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Implementation of Federal Prize Authority: Fiscal Year 2014 Progress Report

“EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into the law the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES). Section 105 of COMPETES added Section 24 (Prize Competitions) to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (Stevenson-Wydler), granting all agencies broad authority to conduct prize competitions to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance their core missions. Prize competitions and challenges have an established record of spurring innovation in the private and philanthropic sectors. This report details examples of how well-designed prize competitions and challenges, integrated into a broader innovation strategy, haveenabled Federal agencies to:

•Pay only for success and establish an ambitious goal without having to predictwhich team or approach is most likely to succeed;
•Reach beyond the “usual suspects” to increase the number of solvers tackling aproblem and to identify novel approaches, without bearing high levels of risk;
•Bring out-of-discipline perspectives to bear; and
•Increase cost-effectiveness to maximize the return on taxpayer dollars…”

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