Promoting Innovation in Government -- Challenge.gov

In the spring of 2008, Michele Jolin wrote about the need for the White House to take a larger role in promoting innovation and social entrepreneurship[i]. By the next year, following a historic election in 2008, the Obama administration had begun to pursue growth in this area. In 2009, under Jolin’s leadership, the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation (SICP), was established by President Obama. Jolin later served as a Senior Advisor for Social Innovation at the White, where she designed and launched the first Social Innovation Fund[ii]. In April 2009, President Obama also created a new role of Chief Technology Officer, in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), who was tasked with “promote technological innovation to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland.[iii]” One way that SICP and OSTP have worked together in promoting the innovation in government is through the creation of challenge.gov, where government agencies can post challenges and prizes for to engage innovators, entrepreneurs and others who might have creative solutions to problems but might not every be reached. In her 2008 article, Jolin mentions using prizes to “encourage cross-sector partnerships and create enormous publicity and energy around solving a social problem” and challenge.gov is one way the government has been able to do that[iv].

Challenge.gov currently has 450 competitions listed with total prizes up to $20,000,000[v]. One current posting on challenge.gov is from the Small Business Administration -- “InnovateHER: SBA is searching for innovative products and services that help impact and empower the lives of women and families.[vi]” SBA is offering a $70,000 cash prize for winning ideas. To me this seems like a pretty broad challenge, and it’s for that reason that I really like it. This is inviting such a wide variety of people, who all come from different perspectives, to come up with solutions to a huge issue. By being so opened ended this challenge doesn’t limit or define just one way that we should be empowering women. It allows each contest participant to think as broadly or narrowly as they like and for ideas from all different backgrounds. By creating a broad question like this they’re positioning themselves to get as many ideas as they can.

It’s exciting to see how many of Jolin’s ideas have come to fruition in this administration. There is a role for innovation within the government and inviting civilians to participate can help broaden the issues we look at and promote thinking about issues in new ways.

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[i] Innovating the White House (Jolin, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring

2008, pgs. 23-24); www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/innovating_the_white_house

[ii] Meet the Results for America Team: Michele Jolin.” http://results4america.org/about/team-3/

[iii] “Weekly Address: President Obama Discusses Efforts to Reform Spending, Government Waste; Names Chief Performance Officer and Chief Technology Officer.” (2009 April 18). https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obama-discusses-efforts-reform-spending-government-waste-n

[iv] Innovating the White House (Jolin, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring

2008, pgs. 23-24); www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/innovating_the_white_house

[v] “Request for Comment for Antimicrobial Resistance Rapid Point of Care Diagnostic Test Challenge.” https://www.challenge.gov/challenge/request-for-comment-for-antimicrobial-resistance-rapid-point-of-care-diagnostic-test-challenge/

[vi] “2016 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge.” https://www.challenge.gov/challenge/2016-innovateher-innovating-for-women-business-challenge/