelerate 

innovation and the lab-to-market process through jointly sponsored prize competitions.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

23

Table 1. Challenges and prizes infrastructure

AGENCY PRACTICES FY 2014 FY 2015

Issuance of department-wide policy 

or guidance on the use of prize 

competitions and challenges

HHS, EPA, NASA, 

DOI, USDA, DHS

HHS, EPA, NASA, 

DOI, USDA, DHS

Common contract vehicles Education, HHS, DHS, 

EPA, NASA

Education, HHS, 

DHS, EPA, NASA

Internal communications tools HHS, DHS, EPA, 

NASA, DOE

HHS, DHS, EPA, 

NASA

Coordinated external 

communications 

NASA, EPA NASA, EPA, DHS

Dedicated, central prize and 

challenge leads

NASA, HHS, USAID, 

DHS, EPA 

NASA, HHS, USAID, 

DHS, EPA, NIST

Identified agency prize and 

challenge point of contact (not 

dedicated full time to prizes)

USDA, DOI, DOD, 

NSF

USDA, DOI, DOD, 

DOE, AFRL, CTTSO, 

NSF, DOJ

Distributed network of prize 

managers and points of contact 

within the agency 

HHS, NASA, HHS, 

USAID, DHS, EPA, 

USDA, DOE, DOD, 

AFRL

HHS, NASA, USAID, 

EPA, USDA, DOE, 

DOD, FTC, DARPA, 

IARPA

Providing centralized training and 

design support to agency staff

NASA HHS, NASA, DHS

Developing centers for the 

interagency challenges in specific 

topic areas

DOI

While the number of agencies using the clear and broad authorities provided to them under 

COMPETES increased in FY 2015 (Table 2), numerous public-sector prize competitions and 

challenges continued to be administered under other pre-existing authorities, including: agencyspecific authorities; procurement; the authority to award grants, participate in cooperative 

agreements, or both; and others. Some agencies used both COMPETES and other authorities. 

These prize competitions add additional lessons learned and best practices to the growing 

community of practice engaged in public-sector prize competitions and challenges. For example, 

during FY 2015, the Department of Education reports having gained significant insights on how 

to plan and conduct challenges under authorities other than COMPETES, leverage its publicprivate partnerships to augment its ability to provide prize incentives, and explore innovative 

procurement strategies to accomplish its objectives. The Department of Education has used these 

insights to improve its internal processes and enable greater innovation and creativity to meet its 

mission. 

In FY 2016, the use of the prize competitions and challenges likely will continue to increase as 

more agencies complete internal policies and strategies related to their implementation; agency 

experience with prize competitions and challenges grows; more resources for training of agency 

personnel and for the development, implementation, and promotion of challenges become 

available to agencies through GSA; and CoECI continues to provide support for pilot programs 

at other agencies. These activities are expected to result in highly leveraged, open innovation 

programs that help agencies to address grand challenges and meet their respective missions.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

24

SECTION 3. HIGHLIGHTS AND TRENDS FROM PRIZES AND CHALLENGES

CONDUCTED IN FY 2015

Aided by the support described in Section 2, agencies have expanded their use of prizes conducted 

under COMPETES and other authorities, with 116 prizes offered by 41 agencies in FY 2015 (

, Table 2). The data analysis included in this section is focused on the 80 prize competitions

(conducted under all authorities) that were newly announced in FY 2015 and for which data were 

provided.35 These competitions provide evidence for how the COMPETES authority is helping 

agencies across the Federal government reap the benefits discussed in Section 1. A review of 

prizes conducted in FY 2015 reveals the following trends and best practices in using publicsector prizes.

Agencies use prizes to achieve goals such as: improving service delivery; finding and 

highlighting innovative ideas; solving a specific problem; advancing scientific research;

developing and demonstrating technology; informing and educating the public; engaging new 

people and communities; building capacity; and stimulating markets. 

In FY 2015, the majority of challenges (83 percent) were designed to achieve multiple goals, and 

47 percent were designed to produce multiple types of solutions. The most common goals for FY 

2015 challenges were solve a specific problem (50 percent), develop technology (50 percent), 

engage new people and communities (47 percent), and highlight ideas (42 percent).

36 The goals 

of the challenges were also tracked in FY 2014 so the data can begin to be compared across 

fiscal years (

 

35 A total of 85 prize competitions were newly announced in FY 2015 of the 116 prize competitions. The agencies 

self-reported the primary goals and types of solutions for each prize competition included in these data.

36 The other primary goals ranged from 10-33 percent of the total prizes.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

25

Figure 3). From FY 2014 to FY 2015, the biggest changes in occurrence of specific goals is an 

increase in the ratio of challenges that sought to develop technology (23 percent increase), and 

although still common among challenges, a decrease in the ratio of challenges that engage new 

people and communities (16 percent decrease). Agencies continue to recognize that prizes are a 

powerful tool to tap into expertise in new communities and disciplines, and several challenge 

operators described connections with new academic and technical communities to be among the 

greatest positive impacts of running the challenge.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

26

Figure 3. Percentage of challenges with each primary goal, FY 2014–FY 2015

Note: Each challenge may have multiple goals.

The most common type of solutions sought by FY 2015 challenges was Ideas, which was sought 

by 41 percent of the challenges (Error! Reference source not found.). While Ideas was also a 

popular type of solution in FY 2014 and FY 2013, Software and Apps decreased from about third

of the challenges in FY 2014 to a fifth of the challenges in FY 2015. Also notable is the two-year 

increase in the proportion of challenges seeking Technology or Scientific solutions, from 7 

percent in FY 2013 to 24 percent in FY 2014 and to 31 percent in FY 2015.

37 These data suggest 

that agencies are using a larger fraction of prize competitions for hardware and scientific 

solutions and for a smaller fraction of software solutions.

Figure 4. Percentage of challenges with each type of solutions, FY 2014–FY 2015

Note: Each challenge may have multiple types of solutions.

 

37 Challenges that sought both Technology and Scientific solutions are only counted once in these ratios.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Stimulate a market

Solve a specific problem

Other (please specify)

Inform and educate the public

Improve government service delivery

Find and highlight innovative ideas

Engage new people and communities

Develop technology

Build capacity

Advance scientific research

FY 2015 FY 2014

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Technology demonstration and hardware

Software and apps

Scientific

Other (please specify)

Nominations

Ideas

Creative (design & multimedia)

Business plans

Analytics, visualizations, and algorithms

FY 2015 FY 2014
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

27

Increased ambition and sophistication of prize designs enabled by partnerships

In FY 2015, partnerships were utilized broadly. Partnerships with other Federal agencies, notfor-profit, and for-profit entities allow agencies to be more ambitious in designing and executing 

challenges because partners are able to provide additional resources and perspectives. In FY 

2014, 56 percent of all prizes and challenges leveraged partnerships to expand their reach, 

impact, and scope. In FY 2015, 68 percent of all prizes and challenges leveraged partnerships. 

This figure can be further divided by authority. Sixty-six percent of challenges that utilized the 

authority provided under COMPETES, which includes partnership flexibilities in its statute, 

leveraged partnerships, as compared to 58 percent of challenges conducted through authorities 

that do not include partnership flexibilities.38 This difference suggests that agencies are able to 

use the COMPETES authority to partner more frequently with external organizations.

Over the coming years, more agencies are likely to pursue progressively more sophisticated and 

ambitious prize designs that harness partnerships as Federal prize designers build off their early 

experience with more simplistic prize designs, such as app competitions. Despite this trend, it is 

important to note that the Federal Government could further expand the overall level of ambition 

present in the use of prize competitions. A 2014 Deloitte Report found that “while challenges are 

becoming more complex on the whole, the most ambitious outcomes on both spectra—market 

stimulation and inspire transformation—continue to make up a very small percentage of 

challenges on Challenge.gov, comprising less than two percent of outcomes sought [between 

2011 and 2014].” 39

The following prizes conducted in FY 2015, which are supported by strong partnerships,

demonstrate sophisticated challenge design with ambitious solution goals:

NIST’s Head Health Challenge III

Through a partnership between with the National Football League, Under Armour, GE, and 

NIST, the Head Health Challenge III is offering up to $2 million in prizes for the development of 

materials that provide excellent energy absorption and energy dissipation. The challenge 

evaluated initial abstracts by participants and invited authors of 55 top-rated abstracts to submit 

more detailed proposals with samples of the material. From these full proposals, 21 materials 

underwent mechanical testing at NIST, and based on the performance of the materials, the 

challenge judges selected five teams as First Round awardees.

These five teams will further develop their materials over the coming year in consultation with 

the challenge partners. In early 2017, the judges will again come together to select one Grand 

Prize winner. This was NIST’s first competition under COMPETES and is quite ambitious in 

that it relies on multiple partnerships, provides testing for a technology development challenge, 

and involves NIST in a complex judging process.

 

38 This percentage does not include 14 prizes conducted under other authorities like NASA’s space act authority that 

also provides the partnership flexibilities provided under COMPETES.

39 Deloitte University Press, “The Craft of Incentive Prize Design”; Lessons from the Public Sector, 2014. 

http://dupress.com/articles/the-craft-of-incentive-prize-design/
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

28

NASA’s Cube Quest Challenge

CubeSats are a type of cubic miniaturized satellite used in space. CubeSats are small, light, 

inexpensive, and often utilize commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics 

and structure. Because of their versatility and ease of use, CubeSats have been used to 

demonstrate functionality in areas ranging from Earth observation to life sciences to space tether 

experiments. The farther these small spacecraft get from low-Earth orbit, however, the more 

difficult it is for them to survive and function. The Cube Quest Challenge seeks to develop and 

test subsystems necessary to perform deep-space exploration using small spacecraft. NASA's 

Cube Quest Challenge offers a total of $5.5 million in prize money and is divided into three 

areas: (1) Five Ground Tournaments (GT-1, GT-2, GT-3, GT-4, GT-5) ($500,000) to determine 

who will have the ability to fly on the first integrated flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft and 

Space Launch System (SLS) rocket; (2) Deep Space Derby ($1.5 million) for demonstrating 

communication and CubeSat durability at a distance greater than 2.5 million miles (10 times the 

distance from the Earth to the moon); and (3) Lunar Derby ($3 million) for demonstrating the 

ability to place a CubeSat in a stable lunar orbit and demonstrate communication and durability 

near the moon.

NASA Ames Research Center, the NASA center that is executing the challenge, formed a 

partnership with San Jose State University. San Jose State University (SJSU) supports Cube 

Quest by setting up a virtual meeting place and conducting a series of technical workshops 

relevant to Cube Quest for the teams to attend. The virtual meeting space facilitates selforganization of challenge teams, offers challenge-related services, organizes bulk purchases of 

CubeSat components to amortize costs across teams, and fosters general dialogue in the CubeSat 

communities relevant to Cube Quest. The workshops are a series of at least six technical topics 

proposed and selected by NASA. Topics may include radiation tolerance, navigation at the 

moon, and other topics relevant to Cube Quest. A SJSU student leads the workshops.

A launch as a secondary payload on the SLS rocket for selected teams is also an important part 

of the structure of the prize. This incentive is the first time NASA has offered a ride on a rocket 

through a prize, which shows a more serious use of prizes for in-space technology 

demonstration. Alternatively, teams could choose to use private companies to launch their 

CubeSats. The SLS launch could be considered a priceless incentive because there are few 

launch opportunities that could get those CubeSats into a good trajectory for the lunar elements 

of the challenge.

The Cube Quest Challenge began registration in November 2014, and the challenge will run for 

an estimated 4 years. Thirteen teams competed in GT-1. Five were awarded prize money of 

$20,000 each for their design and presentations. All 13 teams are eligible to compete in GT-2; 

additional teams can also participate in GT-2 without the requisite of GT-1 participation.

New models for engaging the public during competitions

In FY 2015, challenge managers continued to experiment with new ways to engage the public 

and develop new communities focused on challenge topics during prize competitions. The

approaches for engagement included: soliciting public comment on draft rules; operating a pilot 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

29

challenge to determine interest and gather feedback from in the target participant population; 

inviting winners to present webinars on their solutions to the target participation population; 

using “co-design” platforms to integrate user needs and opinions into the design of solutions; 

announcing challenges at events where target participants already were in attendance; publishing 

winning solutions as open-source resources; using crowdfunding to support entrants; hosting 

physical and virtual forums that allowed entrants and stakeholders to discuss, develop, and 

improve solutions both during and after the challenge; broadcasting video to document and 

communicate challenges; conducting public votes on solutions; and developing dedicated 

websites. 

Examples of prizes that included interesting approaches to engaging the public and building a 

community include:

NSA’s Codebreaker Challenge

This challenge was designed as an educational opportunity that provides students with an avenue 

for learning software reverse engineering (SRE) and a realistic, National Security Agency 

(NSA)-mission-centric scenario through which to hone their SRE abilities. The challenge was 

divided into 4 tasks, which needed to be completed in order (e.g., successful completion of the 

first task enabled students to proceed to the second task). After successful completion of the 

fourth task, the student completed the entire challenge.

The challenge was hosted on its own website and included an institutional leaderboard which 

showed in near real-time the progress of each university with at least one student registered on 

the site. Of the 2,217 students signed up from 329 educational institutions, 71 students submitted 

a correct Task 3 solution, and 54 students submitted a correct Task 4 solution. Those who 

completed Task 3 (including those who also completed Task 4) were contacted by NSA, which 

resulted in 7 conditional internship job offers and 2 full-time job offers, with several more job 

offers anticipated. Making it all the way through the challenge was a significant accomplishment, 

requiring a mix of reverse engineering, problem solving, programming, and vulnerability 

analysis. Many students indicated that the challenge helped them develop reverse engineering 

skills, and in at least a couple instances, students had no previous experience prior to attempting 

the tasks. Additionally, at least one professor is developing a reverse engineering course based 

on the formalized process presented in the challenge. 

DOI Crushed Ivory

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums

(AZA), launched the Crushed Ivory Design Challenge Prize to solicit creative ideas on how to 

use seized crushed ivory in informative and compelling displays around the country. The goals 

of the winning submissions are to use the crushed ivory to raise public awareness of wildlife 

trafficking and help reduce the demand for illegal wildlife products through feasible designs and 

without adding value to the crushed ivory. The competition’s solutions are aimed at engaging the 

public in new ways in order to end illegal wildlife trade.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

30

The competition received 44 submissions from students, aspiring artists, conservationists, and 

design professionals. Participants had to balance creating exhibits that would increase public 

awareness while also presenting the crushed ivory in an interesting way. The competition 

organizers are currently finalizing implementation of the final two designs, which will be 

distributed to zoos, aquariums, airports, schools, and other public facilities.

Applying prizes as one tool in a broader portfolio of actions within a program

Grand Challenges are ambitious but achievable goals that harness science, technology, and 

innovation to solve important national or global problems and that have the potential to capture 

the public’s imagination. Grand Challenges are large initiatives to increase support and 

innovation for complex and tough issues. While Grand Challenges have been used as approaches

to help catalyze breakthroughs that advance national priorities for several years, FY15 saw an 

increase in the number of prize competitions applied within these broader Grand Challenge 

programs in order to stimulate innovation and engage new communities.40

USAID’s All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD)

ACR GCD is sourcing technology-based solutions to improve the literacy outcomes for children 

in developing countries. For ACR GCD, prizes solicit the development of a specific product, 

approach, or application that complement innovations produced from grants and fill gaps in 

addressing child literacy. For USAID, prizes are one tool to apply to the Grand Challenge 

activities, which also include grant making and other partnership activities. In FY 2015, USAID 

helped implement five prize competitions in support of this grand challenge: (1) Big 

Ideas@Berkeley – Mobiles for Reading Prize Competition 2014 – 2015; (2) Big Ideas@Berkeley

– Mobiles for Reading Prize Competition 2015 – 2016; (3) Enabling Writers Prize Competition; 

(4) Technology to Support Basis Education in Crisis and Conflict Settings Ideation Challenge; 

and (5) Tracking and Tracing Books Prize Competition. 

Each of these five competitions has leveraged international partnerships in order to further 

technologies for international literacy. The technologies developed have already achieved some 

of their desired success. For example, the Tracking and Tracing Books Prize Competition, which 

sought technologies to track books destined for early-grade classrooms around the world, was 

able to select two viable software solutions to move onto the second phase of creating 

development plans, prototyping their solutions, and field testing. The creation of two, 

independent systems allows for the desired end goal to be realized in more locations, since one 

solution might fare better than another in a particular country. In addition, competition between 

two solutions is expected produce better and more cost effective products in the future.

 

40 https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/grand-challenges
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

31

DOE’s SunShot Catalyst Program and the SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar

The SunShot Grand Challenge (now called the SunShot Initiative) out of the DOE Solar Energy 

Technologies Office “seeks to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of 

electricity” by 2020.41 The Initiative has provided a variety of financial opportunities to 

jumpstart this research, and separates these opportunities by program area: systems integration, 

technology to market, photovoltaics, soft costs, and concentrating solar power. Two of these 

prize initiatives have been the SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar, which offers a $10 million 

prize purse for solutions to reduce the time from “permit-to-plugin” of solar cells in small 

systems and large systems, and the SunShot Catalyst Program, which seeks to aid the launch of 

solar companies. The whole initiative seeks to further solar energy use and these two prize 

competitions solicit innovation at distinct points in the solar energy ecosystem – an indication 

how incentive prizes can be one innovation mechanism in an agency’s Grand Challenge plan.

Conducting series of challenges to build momentum for a specific issue

Agencies have utilized the series format for challenges for many years. In 2008, NASA paved 

the way in conducting series around a specific topic and has continued to use the series structure. 

As one example, the continuation of the Disruption Tolerant Networking Challenge Series in 

2015 has led to specific challenge solutions across multiple years that all work toward the broad 

series goal of extending the internet into the Solar System. Drawing from these years of 

experience, NASA, especially through CoECI, has helped other agencies launch their own 

challenges and series.

As prizes are utilized over several years, now multiple agencies are utilizing the series format 

and finding success. For example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has completed 4

challenges in its Robocall series. The first Robocall Challenge launched in October 2012, and led 

to the development of Nomorobo, a free product for consumers to block unwanted calls. This 

product has blocked over 83 million robocalls since launching in 2013.42 FTC held a second 

contest in the series, Zapping Rachel, in 2014 and promoted the development of robocall 

honeypots, an instrument that enhances law-enforcement efforts, advances technological 

solutions that combat robocalls, and furthers the general understanding of robocaller tactics. This 

year, the FTC launched two new robocall challenges: (1) DetectaRobo and (2) Robocalls: 

Humanity Strikes Back (Strike Back).

The collective media attention on the four challenges has continued to promote public awareness 

of the FTC's technical initiatives, specifically about illegal telemarketing calls. Through 

conducting a series of challenges, an agency is able to develop a following and increase public 

awareness more broadly than through one challenge. Building off previous challenges with 

similar branding can create sustained attention on an issue and create a campaign.

 

41 http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/about-sunshot-initiative

42 https://www.nomorobo.com/
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

32

Other series of challenges that continued or started in FY 2015 include:

HHS’s Startup Series

HHS recognized in its 2015 report on challenges that “serial challenges are gaining prestige and 

demonstrating impact [of prize competitions].” Specifically, the 2015 Neuro Startup Challenge 

was built on the foundations of the 2014 Breast Cancer Startup Challenge and has built a robust 

community of students, investors, mentors, and inventors. These challenges asked solvers to take 

early-stage technologies to full commercialization. For the Neuro Startup Challenge, university 

teams created startups and business plans to develop and commercialize 16 early-stage neurorelated technologies invented by NIH intramural researchers. The agency was able to recycle 

many of the operational aspects of the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge to run the Neuro Startup 

Challenge more effectively. These challenges were conducted through a partnership between 

NIH and the Center for Advancing Innovation.

These challenges have led to the creation of 27 new startups, trained over 1000 students in 

entrepreneurial skills, and increased the likelihood of taking NIH inventions to market. Based on 

the success of these two startup challenges, NIH has launched a third startup challenge in 

October 2015, the Nanotechnology Startup Challenge (NSC2), for commercially viable, 

nanotechnology cancer-related inventions.

VA’s Innovation Series

The VA Innovation Creation Series was a set of three challenges that aimed to facilitate the 

development of personalized technologies to improve care and quality of life for veterans. Each 

challenge sought to bring together designers, engineers, and other solvers for specific 

technologies for veterans’ needs. The VA Innovation Creation Series culminated in a 2-day 

“make-a-thon” event at the Richmond VA Medical Center where veterans, makers, and 

clinicians co-created, built, and tested the designs to showcase how they meet the needs of 

veterans. At least 305 makers were reached through the challenges and 3 designs are being 

further implemented and co-designed with veterans.

Partnerships through America Makes and The Girls Lounge allowed VA to collaborate with 

Google, GE, Toyota, Stratasys, and 3D Systems to triple the amount of investment and capital 

involved with the Innovation Creation Series. 

DOE’s JUMP Series

In FY 2015, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in partnership with private sector 

organizations and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 

Energy Buildings Technology Office, launched the new prize program, JUMP, to crowdsource 

different buildings technologies. The three challenges for this year were conducted in partnership 

with General Electric, AO Smith, and United Technologies Research Center, and included: (1) 

Improve Water Heater Performance with Phase Change Materials; (2) Low-Cost BTU Sensor for 

Use in Building HVAC Control System; and (3) Low-Temperature Intrinsically Safe Defrost 

System. More than 400 participants have registered for the JUMP program, and building upon 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

33

the success of these three challenges, JUMP is conducting more prizes for more technologies in 

FY 2016.

Commercialization of solutions found through prizes to address market failures

In FY 2014, there was an increase in incentive prizes that focused on supporting 

entrepreneurship and commercialization. In FY 2015, that trend continued with half of the total 

challenges seeking to develop technology. This year, challenges sought to address gaps in the 

market by supporting technology development challenges that considered commercialization in 

the prize design.

EPA’s Nutrient Sensor Challenge

Currently, the price of nitrate and orthophosphate sensors ranges between $20,000 and $30,000. 

A report by the Alliance for Coastal Technology estimated a need for 20,000 to 50,000 sensors in 

the next 5 years. The price point of existing sensor technologies, however, is unaffordable for 

most potential purchasers seeking to monitor nutrients. The Nutrient Sensor Challenge sought to 

accelerate the development, adoption, and use of affordable, reliable, and accurate nitrate and 

orthophosphate sensors, specifically to reduce the cost of each sensor to under $5,000 and to 

stimulate this potential market. The EPA hosted 29 participants at a Challenge Summit in 

Washington, D.C. in August 2015 where they gathered to learn, network, and demonstrate their 

technologies. After the summit, all 29 submissions were beta-tested, enhancing the preparation 

of all registered participants for the final challenge verification testing in 2016. According to 

organizers of the challenge, “the true incentive [of the challenge was] a chance at a piece of the 

untapped market. Challenge administrators have heard from teams who [were not] selected as 

finalists that still plan to continue developing their sensors.”43

 

43 http://www.fondriest.com/news/paving-way-nutrient-sensor-boom.htm
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

34

SECTION 4. HIGHLIGHTS FROM PRIZES CONDUCTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY

PROVIDED BY COMPETES IN FY 2015

In FY 2015, the number of competitions conducted through all authorities increased over prior 

years and is 140 percent more than the number conducted in FY 2012 (Table 2). Forty-one 

agencies self-reported a total of 116 prizes conducted under all authorities in FY 2015, compared

to 30 agencies in FY 2014 and 23 agencies in FY 2013—a 37 percent and 78 percent overall 

increase, respectively, over the prior 2 years. Of these 116 challenges, 47 were conducted under 

the authority provided by COMPETES by 23 agencies. Since COMPETES was signed into law 

during FY 2011, 135 prizes from 35 agencies have been offered under the COMPETES prize 

authority, and 51 agencies have reported on 312 prizes under all authorities.44 The data analysis 

in this section focuses on the 47 challenges in FY 2015 that were conducted under the

COMPETES authority. 

Table 2. Number of prize competitions and agencies by authority, FY 2011–FY 201545

Number of 

prizes under 

COMPETES 

authority

Number of Agencies 

offering prizes under 

COMPETES 

authority

Number of prizes 

under all prize 

authorities 

Number of 

agencies offering 

prizes under all 

authorities

FY 2011 7 7 Not reported Not reported

FY 2012 27 12 49 16

FY 2013 41 15 90 23

FY 2014 34 17 97 30

FY 2015 47 23 11646 41

In FY 2015, more money was made available through this vehicle to engage innovators and 

entrepreneurs across the country. The total amount of prize money available in FY 2015 

COMPETES challenges is 20 percent greater than the amount offered in FY 2014 COMPETES 

challenges. Also in FY 2015, six agencies offered prizes for the first time using COMPETES. 

These agencies include CNCS, NOAA, DHS, USBR, FMC, and OMB. Many of these agencies 

are having promising results with their first prizes conducted under the COMPETES authority, 

including:

 

44 This number includes all instances of annual competitions, but does not count competitions multiple times if they 

were reported more than once; it is therefore different from the sum of challenges reported each year.

45 The method for calculating these numbers was updated in the FY 2014 report from the method used in previous 

reports. Component agencies are counted separately if they use distinct infrastructure to operate challenges.

46 110 prize competitions reports are included in the appendices of this report. An additional 6 prize competitions (1 

from HHS, 2 from the Department of Education, and 3 from CTTSO in the Department of Defense) were reported 

within the context of the entire agency’s activities and did not have individual reports. These 6 competitions were 

conducted under agency prize authorities other than COMPETES. Annual reports are not required for these 

competitions. Additionally, DOD changed its agency-wide prize reporting requirements to occur biennially rather 

than annually, and in line with this reporting structure, the agency plans to submit individual reports for nonCOMPETES prizes in the FY 2016 report.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

35

USBR New Concepts for Remote Fish Detection47

This prize competition sought ideas for new or better ways to reliably track fish throughout their 

life-cycle. The ability to track fish is central to efforts to recover threatened and endangered fish 

species and reduce impacts to at-risk species. Reliable, affordable detection and tracking enables 

fish-recovery program managers to pursue targeted and more effective actions that can reduce 

mortality rates, improve habitat, and increase survival rates while continuing to meet the Bureau 

of Reclamation's (USBR) mission of delivering water and power to customers and stakeholders. 

Current methods to track fish rely on the capture and handling of fish to implant or attach tags 

that can be complex, costly, and stressful to the fish. Current tagging technologies also have 

longevity and detection capability shortcomings, which limit data interpretations to inform fishrecovery actions.

Five of the six top ranked submissions included the use of piezoelectric energy harvesting to 

power tracking tags attached to individual fish. Piezoelectric energy harvesting uses the 

swimming movement of the fish to self-power the energy needed by the tracking tag.

Winning participants were highly educated experts from technical domains other than fish 

tracking. Technical domains included electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, physics, 

geophysics, and telecommunications. One participant said: “I have to tell you that before the 

challenge I didn’t know that much about the current state of fish tagging – it turned out to be a 

fascinating topic, with some surprising parallels to the technology of mobile phones. It also gave 

me an excuse to spend a day at the New England Aquarium, watching fish swim.” The 

competition organizers believe that they “would not have been able to reach [these participants 

and their submissions] without using the prize competition business model.”48 USBR’s next step 

is to develop a plan to further test, develop, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the best ideas 

received.

DHS’s “Where Am I and Where Is My Team?” Indoor Tracking of the Next Generation First 

Responder49

DHS sought innovative solutions to help track first responders while they are inside a structure 

without having to set up prepositioned towers or other devices. With the advances in electronics, 

computers, and nano-manufacturing, DHS S&T sought the perspective of both traditional and 

non-traditional innovators.

The prize competition advanced the DHS S&T mission by gaining fresh and unique ideas on 

how to solve a problem that DHS S&T had spent several years and millions of dollars in research 

and development. The previous investment had been narrowly focused on one technological 

solution that appeared appropriate years ago. The DHS Science & Technology (S&T) First 

 

47 https://www.challenge.gov/challenge/new-concepts-for-remote-fish-detection/

48 Fiscal Year 2015 Report: Use of Prize Authority in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act (15 USC 

3719), submitted by Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior to the Office of Science and 

Technology Policy, March 7, 2016.

49 https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933726
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

36

Responders Group is currently pursuing a program to assess the winning and non-winning 

solutions for further research and development.

In addition to these agencies demonstrating early results with COMPETES authority, many 

agencies continue to rely on the authority provided by COMPETES to conduct progressively 

more ambitious prize competitions. Six agencies have reported on COMPETES challenges for at 

least three of the five years the authority has been available, and a further eight have reported on 

challenges under COMPETES or other authorities for at least 3 years, illustrating that there is 

healthy, continuous use of prizes and challenges by many agencies. 

Agencies have experienced the many benefits described in Section 1 through interesting 

approaches described in Section 3. Agencies have specifically utilized the authority provided by 

COMPETES to conduct many of its first prize competitions, design sophisticated prize 

structures, develop partnerships, and address a wide-variety of agency mission areas. Some of 

the ways COMPETES authority was used in FY15 include:

Putting novel solutions on a path to implementation through phased challenges

The authority provided through COMPETES has offered many benefits to agencies seeking to 

stimulate innovation through prizes and challenges. For example, in FY 2014, HUD’s Rebuild by 

Design Challenge was structured in multiple stages and relied heavily on the support of partners, 

to infuse innovation and promote resilience in new designs for public spaces in the region 

affected by Hurricane Sandy. As HHS reports in FY 2015, “as the ambition and scale of 

problems addressed through prizes and challenges has increased, so too has the need to equip 

participants with the momentum to continue work beyond the competition. In response, several 

HHS challenges include pilot phases, providing an opportunity for prototypes to be tested and 

therefore supported after the competition. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health 

Information Technology’s (ONC) Market R&D Pilot Challenge was specifically designed for 

this purpose, asking health IT companies to partner with clinics to perform small-scale testing 

and validation of products in real patient environments. The Health Research and Services 

Administration’s (HRSA) Bridging the Word Gap Challenge, launched in late FY15, also builds 

in a third pilot phase to test technological interventions solicited in the first two phases.”

Infusing fresh thinking in traditionally industry-dominated problem areas

It is notable that in FY15, two agencies, OMB and USDA50, which were new to incentive 

challenges, designed prize competitions in two new domains. These agencies both created their 

competitions by soliciting input from experts during the competition’s design phase. Both

challenges reached beyond the usual suspects to find innovative solutions, utilized milestonebased prizes to pay only for success, and leveraged the knowledge of the practitioner 

communities prior to the challenge to refine the criteria for selection, ensuring that the solutions 

could be implemented immediately. These two agencies also sought solutions in areas that are 

not as easily implemented: Federal workforce training, and building construction and regulation.

 

50 OMB was a first-time implementer of the authority provided by COMPETES in FY15. USDA conducted a small 

scale prize in FY 2012, and their second challenge was conducted in FY15.
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

37

OMB and USDA both sought to utilize the COMPETES authority in ambitious, mission-critical 

ways.

OMB’s Digital Service Contracting Professional Training and Development Program Challenge

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the U.S. Digital Service—both within 

OMB—worked together to solicit ideas to design a training program that will develop and 

produce contracting professionals who can be more successful in the era of digital government. 

Prior to finalizing the concept of the challenge and how it would be run, the organizers needed 

more information about the existing market in order to understand whether the challenge would 

be effective, how best to release the challenge and who the target audience should be. Holding a 

Reverse Industry Day, the government organizers presented the problem to industry experts and 

had representatives from nine organizations present current solutions to contract professional 

training. This approach allowed organizers to start outreach efforts prior to the challenge and 

solicit input from attendees on a draft version of the challenge. The organizers received a 

significant response to editing the draft challenge, and were able to tweak and modify some 

minor points before sending out the final challenge.

The challenge was multi-phased. Participants were asked to first develop concept white papers, 

from which three finalists were chosen (Phase I). Of 23 submissions, five were from private 

citizens; 12 were from companies with expertise in agile development; four were from 

companies with expertise in training; and two were from companies with expertise in training 

and agile development (one of which was a partnership between a company with agile

development expertise and a company with training expertise). Three finalists were chosen to 

further develop their designs and then presented them at an oral presentation along with a 1-hour 

mock classroom training (Phase II). From the project design, one winner was selected to develop 

and present the 5-month pilot training program to 30 Federal contracting professionals (Phase 

III). The winner was selected based upon the overall effectiveness of the proposed program 

design, the overall capability to assess the effectiveness of the program, and the feasibility of 

implementation. The winning program will be designed and assessed in FY 2016.

USDA’s Tall Wood Building Competition

USDA, in a partnership with the Softwood Lumber Board and the Binational Softwood Lumber 

Council, launched this prize competition to support the demonstration of tall wood buildings in 

the United States. The prize competition was conducted to showcase the architectural and 

commercial viability of advanced wood products in tall building construction to support 

employment opportunities in rural communities, maintain the health and resiliency of U.S. 

forests, and advance sustainability in the built environment. There are barriers to being the first 

to adopt new building materials and systems, including the cost of analyzing novel alternatives 

and verifying that these solutions comply with applicable code(s). The objective of the 

competition was to identify one or more existing viable projects with capable design and 

construction teams willing to convert their existing project from a traditionally constructed tall 

building to a design and construction approach using advanced wood building materials, new 

composite, or hybrid wood construction methods. The two winning design teams were granted a 
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

38

total of $3 million in funding to help support the development of projects in New York and 

Oregon, which are 12 and 10 stories tall, respectively.51

More competitions to advance scientific research

In addition to early technology-development prizes, challenges also have a long history in the 

scientific world. Scientific societies in 18th and 19th century Europe would regularly post lists of 

challenges; David Hilbert famously listed 23 math problems of the century to solve in 1900 

(some of which have not yet been solved).52 Scientific challenges seek to promote the 

understanding of a problem, solution, or outcome using evidence-based practices (empirical or 

measurable) as the basis of that understanding. Challenges that advance scientific research can 

include those aimed at soliciting hypotheses from the crowd, advancing scientific research 

through hypothesis testing, performing discovery-based research, advancing computational 

approaches, predictive modeling using huge datasets, and applying scientific discoveries and 

knowledge to other problem areas.

Eight prize competitions in FY 2015 sought to advance scientific research as a primary goal, 

which is 17 percent of the total COMPETES prize competitions for the year. In comparison, in 

FY 2014, only 6 percent of COMPETES prizes sought to advance scientific research as a 

primary goal. As highlighted in the following competitions, agencies are achieving this goal by 

soliciting input from scientists or soliciting out of discipline expertise to make scientists' jobs 

easier.

FDA’s Food Safety Challenge

This challenge was a call to scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and innovators from all 

disciplines to submit concepts applying novel or advanced methodologies to foster revolutionary 

improvements in foodborne pathogen detection. Specifically, FDA was most interested in 

concepts that applied cutting-edge techniques to achieve significant improvements in the speed 

of detection methods for Salmonella with identification to the subtype/serovar level in minimally 

processed fresh produce.

The challenge received 49 total entries, most of which were not yet commercialized. The 

submissions spanned over 25 novel technology areas, going far beyond the research areas 

identified in the call to action. The winning team devised a method for concentrating Salmonella 

in samples to detectable levels using microfiltration. The solution has the potential to greatly 

reduce the time needed to prepare samples from 1-2 days down to 2-3 hours. The runner-up entry 

featured a portable device for rapid screening using DNA aptamer-magnetic bead sandwich 

assays. The device promises a total process and analysis time of 30 minutes.

 

51 Further details on the winners can be found at https://tallwoodbuildingcompetition.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/US-Tall-Wood-Building-Competition-Backgrounder.pdf 52 http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2000-37-04/S0273-0979-00-00881-8/S0273-0979-00-00881-8.pdf, 

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

39

NOAA’s Right Whale Recognition Challenge

Only around 500 North Atlantic right whales exist today making them one of the most 

endangered animals on the planet. Individuals can be identified by the pattern of callosities on 

the head along with scars and other markings. Researchers take photographs from vessels and 

airplanes, and then compare those photographs to the online North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog 

run by the New England Aquarium. Knowing the individual identity of a whale opens up many 

possible avenues of research and conservation management including demographics, social 

structure, reproductive biology, communication, and informed disentanglement operations. The 

process of matching a photograph to the catalog can be time-consuming, and marine biologists 

are often working under tight deadlines with limited funding. This competition asked solvers to 

find a way to automate this process to free up valuable time and resources so that scientists have 

more time and energy to devote towards the conservation of these endangered whales. 

In total, 364 teams comprising 470 players competed to come up with the best solution to 

classify the individual right whale correctly in the photographic dataset. The deepsense.io team 

won the competition. The organizers hope to use the winning algorithm to create software to 

automate the process of identifying whales, thereby freeing up valuable time and resources.

NOAA partnered with Kaggle and MathWorks to conduct the competition. Kaggle supplied a 

large community of data scientists motivated to tackle the problem and hosted the competition. 

MathWorks provided the prize money and hired a public relations firm to provide outreach for 

the competition.

The diversity of these highlighted challenges and the full collection of COMPETES challenges 

for this year reflect the diverse missions of the 23 agencies that conducted them. From 

identifying whales to building wood structures, the COMPETES authority allowed for 

innovation across varied fields in FY 2015. 

Section 5 presents all 47 COMPETES prizes for FY 2015. Collectively, the competitions offered 

over $35 million in prizes with an average award of $760,000 per competition. This is the 

highest average prize purse of any year reported.

53

 

53 FY 2014 had a total prize purse of $25 million for COMPETES prizes, with an average of $790,000 per 

competition.
40

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

SECTION 5. SUMMARY OF PRIZES CONDUCTED UNDER COMPETES IN FY 2015

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

CNCS Excellence in 

AmeriCorps 

Programming and 

Service Awards

Nominations Highlight Ideas; 

Educate public; 

Build capacity

5/28/2015 9/15/2015 113 5 $0 Recognition

CPSC Carbon Monoxide 

Poster Contest

Creative Engagement 7/14/2014 5/13/2015 700 10 $6,000 None

USDA Tall Wood 

Building 

Competition

Tech/hardware Highlight Ideas; 

Specific problem; 

Advance science; 

Educate public; 

Engagement; Build 

capacity; Stimulate 

market

10/9/2014 9/17/2015 8 2 $3,000,000 None

DOC NIST Head Health 

Challenge III

Ideas; 

Tech/hardware

Develop 

technology; 

advance science

2/2/2015 12/15/2015 125 5 $2,000,000 Opportunities to 

consult and work 

with NIST, Under 

Armour, and the 

other partners 

NIST Reference 

Data Challenge

Software Improve 

government service 

delivery; Specific 

problem; 

Engagement

7/27/2015 11/16/2015 25 3 $45,000 None

NOAA Right 

Whale Recognition 

Challenge

Software Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

8/27/2015 1/7/2016 2644 3 $10,000 Leaderboard on 

Kaggle site, and 

Matlab software

DOD DARPA Cyber 

Grand Challenge

Software Specific problem; 

Engagement; Build 

capacity

10/29/2013 TBD 104 0 $6,750,000 None
41

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

DOE EV Everywhere 

Logo Challenge

Creative (design 

& multimedia)

Highlight Ideas; 

Educate public; 

Engagement

8/13/2015 11/7/2015 89 1 $5,000 None

JUMP Prize: 

Improve Water 

Heater 

Performance with 

Phase Change 

Materials

Ideas Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

9/24/2015 3/1/2016 TBD TBD $5,000 Interactions with 

private partners 

and suggestions for 

other funding

JUMP Prize: LowCost BTU Sensor 

for Use in Building 

HVAC Control 

Systems

Ideas Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

9/24/2015 3/1/2016 TBD TBD $5,000 Interactions with 

private partners 

and suggestions for 

other funding

JUMP Prize: LowTemperature 

Intrinsically Safe 

Defrost System

Ideas Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

9/24/2015 3/1/2016 TBD TBD $3,000 Interactions with 

private partners 

and suggestions for 

other funding

National Clean 

Energy Business 

Plan Competition -

2015

Business plans Highlight Ideas; 

Develop 

technology; 

Engagement; Other

Fall 2013 6/24/2015 194 6 $300,000 Mentorship, virtual 

training, feedback 

from investors

SunShot Catalyst 

Program

Ideas; 

Tech/hardware; 

Business plans

Develop 

technology; 

Engagement; 

Stimulate market

Multiple 

dates

Multiple 

dates

360 60 $2,212,000 Letter of 

commendation

SunShot Prize: 

Race to 7-Day 

Solar

Ideas; 

Tech/hardware; 

Business plans

Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem; 

Stimulate market

3/4/2015 9/16/2015 5 5 $10,000,00

0

Recognition
42

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

DOE Wave Energy Prize Ideas; 

Tech/hardware

Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

4/27/2015 11/1/2016 92 TBD $2,250,000 Tank testing, 

MathWorks 

software, waterlubricated bearings, 

team building

HHS ASA VizRisk Software; 

Creative; 

Analytics; 

Scientific

Educate public; 

Stimulate market

7/26/2014 1/7/2015 11 3 $15,000 Recognition and 

visibility

CDC No Petri Dish 

Diagnostic Test 

Challenge

Software; 

Creative; Ideas; 

Tech/hardware; 

Scientific

Educate public; 

Engagement; 

Stimulate market

9/1/2014 1/26/2015 8 1 $200,000 None

CDC 2014 Million 

Hearts 

Hypertension 

Control Challenge

Nominations; 

Other

Improve 

government service 

delivery; Highlight 

Ideas; Educate 

public; 

Engagement; 

Stimulate market

8/20/2014 2/24/2015 42 30 $40,000 Recognition

CDC 2015 Million 

Hearts 

Hypertension 

Control Challenge

Nominations; 

Other

Improve 

government service 

delivery; Highlight 

Ideas; Educate 

public; 

Engagement; 

Stimulate market

8/1/2015 Spring 

2016

TBD TBD $40,000 None

CDC HA-VTE 

Prevention 

Challenge

Tech/hardware; 

Scientific

Highlight Ideas; 

Specific problem

11/2/2015 4/1/2016 TBD TBD $70,000 None
43

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

HHS FDA Food Safety 

Challenge

Tech/hardware; 

Scientific

Advance science; 

Educate public; 

Stimulate market

9/23/2014 7/22/2015 49 5 $500,000 Mentorship, 

visibility

HRSA Bridging 

the Word Gap 

Challenge

Ideas; 

Tech/hardware

Develop 

technology

11/8/2015 3/1/2017 TBD TBD $300,000 None

NIH/NIEHS 

Climate Change 

and Environment 

Exposures 

Challenge

Software; 

Analytics

Improve 

government service 

delivery; Specific 

problem; 

Engagement

10/1/2015 2/22/2016 TBD TBD $35,000 None

NIH DEBUT 

Challenge 2015

Ideas; 

Tech/hardware; 

Scientific

Highlight Ideas; 

Develop 

technology; 

Stimulate market; 

Other

3/16/2015 8/21/2015 59 3 $45,000 Visibility, 

mentorship

NIH Follow that 

Cell Challenge

Ideas; Scientific Specific problem; 

Advance science; 

Stimulate market

8/15/2014 3/16/2015 53 5 $500,000 Invitation to NIH 

meeting

NIH Harnessing 

Insights from Other 

Disciplines to 

Advance Drug 

Abuse and 

Addiction Research

Ideas Improve 

government service 

delivery; 

Engagement; Build 

capacity

5/26/2015 8/6/2015 19 0 $25,000 None

NIH Innovations in 

Measuring and 

Managing 

Addiction 

Treatment Quality

Ideas; Scientific Advance science; 

Build capacity

1/14/2015 9/30/2015 5 0 $100,000 None
44

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

HHS NIH U4C 

-

Stimulating 

Innovation in 

Breast Cancer

Ideas; Scientific Highlight Ideas; 

Specific problem; 

Advance science; 

Engagement

6/15/2015 4/16/2016 TBD TBD $50,000 None

NIH Wearable 

Alcohol Sensor 

Challenge

Tech/hardware Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

3/2/2015 2/16/2016 TBD TBD $300,000 None

ONC EHR 

Innovations for 

Improving 

Hypertension 

Challenge

Ideas Highlight Ideas; 

Specific problem; 

Advance science; 

Engagement

7/9/2014 11/7/201432 $50,000 None

ONC Market R&D 

Pilot Challenge

Tech/hardware; 

Business plans

Develop 

technology; 

Engagement; Other

10/21/2014 4/30/2015 826 $300,000 Pilot testing 

environment

SAMHSA 

Offender 

Reintegration 

Toolkit Challenge

Software Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

6/1/2015 9/9/201593 $22,500 None

SAMHSA Opioid 

Overdose 

Prevention 

Challenge

Software Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem

6/1/2015 9/4/2015 153 $22,500 None

DHS "Where Am I, 

Where Is My 

Team?" Indoor 

Tracking of the 

Next Generation 

First Responder

Ideas Highlight Ideas; 

Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem; 

Advance science; 

Educate public; 

Engagement

3/3/2015 5/20/2015 582 $25,000 Recognition
45

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

HUD Second Annual 

Innovation in 

Affordable 

Housing 

Competition

Creative; Ideas; 

Business plans

Highlight Ideas; 

Specific problem; 

Build capacity

10/17/2014 4/21/2015 352 $30,000 Trip to DC to 

present in front of 

experts, résumé 

experience 

DOI USBR New 

Concepts for 

Remote Fish 

Detection

Ideas Improve 

government service 

delivery; Highlight 

Ideas; Specific 

problem; 

Engagement

7/27/2015 11/9/2015 224 $20,000 None

DOJ NIC Green 

Corrections 

Challenge

Ideas Improve 

government service 

delivery; Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem; 

Advance science; 

Educate public; 

Engagement; Build 

capacity; Stimulate 

market

4/1/2014 11/21/2014 215 $0 Webinars, case 

studies

FMC FMC Chairman's 

Earth Day Award

Nominations Highlight Ideas 10/8/2014 3/30/201561 $0 Recognition and 

plaque

FTC DetectaRobo Analytics Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem; 

Educate public; 

Engagement

6/6/2015 8/17/201573 $0 Publicity
46

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

FTC Robocalls: 

Humanity Strikes 

Back

Analytics Develop 

technology; 

Specific problem; 

Educate public; 

Engagement

3/4/2015 8/17/2015 2 2 $35,500 Publicity

GSA Digital Innovation 

and Strategy Hacka-Thon

Software; 

Analytics

Specific problem; 

Highlight Ideas; 

Develop 

technology; 

Engagement; 

Improve service 

delivery

4/28/2015 5/8/2015 65 12 $12,000 None

OMB Digital Service 

Contracting 

Professional 

Training and 

Development 

Program Challenge

Ideas; Other Improve service 

delivery; Highlight 

Ideas; Stimulate 

market

5/20/2015 7/8/2015 23 1 $360,000 Recognition

SBA America's Seed 

Fund Logo Design 

Competition for the 

SBIR/STTR 

Programs

Creative Specific problem; 

Engagement

5/4/2015 6/15/2015 280 1 $2,500 Unveiling at the 

White House

Growth 

Accelerator Fund 

Competition - 2015

Creative; 

Business plans

Educate public; 

Stimulate market

4/1/2015 8/4/2015 417 88 $4,400,000 None

InnovateHER 

Competition

Ideas; Business 

plans

Develop 

technology; 

Educate public

3/1/2015 5/8/2015 74 3 $30,000 None
47

Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

Summary of COMPETES Prizes

Agency Prize Name Solution Type(s) Primary Goal(s) Date Open Date 

Complete

Entry 

#s

Winner 

#s

Total Prize 

Purse

Non-Monetary 

Incentives

SBA Startup in a Day 

Competition - Start 

Small Model

Software; Ideas Highlight ideas; 

Improve 

government service 

delivery

6/11/2015 8/4/2015 81 27 $1,350,000 Community of 

Practice

Startup in a Day 

Competition -

Dream Big Model

Software; Ideas Improve service 

delivery; Highlight 

Ideas

6/11/2015 8/4/2015 141 $250,000 Community of 

Practice
Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2015 Progress Report

46

APPENDICES

Appendix 1. AGENCY PRIZES & CHALLENGES CONDUCTED UNDER THE 

AMERICA COMPETES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2010

Appendix 2. A SELECTION OF AGENCY PRIZES AND CHALLENGES

CONDUCTED UNDER AUTHORITIES OTHER THAN THE AMERICA 

COMPETES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2010