Federal officials said the White House is likely to establish its proposed government modernization research center in 2019, with funding to be released in the current fiscal year to support the project, Nextgov reported Thursday.
The Trump administration aims for the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center to increase partnerships between the government, the industry and academia to accelerate deployment of new technologies and services. White House officials said they’re exploring ways to incentivize industry and academic experts to help establish the GEAR Center.Â
“We want to do this quickly. We want to seed a center and start work in 2019,†said Margaret Weichert, deputy director of Office of Management and Budget. “I believe we can actually stand something up and actually deliver benefits in 2019 to showcase that there’s a way forward, in part because there are things like this that already exist,†she added.Â
Weichert noted initial work at the center would focus on workforce reskilling, data management and information technology modernization within the government. However, the White House has yet to finalize the structure of the GEAR Center, whether it will run as a centralized, government-run enterprise or a dispersed collection of industry and academic experts with limited presence from federal leaders.