| Federal Challenge Monthly - November 2021 |
Prize Competitions Update
- Number of challenges: 18
- Number of Agencies: 16
- Prize Purse: $22,770,000.00
With the end of the fiscal year in September and the launch of a redesigned platform in October, the last two months at Challenge.Gov have been busy! Eighteen new challenges were listed from 16 federal agencies with prize awards totaling more than $22 million.
The most common type of challenges were those seeking analytics, visualizations, and algorithms. Here are a few examples:
- ED.gov National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Automated Scoring Challenge seeking submissions of automated scoring models to score constructed response items for the NAEP reading assessment.
- Data Privacy Certification – UI/UX Design Challenge seeks solutions to make it easier for organizations around the world to be recognized for complying with international data privacy standards.
- Machine Learning Prediction of Internal Building Structures Challenge seeks a solution to predict the internal configuration of buildings by only using external satellite photographs.
Public health solutions continue to be a popular theme addressed through prize competitions. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) launched two challenges focused on women’s health:
- HHS Postpartum Equity in Care Challenge seeks innovative methods to improve postpartum care for Black or African American and American Indian/Alaska Native Women.
- HHS Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDC) Innovator Award Competition seeks innovative methods to address the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on Black or African American Women.
Federal agencies are also using the platform to crowdsource innovative ideas from the public, including:
- The Time is Now: Advancing Equity in Science & Technology Challenge by Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is looking for answers to the question "How can we guarantee all Americans can fully participate in, and contribute to, science and technology?"
- The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Inclusive Innovation Prize will fund organizations for activities in climate and clean energy in disadvantaged communities.
See below for more information on prize challenges listed in September & October. Closing dates to respond to these competitions vary.
Data Privacy Certification – UI/UX Design ChallengeEmploy your UI and UX design skills to help make it easier for organizations around the world to be recognized for complying with international data privacy standards.
Total Prizes Offered: $60,000
Type Of Challenge: analytics, visualizations, algorithms
SUBMISSION END: 10/15/2021 12:59 PM ET
Machine Learning Prediction of Internal Building Structures
The goal of this challenge is to predict the internal configuration of structures such as buildings by only using external satellite photographs of the building taken from various angles.
Agency: Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)/National Security Innovation Network (NSIN)
Total Prizes Offered: $1,000,000
Type Of Challenge: ideas; technology demonstration and hardware; scientific
SUBMISSION END: 10/15/2021 11:59 PM ET
The Mobile Fingerprinting Innovation Technology (mFIT) Challenge
Advancing Mobile Fingerprint Capture Technology for Law Enforcement
Agency: National Institute of Science & Technology (NIST) - Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR)
Total Prizes Offered: $430,000
Type of Challenge: software and apps; technology demonstration and hardware
SUBMISSION END: 11/03/2021 08:00 PM ET
Power PlayDevelop concepts, technologies, or systems to efficiently provide, store, or consume energy in an expeditionary environment.
Agency: National Security Innovation Network (NSIN)
Total Prizes Offered: $45,000
Type of Challenge: software and apps; creative (multimedia & design); ideas; technology demonstration and hardware; business plans; analytics, visualizations, algorithms; scientific
SUBMISSION END: 11/03/2021 08:00 PM ET
HHS Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDC) Innovator Award Competition: Innovative Methods to Address the Impact of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals on Black or African American Women
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office on Women’s Health (OWH) is seeking innovative ways to combat the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on Black or African American women.
Agency: Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office on Women’s Health (OWH)
Total Prizes Offered: $1,355,000
Type of Challenge: software and apps; creative (multimedia & design); ideas; technology demonstration and hardware; analytics, visualizations, algorithms; scientific
SUBMISSION END: 11/15/2021 11:59 PM ET
The Time is Now: Advancing Equity in Science & Technology Ideation Challenge
Science and technology must include and benefit all of America. Help make that a reality!
Agency: Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
Total Prizes Offered: Non-monetary
Type of Challenge: ideas
SUBMISSION END: 11/19/21 11:59 PM EST
ED.gov National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Automated Scoring Challenge
Accurately & Transparently Predicting Scores of Test Items
Agency: Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
Total Prizes Offered: $30,000
Type Of Challenge: analytics, visualizations, algorithms
SUBMISSION END: 11/28/2021 05:00 PM ET
xView3 Challenge
A competition to detect dark vessels using computer vision and global SAR satellite imagery.
Agency: Department of Defense; Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)
Total Prizes Offered: $150,000
Type of Challenge: technology demonstration and hardware; analytics, visualizations, algorithms; scientific
SUBMISSION END: 11/30/2021 07:59 PM ET
Cooling Solutions Challenge
Countering extreme heat with cool technology.
Agency: Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Total Prizes Offered: $195,000
Type of Challenge: technology demonstration and hardware
SUBMISSION END: 12/07/2021 08:00 PM ET
HHS Postpartum Equity in Care Challenge: Innovative Methods to Improve Postpartum Care for Black or African American and American Indian/Alaska Native Women
Innovative methods to improve equity of postpartum care for Black or African American and American Indian/Alaska Native women enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), including follow-up care for diabetes, postpartum depression and/or postpartum anxiety, hypertension, and substance use disorders (SUD).
Agency: Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Office on Women’s Health (OWH)
Total Prizes Offered: $1,800,000
Type of Challenge: software and apps; creative (multimedia & design); ideas; technology demonstration and hardware; analytics, visualizations, algorithms; scientific
SUBMISSION END: 12/07/2021 05:00 PM ET
Taking Action: COVID-19 Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Challenge
Identifying systemic strategies to address long-term impacts of the pandemic on DEI in STEM education programs and careers.
Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Total Prizes Offered: $200,000
Type of Challenge: ideas
SUBMISSION END: 12/30/2021 11:59 PM ET
2022 FAA Challenge: Smart Connected Aviation Student Competition
This year’s FAA Challenge focuses on Smart Connected Aviation, providing undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to design, build, and test smart technology that has the ability to improve traveler’s transportation experiences and the efficiency of the national aviation ecosystem.
Agency: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Total Prizes Offered: $$55,000
Type of Challenge: software and apps; technology demonstration and hardware; business plans; analytics, visualizations, algorithms
SUBMISSION END: 01/20/2022 11:59 PM ET
Lunabotics Junior Contest
K-12 Students: Design a robot that can dig and move lunar soil (regolith) from one area of the lunar South Pole to a holding container near a future Artemis Moon base.
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Total Prizes Offered: Non-monetary
Type of Challenge: Creative (multimedia & design); Student
SUBMISSION END: 01/26/22 12:59 AM EST
LitCoin NLP Challenge
Designing an NLP system to create accessible knowledge from research.
Agency: National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
Total Prizes Offered: $100,000
Type of Challenge: Software and apps
SUBMISSION END: 01/31/2022 05:00 PM ET
Risky Space Business: NASA AI Risk Prediction Challenge
Predict project risks using NASA’s lessons from the past. Design a project management tool that extracts past project risk information and uses AI/ML to predict risks on future projects.
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Total Prizes Offered: 50,000
Type of Challenge: Software and apps
SUBMISSION END: 02/08/22 12:59 AM EST
Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize
The Inclusive Energy Innovation prize will fund organizations for activities in climate and clean energy in partnership disadvantaged communities, in line with the Government's Justice40 initiative. The prize will support business and technology incubation, acceleration, entrepreneurship, and innovation in climate and clean energy technologies.
Agency: Department of Energy (DOE)
Total Prizes Offered: $2,000,000
Type of Challenge: ideas
SUBMISSION END: 02/25/22 05:00 PM EST
Divide and Conquer: Modeling Large-Scale Hydraulics Faster Challenge
Improve the modeling of flow hydraulics and sediment transport by creating a fast, stable, parallel linear equation solver for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models.
Agency: Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Total Prizes Offered: $300,000
Type of Challenge: Analytics, visualizations, algorithms
SUBMISSION END: 03/27/2022 11:59 PM ET
VA Suicide Prevention Grand Challenge
To reduce Veteran suicide by 10%
Agency: Veterans Affairs (VA)
Total Prizes Offered: $15,000,000
Type of Challenge: Software and apps; creative (multimedia & design); ideas; technology demonstration and hardware; business plans; analytics, visualizations, algorithms; scientific
SUBMISSION END: 03/31/2022 05:00 PM ET
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