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About Challenge.Gov

Welcome to Challenge.Gov - where competition delivers innovation for the public good!

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Our Mission

To empower the federal government and the public to participate together in equitable forms of innovation through prize competitions.

Our Values

Trusted Service

We believe that open innovation is an avenue to increase trust and transparency between the federal government and the public. Through our programming, customer support, resources, and content development, Challenge.Gov welcomes the federal community and public solvers to learn about and participate in open innovation.

Collaboration

We believe that collaboration across diverse perspectives leads to better results. Challenge.Gov provides a platform for the federal government and the public to join together to solve important problems. We strive to create a supportive community by providing opportunities for our federal community to meet, share, and learn from each other.

Inclusion

We promote inclusion by lowering barriers for the public and the federal community to participate in prize competitions and challenges. We make every effort to ensure our platform, events, and resources are open and accessible.

Innovation

Innovation is essential to solving problems and improving outcomes for the American people. We support an environment where innovation for the public good can thrive. We innovate in our programming and resources so we can best serve our federal community and the public.

Challenge.Gov, managed by the General Services Administration, is a leading program that supports federal agencies to mature and scale the use of prize competitions in order to advance their missions. The Challenge.Gov team delivers this support by offering advanced infrastructure, empowering members of the Challenge and Prize Community of Practice, hosting interactive learning experiences, and developing practical toolkits.

Through this Challenge.Gov website, federal agencies can engage public solvers in challenges and prize competitions (together referred to as “prize competitions”) to identify innovative solutions to critical issues.

This site also provides a comprehensive toolkit for federal employees interested in or currently running prize competitions. Developed with insights from experts across government, this toolkit contains a robust repository of resources, best practices, and case studies.

About Prize Competitions

U.S. government agencies constantly work to address issues that affect people, communities, and industries throughout the country and even the world. Sometimes, they need help.

Since 2010, the U.S. government has run over 2,000 prize competitions - engaging public solvers ranging from students and hobbyists to small business owners and academic researchers.

Longitude and ship navigation, Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, even initial designs for the U.S. Capitol and White House—all were the result of open prize competitions. More recently, challenges have produced concepts for the next “lunar loo” (space toilet), an improved digital wallet user interface, protecting fish from water infrastructure, opioid detection in international mail, and “getting out the count” for the census.

And yes, those self-driving vehicles got their start in federal prize competitions too!

Become a Public Solver

If you’re interested in being a public solver, start by browsing the archive of prize competitions on Challenge.Gov. If something catches your eye, dive in a little deeper to find out how to submit your ideas and concepts. Every prize competition is structured differently, and the details matter. Make sure to follow the detailed instructions to submit your entry correctly and before the posted deadline.

If you have a question about a specific challenge, reach out to the point of contact for that challenge.

If you have general questions regarding Challenge.Gov, contact us at team@challenge.gov.

Use Prize Competitions to Advance Your Agency Mission

If you’re a federal employee interested in prize competitions, visit the Challenge and Prize Toolkit for considerations and best practices in designing and executing a successful competition.

We also encourage you to join the Challenge & Prize Community of Practice (CoP). Joining the CoP will enable you to stay up-to-date on resources to help with your work, and make it easy for you to connect with other prize practitioners across the federal government.

Create an account on Challenge.Gov to access additional prize competition guidance documents and resources.

For additional support, drop us a line at team@challenge.gov to get started.