Round 2 of presidential innovation fellows program opens
Applications are now being accepted for round two of the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. Launched last year, the program recruits top innovators and entrepreneurs from the private sector for 6-12 month “tours of duty” in government to help develop innovative solutions in areas of national significance.
According to a blog post written by Todd Park, U.S. chief technology officer, and Steven VanRoekel, U.S. chief information officer, 18 inaugural fellows began last August, teamed up with top government innovators, and worked on the following five projects:
- Open Data Initiatives have unleashed data from the vaults of the government as fuel for entrepreneurs and innovators to create new apps, products and services that benefit the American people in myriad ways and contribute to job growth.
- RFP-EZ has created a new online marketplace and built tools that make it easier for innovative small tech businesses to bid on government contracts, while also making it easier for government contracting officers to identify the bids that offer the best value for taxpayers.
- Blue Button for America has moved personal health records ahead significantly by giving millions of veterans and other Americans massively improved, secure access to their own health information.
- Better Than Cash is working with an array of foreign and non-governmental partners to transition “the last mile” of international development assistance payments from cash to electronic mobile money, resulting in increased funding transparency and more impact for American taxpayer dollars.
- MyUSA (formerly MyGov) has re-imagined how citizens can interact with government, developing a prototype of an online system that allows people to more easily find and access the information and services that are right for them from across government.
Based on the results of the first round, the program is extending and expanding and welcoming new applicants. In addition to seeking applicants to work on the next phases of the Open Data Initiatives, MyData Initiatives (including Blue Button for America), RFP-EZ and MyUSA projects, fellows also are saught for the following new projects:
- Disaster Response and Recovery will collaboratively build and “pre-position” critical tech tools ahead of future emergencies or natural disasters in order to mitigate economic damage and save lives.
- Cyber-Physical Systems will work with government and industry to create standards for a new generation of interoperable, dynamic and efficient “smart systems”—an “industrial Internet”—that combines distributed sensing, control and data analytics to help grow the economy and new high-value American jobs.
- 21st Century Financial Systems will work to move the financial accounting systems of federal agencies out of the era of large-scale, agency-specific implementations to one that favors more nimble, modular, scalable and cost-effective approaches.
- Innovation Toolkit will develop a suite of tools that empowers the federal workforce to respond to national priorities more quickly and efficiently.
- Development Innovation Ventures will help enable the U.S. government identify, test and scale breakthrough solutions to the world’s toughest problems.
"We are looking for incredibly talented, entrepreneurial people from a diverse array of backgrounds and with a wide range of experiences," according to the post. "We are also looking for gifted and accomplished change agents with skills in user experience design, product management, project management, business development, operations reengineering and more. In a nutshell, we are looking for people who can help make big things happen rapidly to advance the public good."
Apply here or learn more about the Presidential Innovation Fellows program.