A joint report by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the General Services Administration shows that the number of federal agency-backed prize competitions listed on Challenge.gov has increased from 744 to 875 since the 2016 study, FCW reported Friday.Â
The challenges authorized under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 have led to the emergence of startups and offered agencies a mass of examples to launch their own initiatives, according to the report. OSTP Director Kelvin Droegemeier said Friday at GSA’s Open Innovation Summit freeing up data is “foundational†to federally sponsored competitions and data science that CitizenScience.gov and Challenge.gov present.
Jennifer Shieh, assistant director of entrepreneurship at OSTP, said the report marks the first time to assess crowdsourcing activities. The study includes data on 86 crowdsourcing and citizen science efforts reported by 14 federal agencies. Droegemeier said citizen science and crowdsourcing initiatives that leverage government data are instrumental in driving tech research and development.Â