The United States is heading into a critical period of political transition. In a climate of uncertainty, it’s tempting to step back and wait to see how the presidential transition will unfold—but this is exactly when changemakers need to press forward. Policy entrepreneurs have a unique opportunity to shape the agenda for the next administration.  Knowing when and how to act is crucial to turning policy ideas into action.

Through the Day One 2025 initiative FAS has engaged with more than 100 policy entrepreneurs across the country to produce policy ideas for the next administration. In the coming weeks we will be rolling out policy memos that focus on five  core areas: energy and environment, government capacity, R&D, innovation and competitiveness, global security, and emerging technologies and artificial intelligence. The initial intellectual work has been developed between FAS and its network of experts, but the broader process of policy entrepreneurship has just begun. To seize this policy window, here are five  things policy entrepreneurs should consider as we enter the presidential transition:

1. Timing is everything: when a policy window opens, those who recognize the opening  will be the ones shaping the conversation 

Policy-making is often about timing. Success in advancing a novel idea or solution often depends on aligning policy proposals with favorable political, social, economic conditions, and taking advantage of the right policy window. These opportunities might come and go based on shifts in public opinion, crises, or leadership changes. Policy entrepreneurs who are ready to act when these windows present themselves are more likely to advance their policy ideas and shape the conversation. Historically, the first 100 days of a new presidency is going to be a crucial period for passing major legislation, as the new administration’s political capital is typically at its highest. For policy entrepreneurs, this means now is the time to position your ideas, build coalitions, and make your voice heard. Preparing early and being ready to seize this window can make the difference between a policy idea gaining traction or being left behind in the political shuffle.

2. Preparation is key: have your policy ideas ready to go

When an opportunity arises and transition teams invite your ideas, you won’t have the luxury of time to think up a brand new policy idea. For policy entrepreneurs to capitalize on the opportunity, it’s crucial to have a solid policy proposal on hand. Preparation involves more than just having a concept, it means supporting your policy idea with data, research, and a clear implementation strategy. Policymakers are looking for solutions that are both innovative and practical, so the more detail you can provide, the better positioned you’ll be to influence decision-making. Having a policy idea prepared in advance – perhaps with contingencies to reposition its appeal –   allows you to adapt quickly to changing circumstances or emerging priorities.

3. Be versatile: frame policy proposals in ways that resonate with a diverse audience regardless of political leaning

To effectively advocate for policy proposals, it’s essential to tailor your messaging to resonate with diverse political audiences. Whether it’s job growth, economic efficiency, or social equity—thinking about how your policy proposal appeals to different values, increases the chance of building broad support across the political spectrum. A great way to pressure test your framing is by engaging with stakeholders from various backgrounds who can provide valuable insights into how your policy might be perceived by different audiences. Similarly, be creative in identifying outlets that your idea could be folded into if pursuing it as a standalone policy isn’t feasible. There are opportunities for ‘quick wins’ if you can have your idea incorporated into a bill or report that is required to be produced annually, mold it into something that is relevant to anticipated geopolitical challenges, or apply it to issues where movement is certain in 2025, such as artificial intelligence. 

4. Understand the potential impact of your policy proposal: who will this impact?

As you develop your policy idea, think about who and what communities will be impacted and how. This means identifying the specific communities, industries, or demographic groups that will feel the immediate and long-term effects, both positively and negatively. Think about how the policy will address their needs or challenges, and whether any unintended consequences might arise. Will it benefit marginalized or underserved populations, or will it place unintended burdens on particular groups? Engaging with stakeholders throughout the policy development process is extremely crucial to understand the practical benefits and potential blindspots. 

5. Iterate, iterate, iterate: policy entrepreneurship is an ongoing process

The journey of shaping effective policies is not a linear path but rather an iterative process that requires ongoing refinement and adaptation. Being receptive to feedback and criticism strengthens your policy idea. Successful policy entrepreneurs proactively build relationships, and stay attuned to the shifting political climate. Ultimately, embracing the iterative nature of policy entrepreneurship not only strengthens your proposals but also builds your credibility and resilience as a changemaker. By committing to ongoing learning, relationship-building, and adaptive strategies, you can navigate the complexities of policymaking more effectively and increase your chances of making a lasting impact. 

There has never been a better time than now for people across demographics to engage in policy entrepreneurship. Make sure to keep an eye out on the policy memos that will be rolling out over the next several weeks and do not hesitate to submit your novel policy ideas through our Day One Project Open Call platform.

Policy entrepreneurs inside and outside of government, as well as other stakeholders and advocates, are often interested in expanding the use of effective methods across many or all federal agencies, because how the government accomplishes its mission is integral to what the government is able to produce in terms of outcomes for the public it serves. Adoption and use of promising new methods by federal agencies can be slowed by a number of factors that discourage risk-taking and experimentation, and instead encourage compliance and standardization, too often as a false proxy for accountability. As a result, many agency-specific and government-wide authorities for promising methods go under-considered and under-utilized. 

Policy entrepreneurs within center-of-government agencies (e.g., Executive Office of the President) are well-positioned to use a variety of policy levers and actions to encourage and accelerate federal agency adoption of promising and effective methods. Some interventions by center-of-government agencies are better suited to driving initial adoption, others to accelerating or maintaining momentum, and yet others to codifying and making adoption durable once widespread. Therefore, a policy entrepreneur interested in expanding adoption of a given method should first seek to understand the “adoption maturity” of that method and then undertake interventions appropriate for that stage of adoption. The arc of agency adoption of new methods can be long—measured in years and decades, not weeks and months. Policy entrepreneurs should be prepared to support adoption over similar timescales. In considering adoption maturity of a method of interest, policy entrepreneurs can also reference the ideas of Tom Kalil in a July 2024 Federation of American Scientists blog post on “Increasing the ‘Policy Readiness of Ideas,” which offers sample questions to ask about “the policy landscape surrounding a particular idea.”

As a case study for driving federal adoption of a new method, this paper looks back at actions that supported the widespread adoption of incentive prizes by most federal agencies over the course of fiscal years 2010 through 2020. Federal agency use of prizes increased from several incentive prize competitions being offered by a handful of agencies in the early 2000s to more than 2,000 prize competitions offered by over 100 federal agencies by the end of fiscal year 2022. These incentive prize competitions have helped federal agencies identify novel solutions and technologies, establish new industry benchmarks, pay only for results, and engage new talent and organizations. 

A summary framework below includes types of actions that can be taken by policy entrepreneurs within center-of-government agencies to support awareness, piloting, and ongoing use of new methods by federal agencies in the years ahead. (Federal agency program and project managers who seek to scale up innovative methods within their agencies are encouraged to reference related resources such as this article by Jenn Gustetic in the Winter 2018 Issues in Science and Technology: “Scaling Up Policy Innovations in the Federal Government: Lessons from the Trenches.”) 

Efforts to expand federal capacity through new and promising methods are worthwhile to ensure the federal government can use a full and robust toolbox of tactics to meet its varied goals and missions. 

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN FEDERAL ADOPTION OF NEW METHODS

Opportunities for federal adoption and use of promising and effective methods

To address national priorities, solve tough challenges, or better meet federal missions to serve the public, a policy entrepreneur may aim to pilot, scale, and make lasting federal use of a specific method. 

A policy entrepreneur’s goals might include new ways for federal agencies to, for example:

• Catalyze the development, demonstration, and deployment of technology and novel solutions; 
• Acquire or commercialize products and services that meet government or national needs; 
• Engage and seek input from communities and the public;
• Deliver more effective, efficient, and equitable services and benefits; 
• Provide technical assistance to state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments;
• Retain and recruit talent for mission critical occupations or to fill federal skills gaps; 
• Assess and evaluate organizational health and performance or program-level outcomes; or
• Translate evidence to practice.

To support these and other goals, an array of promising methods exist and have been demonstrated, such as in other sectors like philanthropy, industry, and civil society, in state, local, Tribal, or territorial governments and communities, or in one or several federal agencies—with promise for beneficial impact if more federal agencies adopted these practices. Many methods are either specifically supported or generally allowable under existing government-wide or agency-specific authorities. 

Center-of-government agencies include components of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) like the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), as well as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA). These agencies direct, guide, convene, support, and influence the implementation of law, regulation, and the President’s policies across all Federal agencies, especially the executive departments. An August 2016 report by the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for the Business of Government noted that, “The Office of Management and Budget and other “center of government” agencies are often viewed as adding processes that inhibit positive change—however, they can also drive innovation forward across the government.”

A policy entrepreneur interested in expanding adoption of a given method through actions driven or coordinated by one or more center-of-government agencies should first seek to understand the “adoption maturity” of a given method of interest by assessing: (1) the extent that adoption of the method has already occurred across the federal interagency; (2) any real or perceived barriers to adoption and use; and (3) the robustness of existing policy frameworks and agency-specific and government-wide infrastructure and resources that support agency use of the method.

Challenges in federal adoption and use of new methods

Policy entrepreneurs are usually interested in expanding federal adoption of new methods for good reason: a focus on supporting and expanding beneficial outcomes. Effective leaders and managers across sectors understand the importance of matching appropriate and creative tactics with well-defined problems and opportunities. Ideally, leaders are picking which tactic or tool to use based on their expert understanding of the target problem or opportunity, not using a method solely because it is novel or because it is the way work has always been done in the past. Design of effective program strategies is supported by access to a robust and well-stocked toolbox of tactics. 

However, many currently authorized and allowable methods for achieving federal goals are generally underutilized in the implementation strategies and day-to-day tactics of federal agencies. Looking at the wide variety of existing authorities in law and the various flexibilities allowed for in regulation and guidance, one might expect agency tactics for common activities like acquisition or public comment to be varied, diverse, iterative, and even experimental in nature, where appropriate. In practice, however, agency methods are often remarkably homogeneous, repeated, and standardized.   

This underutilization of existing authorities and allowable flexibilities is due to factors such as:

• Comfort with existing methods among program and legal staff (“but that’s how we have always done it!”); 
• In turn, limited internal expertise on how to deploy specific new methods (“who in our agency knows how to do this well?”);
• Unclear legal authorities or lack of established agency policies or processes (“are we allowed to do that and, if so, where is that authority written?”)
• Unclear permission authorities and approval roles (“whose review and sign-off do I need to do that?”);
• Difficulties clearly defining the opportunity or problem to be addressed at an actionable level of specificity (“what does success look like?”);
• Concerns about perceived risks, such as the risk of funds going unawarded or effective solutions not being identified (“what if no one/nothing meets our target?”); 
• Oversight processes that seek out failure, flaws, and non-compliance and overreliance on strict procedures to ensure accountability (“who is responsible for this failure?” instead of “what can we learn from this for the future?”, and “have all the boxes been checked?” instead of “where might we start and how will we learn along the way?”); and
• Reluctance to define and implement meaningful performance indicators and assessment methods at the start of program design (“how will we know if this new method improves our outcomes compared to the status quo?”). 

Strategies for addressing challenges in federal adoption and use of new methods

Attention and action by center-of-government agencies often is needed to address the factors cited above that slow the adoption and use of new methods across federal agencies and to build momentum. The following strategies are further explored in the case study on federal use of incentive prizes that follows: 

• clarifying government-wide and agency-specific policies and processes;
• building awareness and fostering leadership and staff buy-in; 
• offering case studies, examples, and “how-to” playbooks; 
• creating connections among a federal community of practice 
• engaging external experts and practitioners; 
• removing identified barriers;
• increasing ambition through iterative experimentation; and 
• fostering an enterprise-wide learning culture that encourages experimentation, invests in evaluation, and manages risk.

Additional strategies can be deployed within federal agencies to address agency-level barriers and scale promising methods—see, for example, this article by Jenn Gustetic in the Winter 2018 Issues in Science and Technology: “Scaling Up Policy Innovations in the Federal Government: Lessons from the Trenches.” 

LOOKING BACK: A DECADE OF POLICY ACTIONS SUPPORTING EXPANDED FEDERAL USE OF INCENTIVE PRIZES

The use of incentive prizes is one method for open innovation that has been adopted broadly by most federal agencies, with extensive bipartisan support in Congress and with White House engagement across multiple administrations. In contrast to recognition prizes, such as the Nobel Prize or various presidential medals, which reward past accomplishments, incentive prizes specify a target, establish a judging process (ideally as objective as possible), and use a monetary prize purse and/or non-monetary incentives (such as media and online recognition, access to development and commercialization facilities, resources, or experts, or even qualification for certain regulatory flexibility) to induce new efforts by solvers competing for the prize. 

The use of incentive prizes by governments (and by high net worth individuals) to catalyze novel solutions certainly is not new. In 1795, Napoleon offered 12,000 francs to improve upon the prevailing food preservation methods of the time, with a goal of better feeding his army. Fifteen years later, confectioner Nicolas François Appert claimed the prize for his method involving heating, boiling and sealing food in airtight glass jars — the same basic technology still used to can foods. Dava Sobel’s book Longitude details how the rulers of Spain, the Netherlands, and Britain all offered separate prizes, starting in 1567, for methods of figuring out longitude at sea, and finally John Harrison was awarded Britain’s top longitude prize in 1773. In 1919, Raymond Orteig, a French-American hotelier, aviation enthusiast, and philanthropist, offered a $25,000 prize for the first person who could perform a nonstop flight between New York and Paris. The prize offer initially expired by 1924 without anyone claiming it. Given technological advances and a number of engaged pilots involved in trying to win the prize, Orteig extended the deadline by 5 years. By 1926, nine teams had come forward to formally compete, and the prize went to a little-known aviator named Charles Lindbergh, who attempted the flight in a custom-built plane known as the “Spirit of St. Louis.”

The U.S. Government did not begin to adopt the use of incentive prizes until the early 21st century, following a 1999 National Academy of Engineering workshop about the use of prizes as an innovation tool. In the first decade of the 2000s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Energy conducted a small number of pilot prize competitions. These early agency-led prizes focused on autonomous vehicles, space exploration, and energy efficiency, demonstrating a range of benefits to federal agency missions. 

Federal use of incentive prizes did not accelerate until, in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, Congress granted all federal agencies the authority to conduct prize competitions (15 USC § 3719). With that new authority in place, and with the support of a variety of other policy actions, federal use of incentive prizes reached scale, with over 2,000 prize competitions offered on Challenge.gov by over 100 federal agencies between the fiscal years 2010 and 2022. 

There certainly remains extensive opportunity to improve the design, rigor, ambition, and effectiveness of federal prize competitions. That said, there are informative lessons to be drawn from how incentive prizes evolved in the United States from a method used primarily outside of government, with limited pilots among a handful of early-adopter federal agencies, to a method being tried by many civil servants across an active interagency community of practice and lauded by administration leaders, bipartisan members of Congress, and external stakeholders alike. 

A summary follows of the strategies and tactics used by policy entrepreneurs within the EOP—with support and engagement from Congress as well as program managers and legal staff across federal agencies—that led to increased adoption and use of incentive prizes in the federal government.

Summary of strategies and policy levers supporting expanded use of incentive prizes

In considering how best to expand awareness, adoption, and use among federal agencies of promising methods, policy entrepreneurs might consider utilizing some or all of the strategies and policy levers described below in the incentive prizes example. Those strategies and levers are summarized generally in the table that follows. Some of the listed levers can advance multiple strategies and goals. This framework is intended to be flexible and to spark brainstorming among policy entrepreneurs, as they build momentum in the use of particular innovation methods. 

Policy entrepreneurs are advised to consider and monitor the maturity level of federal awareness, adoption, and use, and to adjust their strategies and tactics accordingly. They are encouraged to return to earlier strategies and policy levers as needed, should adoption and momentum lag, should agency ambition in design and implementation of initiatives be insufficient, or should concerns regarding risk management be raised by agencies, Congress, or stakeholders. 

Stage of Federal Adoption	Strategy	Types of Center-of-Government Policy Levers
Early – No or few Federal agencies using method	Understand federal opportunities to use method, and identify barriers and challenges	* Connect with early adopters across federal agencies to understand use of agency-specific authorities, identify pain points and lessons learned, and capture case studies (e.g., 2000-2009) * Engage stakeholder community of contractors, experts, researchers, and philanthropy * Look to and learn from use of method in other sectors (such as by philanthropy, industry, or academia) and document (or encourage third-party documentation of) that use and its known benefits and attributes (e.g., April 1999, July 2009) * Encourage research, analysis, reports, and evidence-building by National Academies, academia, think tanks, and other stakeholders (e.g., April 1999, July 2009, June 2014) * Discuss method with OMB Office of General Counsel and other relevant agency counsel * Discuss method with relevant Congressional authorizing committee staff * Host convenings that connect interested federal agency representatives with experts * Support and connect nascent federal “community of interest”
Early – No or few Federal agencies using method	Build interest among federal agencies	* Designate primary policy point of contact/dedicated staff member in the EOP (e.g., 2009-2017, 2017-2021) * Designate a primary implementation point of contact/dedicated staff at GSA and/or OPM * Identify leads in all or certain federal agencies * Connect topic to other administration policy agendas and strategies * Highlight early adopters within agencies in communications from center-of-government agencies to other federal agencies (and to external audiences) * Offer congressional briefings and foster bipartisan collaboration (e.g., 2015)
Early – No or few Federal agencies using method	Establish legal authorities and general administration policy	* Engage OMB Office of OMB General Counsel and OMB Legislative Review Division, as well as other relevant OMB offices and EOP policy councils * Identify existing general authorities and regulations that could support federal agency use of method (e.g., March 2010) * Establish general policy guidelines, including by leveraging Presidential authorities through executive orders or memoranda (e.g., January 2009) * Issue OMB directives on specific follow-on agency actions or guidance to support agency implementation (“M-Memos” or similar) (e.g., December 2009, March 2010, August 2011, March 2012) * Provide technical assistance to Congress regarding government-wide or agency-specific authority (or authorities) (e.g., June-July 2010, January 2011) * Delegate existing authorities within agencies (e.g., October 2011) * Encourage issuance of agency-specific guidance (e.g., October 2011, February 2014) * Include direction to agencies as part of broader Administration policy agendas (e.g., September 2009, 2011-2016)
Early – No or few Federal agencies using method	Remove barriers and “make it easier”	* Create a central government website with information for federal agency practitioners (such as toolkits, case studies, and trainings) and for the public (e.g., September 2010) * Create dedicated GSA schedule of vendors (e.g., July 2011) * Establish an interagency center of excellence (e.g., September 2011) * Encourage use of interagency agreements on design or implementation of pilot initiatives (e.g., September 2011) * Request agency budget submissions to OMB to support pilot use in President’s budget (e.g., December 2013)
Adoption well underway – Many federal agencies have begun to use method	Connect practitioners	* Launch a federal “community of practice” with support from GSA for meetings, listserv, and collaborative projects (e.g., April 2010, 2016, June 2019) * Host regular events, workshops, and conferences with federal agency and, where appropriate and allowable, seek philanthropic or nonprofit co-hosts (e.g., April 2010, June 2012, April 2015, March 2018, May 2022)
Adoption well underway – Many federal agencies have begun to use method	Strengthen agency infrastructure	* Foster leadership buy-in through briefings from White House/EOP to agency leadership, including members of the career senior executive service * Encourage agencies to dedicate agency staff and invest in prize design support within agencies * Encourage agencies to create contract vehicles as needed to support collaboration with vendors/ experts * Encourage agencies to develop intra-agency networks of practitioners and to provide external communications support and platforms for outreach * Request agency budget submissions to OMB for investments in agency infrastructure and expansion of use, to include in the President's budget where needed (e.g., 2012-2013), and request agencies otherwise accommodate lower-dollar support (such as allocation of FTEs) where possible within their budget toplines
Adoption well underway – Many federal agencies have begun to use method	Clarify existing policies and authorities	* Issue updated OMB, OSTP, or agency-specific policy guidance and memoranda as needed based on engagement with agencies and stakeholders (e.g.,: August 2011, March 2012) * Provide technical assistance to Congress on any needed updates to government-wide or agency-specific authorities (e.g., January 2017)
Adoption prevalent – Most if not all federal agencies have adopted, with a need to maintain use and momentum over time	Highlight progress and capture lessons learned	* Require regular reporting from agencies to EOP (OSTP, OMB, or similar) (e.g., April 2012, May 2022) * Require and take full advantage of regular reports to Congress (e.g., April 2012, December 2013, May 2014, May 2015, August 2016, June 2019, May 2022, April 2024) * Continue to capture and publish federal-use case studies in multiple formats online (e.g., June 2012) * Undertake research, evaluation, and evidence-building * Co-develop practitioner toolkit with federal agency experts (e.g., December 2016) * Continue to feature promising examples on White House/EOP blogs and communication channels (e.g., October 2015, August 2020) * Engage media and seek both general interest and targeted press coverage, including through external awards/honorifics (e.g., December 2013)
Adoption prevalent – Most if not all federal agencies have adopted, with a need to maintain use and momentum over time	Prepare for presidential transitions and document opportunities for future administrations	* Integrate go-forward proposals and lessons learned into presidential transition planning and transition briefings (e.g., June 2016-January 2017) * Brief external stakeholders and Congressional supporters on progress and future opportunities * Connect use of method to other, broader policy objectives and national priorities (e.g., August 2020, May 2022, April 2024)

Phases and timeline of policy actions advancing the adoption of incentive prizes by federal agencies

1. Growing number of incentive prizes offered outside government (early 2000s)

At the close of the 20th century, federal use of incentive prizes to induce activity toward targeted solutions was limited, though the federal government regularly utilized recognition prizes to reward past accomplishment. In October 2004, the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE—which was first announced in May 1996—was awarded by the XPRIZE Foundation for the successful flights of Spaceship One by Scaled Composites. Following the awarding of the Ansari XPRIZE and the extensive resulting news coverage, philanthropists and high net worth individuals began to offer prize purses to incentivize action on a wide variety of technology and social challenges. A variety of new online challenge platforms sprung up, and new vendors began offering consulting services for designing and hosting challenges, trends that lowered the cost of prize competition administration and broadened participation in prize competitions among thousands of diverse solvers around the world. This growth in the use of prizes by philanthropists and the private sector increased the interest of the federal government in trying out incentive prizes to help meet agency missions and solve national challenges. Actions during this period to support federal use of incentive prizes include:

• EXTERNAL REPORT/ANALYSIS (April 1999): In response to a request from the Clinton-Gore Administration’s National Economic Council, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), with funding from the National Science Foundation, convened a workshop in April 1999 to “assess the potential value of federally sponsored prizes and contests in advancing science and technology in the public interest” and issued a brief summary report, which recommended “limited experiments” in the use of federally sponsored incentive prizes and encouraged both Congress and federal agencies “to take a flexible approach to the design and administration” of such prizes and that the use of incentive prizes be “evaluated at specified intervals by the agencies involved to determine their effectiveness and impact.”  

• AGENCY-SPECIFIC AUTHORITIES and PILOTS (early 2000s): During this period, though, only a few federal government agencies had (and still have) flexible agency-specific prize authorities that allowed them to pilot the use of incentive prizes to advance their missions, scan markets for new solutions, engage new solvers, and solve long-standing problems. Early examples include:

• Because of prizes authority provided to DARPA by Congress under 10 U.S.C. 2374a, enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2000 in October 1999, DARPA was early in the federal prizes game, offering a series of challenges demonstrating the capabilities of autonomous vehicles in 2004 and 2005, called the DARPA Grand Challenges. 
• With authority from Congress, NASA began offering its ongoing series of Centennial Challenges starting in 2005, to directly engage the public in the process of advanced technology development related to problems of interest to NASA and the nation. 
• Congress also saw opportunity for the Department of Energy (DOE) to make progress on energy challenges through the use of incentive prizes, giving DOE authority through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to run a prize focused on efficient lighting call the “L-Prize” and also to run a series of “H-Prizes” to encourage research into the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier in a hydrogen economy.

2. Obama-Biden Administration Seeks to Expand Federal Prizes Through Administrative Action (2009-2010)

From the start of the Obama-Biden Administration, OSTP and OMB took a series of policy steps to expand the use of incentive prizes across federal agencies and build federal capacity to support those open-innovation efforts. Bipartisan support in Congress for these actions soon led to new legislation to further advance agency adoption of incentive prizes. Actions during this period to support federal use of incentive prizes include:

• PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE (January 2009): On the first day of the Obama-Biden Administration on January 21, 2009, President Barack Obama signed a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, committing the Administration to creating a more transparent, participatory, and collaborative government. The memorandum directed that federal agencies “should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information.”

• EXTERNAL REPORT/ANALYSIS (July 2009): In July 2009, with funding from the Templeton Foundation, McKinsey issued a report called And the Winner Is… that documented the recent resurgence of incentive prizes and noted that over the past decade total prize purses across the large incentive prizes being offered had tripled to surpass $375 million. This report provided synthesis of learnings from recent prizes. For example, the report found that, “As Ken Davidian, formerly of the NASA Challenges, puts it, there are at least four core rewards that drive participants to compete for prizes: ‘goal, glory, guts, and gold—and gold is usually last.’ Or to be more precise (if less memorable), competitors are motivated by the intrinsic interest of a challenge, the recognition or prestige accompanying a winner, the challenge of the problem-solving process itself, and any material incentive. Which motives matter most, and in what mix, will vary depending on the problem—and the problem solver.”

• INCLUSION IN ADMINISTRATION POLICY AGENDA (September 2009): In addition, in September 2009, President Obama released his Strategy for American Innovation, developed by the National Economic Council (NEC) and OSTP. In that strategy, the President called for federal agencies to “take advantage of the expertise and insight of people both inside and outside the federal government, use high-risk, high-reward policy tools such as prizes and challenges to solve tough problems.” 

• OMB DIRECTIVE (December 2009): Responding to President Obama’s open government memorandum, on December 8, 2009, the OMB Director issued an Open Government Directive, which required executive departments and agencies to take specific actions to further the principles established by the open government memorandum. The directive charged the OMB Deputy Director for Management to “issue, through separate guidance or as part of any planned comprehensive management guidance, a framework for how agencies can use challenges, prizes, and other incentive-backed strategies to find innovative or cost-effective solutions to improving open government.” The directive also charged federal agencies to include in agency Open Government Plans “innovative methods, such as prizes and competitions, to obtain ideas from and to increase collaboration with those in the private sector, non-profit, and academic communities.”

• EOP LEADERSHIP ROLES (January 2009-January 2017): To support the development and implementation of these and other open-innovation policies, a member of the OSTP policy staff served as policy lead for open innovation, reporting to OSTP Deputy Director Tom Kalil, with additional leadership backing from OSTP Director John Holdren, the inaugural U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Aneesh Choprah, and then Deputy U.S. CTO Beth Noveck. During the Obama Administration, this OSTP open-innovation policy role was filled by Robynn Sturm Steffen from 2009-2011, the author (Cristin Dorgelo) from 2011-2014 until she became OSTP Chief of Staff, Jenn Gustetic on detail from NASA from 2014-2016, and Christofer Nelson from 2016 through the end of the Administration in January 2017. Sonal Shah as inaugural director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the Domestic Policy Council (DPC), and her successor Jonathan Greenblatt, also provided helpful leadership and led key stakeholder engagement efforts.

• OMB GUIDANCE (March 2010): Consistent with the Open Government Directive and the Strategy for American Innovation, OSTP worked closely with the OMB Office of the Deputy Director for Management and the OMB Office of General Counsel on developing guidance on incentive prizes for federal agencies. In March 2010, OMB issued OMB Memorandum M-10-11, Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Open Government. This memorandum included clarifications for federal agencies regarding what authorities they could use to offer prize purses, host and sponsor prize competitions, and engage third parties to operate such competitions. OMB Memorandum M-10-11 also established as Administration policy that agencies should:

• Utilize prizes and challenges as tools for advancing open government, innovation, and the agency’s mission;
• Identify and proactively address legal, regulatory, technical, and other barriers to the use of prizes and challenges;
• Select one or more individuals to identify and implement prizes and challenges, potentially in partnership with outside organizations, and to participate in a governmentwide “community of practice” led by OMB and OSTP; and
• Increase their capacity to support, design, and manage prizes, potentially in collaboration with external partners.

• CONVENING and COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE (April 2010): In April 2010, the White House (OSTP and the DPC Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation) with the Case Foundation convened experts in incentive prize design and administration to share private-sector success stories with nearly 200 representatives from more than 35 federal agencies. This Summit on Promoting Innovation: Prizes, Challenges and Open Grantmaking served as a formal kickoff to a federal prizes and challenges community of practice, which GSA administered, and for which OSTP and OMB provided strategic direction, substantive agenda setting, and resourcing. With GSA’s support, this community of practice remains more than a decade later a valuable network for federal prize practitioners to connect and exchange promising practices and lessons learned. 

• TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO CONGRESS TO INFORM NEW LEGAL AUTHORITY (June-July 2010): Throughout this period, OSTP and OMB were collaborating with Congress to advance government-wide prize authority. On June 24, 2010, Senators Mark Pryor and Mark Warner introduced in the 111th Congress S.3530, the Reward Innovation in America Act of 2010. Drawing from this introduced bill, in July 2010, the Senate Commerce Committee approved the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 with a provision providing government-wide prize authority. Specifically, P.L. 111-358 added Section 24 to the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 USC § 3719). On July 27, 2010, the Director of OSTP thanked Senators Pryor and Warner for their leadership in a letter that OSTP also published on its blog, highlighting the steps the Administration was taking to set the stage for agencies to take full advantage of prizes authority should Congress move the authority forward.

• SHARED GOVERNMENT WEBSITE (September 2010 to Present): Responding to directives in M-10-11, with support from OSTP and OMB, and with leadership from internal champions, GSA in September 2010 launched a government-wide website called Challenge.gov to provide one place for citizen solvers to come and find the challenges being offered by federal agencies. Over time, Challenge.gov developed back-end capabilities to help federal program managers administer certain types of prize competition and expanded to serve as a knowledge repository for federal program managers looking for more information about designing and administering incentive prizes. Challenge.gov remains today the primary online hub for federally hosted prize competitions. 

3. Implementing New Government-Wide Prizes Authority Provided by the America COMPETES Act (2011-2016)

During this period of expansion in the federal use of incentive prizes supported by new government-wide prize authority provided by Congress, the Obama-Biden Administration continued to emphasize its commitment to the model, including as a key method for accomplishing administration priorities, including priorities related to open government and evidence-based decision making. Actions during this period to support federal use of incentive prizes include:

• NEW AUTHORITIES THROUGH LEGISLATION (January 2011): On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES Act), granting all agencies broad authority to conduct prize competitions to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance their core missions (Public Law 111-358). 

• GSA CONTRACT VEHICLE (July 2011 to Present): In July 2011, as called for by the new law, GSA established a contract vehicle—originally, Sub-Schedule 541 4G, now maintained as the Multiple Award Schedule, 541613, Professional Services – Marketing and Public Relations—to help federal agencies access private-sector technical assistance and consulting support for incentive prizes. Because prize competitions were still an emerging practice both inside and outside of the federal government, this contract vehicle allowed federal agencies to access experts and consultants who were building capacity for prizes across sectors and identifying what works in prize design and operations.

• OMB GUIDANCE (August 2011): In August 2011, OMB’s General Counsel and Chief Information Officer issued a memorandum on the new COMPETES prize authority to agency general counsels and CIOs, which OMB developed hand-in-hand with OSTP. The memorandum included a concise summary of the COMPETES Act’s new prizes authorities and requirements, and it provided guidance to agencies in their implementation of the prize authority found in this legislation. It also addressed an array of frequently asked questions raised by agencies, including agency questions about the new authority to conduct prizes up to $50 million with existing appropriations, as well as the new authorities to: accept private-sector funds for the design, administration, or prize purse of a competition; to partner with nonprofits and tap the expertise of for-profits for successful implementation; and to co-sponsor with another agency.

• AGENCY-SPECIFIC POLICIES and DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY (October 2011): Following issuance of this government-wide guidance, with the support of OSTP and OMB, agencies began to establish strategies and policies to further accelerate widespread use of the new prize authority granted to them under COMPETES. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was at the forefront of agency implementation efforts. On October 12, 2011, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a memorandum notifying the Department of the new prize authority provided under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act, outlining the Department’s strategy to optimize the use of prize competitions, and calling on the heads of HHS operating and staff divisions to forecast their future use of prize competitions to stimulate innovation in advancing the agency’s mission. Secretary Sebelious also issued a formal delegation of the new prize authority in the Federal Register.

• CENTER OF EXCELLENCE and INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS (November 2011): In November 2011, OSTP worked with NASA to launch a Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI), which was co-founded by Jason Crusan and Jeff Davis. As NASA continued to mature the use of challenges and crowdsourcing methods as a new tool in its toolkit, OSTP encouraged NASA to assist other federal agencies in the use of crowdsourced challenges to solve tough, mission-critical problems. This included the new Center working with federal agencies on challenge design through interagency agreements, and supporting those agencies with accessing NASA’s contracts with prize platforms, including for algorithm and apps challenges and for ideation challenges. 

• OMB GUIDANCE (March 2012): Throughout 2011, OSTP met regularly with agencies, holding regular phone calls and in-person meetings—often at agency offices—with agency leadership, counsel, and program managers who were considering the use of prizes or undertaking prize design. In these interactions, OSTP listened to agencies, asked clarifying questions, and tracked common issues and challenges. For example, OSTP heard in these agency conversations a variety of agency questions regarding the Paperwork Reduction Act and its intersection with prize authorities. OSTP then collaborated with OMB to assess these issues and determine how clarifying guidance could support agency implementation of prizes. On March 1, 2012, OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) issued a Frequently Asked Questions summary to address common agency questions. 

• AGENCY REPORTING TO EOP and REPORT TO CONGRESS (April 2012): In April 2012, the Obama-Biden Administration released a first report to Congress on federal use of incentive prizes in fiscal year 2011, as required by the America COMPETES Act. These reports to Congress and related reporting from federal agencies to OSTP—initially on an annual cycle and now biennial—have been an essential mechanism for tracking federal agency prize activity and capturing case studies and outcomes. The work led by OSTP with GSA to standardize how federal agencies tracked indicators and metrics regarding federal incentive prizes supported both progress tracking over time as well as storytelling by the Administration and prize supporters in Congress. The reports have also recorded steps taken by OSTP, GSA, and other agencies like NASA to build government-wide capacity and infrastructure related to prizes, and the steps taken within agencies to establish policies and processes to ease the use of prizes and remove barriers.

• CONVENING and ONLINE CASE STUDIES AND RESOURCES (June 2012): In June 2012, OSTP, the Case Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation hosted a day-long conference called Collaborative Innovation: Public Sector Prizes, which brought together hundreds of public- and private-sector practitioners to share case studies, research, and lessons learned. The event was partially live streamed, and resulted in a large amount of case studies and video resources that were available on the Case Foundation website, now archived.

• INCLUSION IN ADMINISTRATION POLICY AGENDA (2011-2016): The use of incentive prizes was included and encouraged throughout a variety of Administration policy agendas, year over year. For example, commitments related to prizes and challenges were included in each of the United States Open Government biennial National Action Plans issued during the Obama-Biden Administration, to maintain momentum and highlight this body of work to the international open government community. 

• GUIDANCE ON AGENCY BUDGET PROPOSALS (2012-2013): OSTP also collaborated with OMB to ensure that agencies considered and submitted to OMB budget proposals to expand their use of incentive prizes. On May 18, 2012, OMB issued Memorandum M-12-14 on the Use of Evidence and Evaluation in the 2014 Budget, which directed, “Agencies should also consider using the new authority under the America COMPETES legislation to support incentive prizes of up to $50 million. Like Pay for Success, well designed prizes and challenges can yield a very high return on the taxpayer dollar.” For agencies seeking to learn more about prizes, the memo noted, “The Office of Science and Technology Policy has created a ‘community of practice’ for agency personnel involved in designing and managing incentive prizes.” On July 26, 2013, OMB issued Memorandum M-13-17 on Next Steps in the Evidence and Innovation Agenda, OMB encouraged federal agencies to develop budget proposals “that focus Federal dollars on effective practices while also encouraging innovation in service delivery” and specifically mentioned incentive prizes as an encouraged pay-for-performance strategy. 

• REPORT TO CONGRESS (December 2013): On December 27, 2013, OSTP released a second report to Congress of federal use of incentive prizes under the COMPETES Act authority, and other authorities, in fiscal year 2012.

• LIFTING UP EFFORT FOR EXTERNAL RECOGNITION (December 2013): On January 24, 2014, Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation announced Challenge.gov as winner of the prestigious 2013 “Innovations in American Government Award” in honor of exemplary service and creativity in the public interest. The Obama Administration through GSA nominated Challenge.gov for this external honor to raise awareness and increase attention for federal prizes. 

• AGENCY-SPECIFIC POLICIES (February 2014): Agencies continued to state and clarify their internal policies and processes related to incentive prizes. For example, on February 12, 2014, the NASA Administrator issued an agency-wide policy directive—still in place today and last updated in June 2023—to encourage “the use of challenges, prize competitions, and crowdsourcing activities at all levels of the Agency to further its mission.”

• REPORT TO CONGRESS (May 2014): On May 7, 2014, OSTP released a third report to Congress on federal use of incentive prizes, focused on fiscal year 2013. This report found an 85 percent annual increase in prizes run under all legal authorities, an over 50 percent increase in the number of prizes conducted under the authority provided by COMPETES increased by over 50 percent compared to fiscal year 2012 (and nearly six-fold compared to 2011), and an increase in the size of agency-sponsored prize purses has grown as well—11 prizes had prize purses of $100,000 or greater in fiscal year 2013. 

• EXTERNAL REPORT/ANALYSIS (June 2014): On June 19, 2014, Deloitte University Press released a report—informed by research involving prize practitioners across government—covering in depth the lessons learned and best practices identified from over 350 prizes conducted by the Federal government and over 50 prizes conducted by state, local, and philanthropic leaders. The report, titled The craft of Prize Design: lessons from the public sector, was produced by Doblin (Deloitte’s innovation practice), in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Case Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

• REPORT TO CONGRESS (May 2015): On May 8, 2015, OSTP released a fourth report to Congress on federal use of incentive prizes, focused on fiscal year 2014. This report highlighted steps agencies were taking to support the use of incentive prizes across their components and divisions, from streamlining access to vendors to support the design and implementation of prize competitions through contract vehicles, creating internal working groups, designating points of contact, and creating internal and external communications tools. 

• CONVENING and WHITE HOUSE MICROSITE (October 2015): On Oct 7, 2015, five years after the launch of Challenge.gov, the White House, in conjunction with the Case Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and Georgetown University hosted a conference called  “All Hands on Deck: Solving Complex Problems through Prizes and Challenges” to convene federal prize practitioners and catalyze the next generation of ambitious federal prizes. The following day, GSA brought together the federal community to recognize progress with an awards ceremony. By that point, more than 440 federal prizes had been offered, engaging more than 200,000 citizen solvers. Also in October 2015, OSTP and DPC collaborated on the launch of a WhiteHouse.gov microsite with information on federal use of incentive prizes.

• FOSTER BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT (2015): During this period, bipartisan support for the use of incentive prizes by federal agencies continued. In 2015, a Congressional Prize Caucus with bipartisan sponsorship was held to increase awareness and encourage the use of prize competitions. Numerous pieces of legislation supporting prize competitions to fuel medical research were also passed (e.g., the 21st Century Cures Act [Public Law 114-255] included a provision on EUREKA Prize Competitions [42 U.S.C. 284et seq] that authorized the National Institutes of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct prize competitions to fuel medical research).

• REPORT TO CONGRESS and TRAINING (August 2016): In August 2016, OSTP released a fifth report to Congress on the federal use of prizes in fiscal year 2015. OSTP noted that Challenge.gov had, by August 2016, “featured more than 700 prize competitions and challenges—conducted under the authority provided by COMPETES and other authorities—from more than 100 Federal agencies, departments, and bureaus.” OSTP and GSA together had engaged more than 1,500 federal professionals in training on prize design and operations. 

• PRACTITIONER TOOLKIT (December 2016): In December 2016, building on the robust body of federal knowledge on prizes, OSTP and GSA with the federal Community of Practice on Prizes and Challenges issued a robust practitioner’s toolkit on Challenge.gov with a lot of how-to information and practical case studies. The toolkit was developed by an interagency team using insights drawn from experts across federal agencies. 
  
  

4. Maintaining Momentum in New Presidential Administrations

Support for federal use of incentive prizes continued beyond the Obama-Biden Administration foundational efforts. Leadership by federal agency prize leads was particularly important to support this momentum from administration to administration. Actions during the Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris Administrations to support federal use of incentive prizes include:

• INTEGRATION INTO PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION PLANNING (June 2016 – January 2017): As the end of the Obama-Biden Administration neared, OSTP worked with GSA and federal agency prize leads to prepare for the upcoming presidential transition and ensure the agency leads felt prepared, empowered, and supported with agency-level policies and processes so they could continue to design and launch prize competitions as part of their ongoing regular course of business. OSTP also integrated incentive prizes into its transition communications as a recommendation for the Trump-Pence Administration to continue. For example, in its list of 100 examples of the Obama-Biden Administration putting science it its rightful place, issued in June 2016, OSTP included the following: 

Harnessed American ingenuity through increased use of incentive prizes. Since 2010, more than 80 Federal agencies have engaged 250,000 Americans through more than 700 challenges on Challenge.gov to address tough problems ranging from fighting Ebola, to decreasing the cost of solar energy, to blocking illegal robocalls. These competitions have made more than $220 million available to entrepreneurs and innovators and have led to the formation of over 275 startup companies with over $70 million in follow-on funding, creating over 1,000 new jobs.

In addition, in January 2017, the Obama-Biden Administration OSTP mentioned the use of incentive prizes in its public “exit memo” as a key “pay-for-performance” method in agency science and technology strategies that “can deliver better results at lower cost for the American people,” and also noted:

Harnessing the ingenuity of citizen solvers and citizen scientists. The Obama Administration has harnessed American ingenuity, driven local innovation, and engaged citizen solvers in communities across the Nation by increasing the use of open-innovation approaches including crowdsourcing, citizen science, and incentive prizes. Following guidance and legislation in 2010, over 700 incentive prize competitions have been featured on Challenge.gov from over 100 Federal agencies, with steady growth every year.

• TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO CONGRESS ON UPDATES TO AUTHORITIES (January 2017): On January 6, 2017, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA) was signed into law by President Obama [Public Law 114-329]. Reflecting extensive, multi-year staff-level engagement among Congressional staff and experts at the Obama-Biden Administration’s OSTP and OMB, the AICA updated the government-wide authority that previously had been granted to federal agencies by the COMPETES Act. The aim of the updates were to encourage more ambitious interagency and cross-sector partnerships (and co-funding, with explicit authority to solicit funds for federal prizes from beyond the federal government) in the design and administration of prize competitions, and to eliminate unnecessary administrative burden, among other changes. 

• EOP LEADERSHIP ROLES (2017-2021): During the Trump-Pence Administration, support for federal agency use of prizes and challenges continued. In the EOP, Matt Lira, then Special Assistant to the President for Innovation Policy in the White House Office of American Innovation, Michael Kratsios, then Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and others in OSTP engaged with agencies to maintain momentum and identify new opportunities for the effective application of the COMPETES Act prize authority. 

• CONVENING (March 2018): In March 2018, the White House hosted a “Fostering Innovation with Prizes and Challenges” roundtable with then Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and other leaders. The White House confirmed to participants that, “the Trump Administration strongly supports efforts by Federal agencies to host prizes and challenges, particularly those that leverage COMPETES Act authority, to address some of the Nation’s most pressing issues.”

• REPORT TO CONGRESS AND COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE (June 2019): During the Trump-Pence Administration, the federal prizes and challenges community of practice supported by GSA continued a network and active email list exchange of more than 730 current and prospective challenge managers in the Federal space. These agency prize practitioners were and continue to be essential to forward progress in the use of incentive prizes, in the federal government and beyond. OSTP’s fiscal year 2017-2018 biennial report to Congress on agency use of prizes, issued in June 2019 and the sixth such report, noted that, “monitoring the proliferation of State and local crowdsourcing initiatives, Challenge.gov expanded the email list to State and local government prize practitioners in 2018, inviting exchange and opening avenues for partnership.”

• CONNECTIONS TO NATIONAL PRIORITIES AND LEVERAGING WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS (August 2020): As the nation faced the COVID-19 pandemic, and as federal agencies responded to emerging challenges and sought to meet urgent needs during the ongoing public health crisis, they turned to incentive prizes as one tool for connecting with solvers across the country and identifying promising solutions. On August 12, 2020, then Director of OSTP Kelvin Droegemeier issued a memorandum to federal agencies highlighting nine prize competitions launched by agencies related to COVID-19 and calling on agencies to “double-down” on their deployment of prizes to meet the challenges of COVID-19. The memo also noted that OSTP was convening open innovation working groups to support these efforts and planning to host a series of webinars with Challenge.gov. The White House also issued a Fact Sheet communicating agency prize competition and open innovation activities related to COVID-19, with incentive prizes being used to catalyze advances in testing technologies, computational models, mental health services, ventilators, and needs of frontline health care workers.

• CONVENING (May 2022): OSTP and GSA collaborated on hosting an Open Innovation Forum to bring together practitioners of incentive prizes, citizen science, and crowdsourcing from across government and other sectors.

• AGENCY REPORTING TO EOP, REPORT TO CONGRESS, AND CONNECTIONS TO POLICY AGENDAS (May 2022 and April 2024): The Biden-Harris Administration has supported the continued use of incentive prizes by federal agencies as part of its commitment to expanding and improving public engagement in the work of the federal government. 

• On May 4, 2022, OSTP released its seventh report to Congress on federal incentive prize competitions (and the second that also included a focus on citizen science and crowdsourcing activities alongside incentive prizes). In releasing the report, OSTP noted in a blog post, “This new report details recent Federal efforts to stimulate innovation and partnership and expand the American public’s participation in science. These developments are aligned with the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advancing equity in the science and technology ecosystem, including OSTP’s Time is Now Initiative, and recently released Equity Action Plan.” This report also reflected a new and more robust survey approach used by OSTP and GSA to collect information from agencies about federal incentive prizes, as well as continued efforts among federal agencies to streamline the use of incentive prizes and reduce or remove barriers. 
• On April 16, 2024, OSTP released its eighth report to Congress on Federal incentive prize competitions (and the third that also included a focus on citizen science and crowdsourcing). The report connected the continued growth in the use of incentive prizes by federal agencies to a broader Administration-wide “movement towards improving and expanding participation and engagement in not only government research and development, but also government processes more broadly.”

By the end of fiscal year 2022, federal agencies had hosted over 2,000 prize competitions on Challenge.gov, since its launch in 2010. OSTP, GSA, and NASA CoECI had provided training to well over 2,000 federal practitioners during that same period. 

Number of Federal Prize Competitions by Authority FY14-FY22

Source: Office of Science and Technology Policy. Biennial Report on “IMPLEMENTATION OF FEDERAL PRIZE AND CITIZEN SCIENCE AUTHORITY: FISCAL YEARS 2021-22.” April 2024.

Federal Agency Practices to Support the Use of Prize Competitions

Source: Office of Science and Technology Policy. Biennial Report on “IMPLEMENTATION OF FEDERAL PRIZE AND CITIZEN SCIENCE AUTHORITY: FISCAL YEARS 2019-20.” March 2022. 

CONCLUSION

Over the span of a decade, incentive prizes had moved from a tool used primarily outside of the federal government to one used commonly across federal agencies, due to a concerted, multi-pronged effort led by policy entrepreneurs and incentive prize practitioners in the EOP and across federal agencies, with bipartisan congressional support, crossing several presidential administrations. And yet, the work to support the use of prizes by federal agencies is not complete–there remains extensive opportunity to further improve the design, rigor, ambition, and effectiveness of federal prize competitions; to move beyond “ideas challenges” to increase the use of incentive prizes to demonstrate technologies and solutions in testbeds and real-world deployment scenarios; to train additional federal personnel on the use of incentive prizes; to learn from the results of federal incentive prizes competitions; and to apply this method to address pressing and emerging challenges facing the nation.

In applying these lessons to efforts to expand the use of other promising methods in federal agencies, policy entrepreneurs in center-of-government federal agencies should be strategic in the policy actions they take to encourage and scale method adoption, by first seeking to understand the adoption maturity of that method (as well as the relevant policy readiness) and then by undertaking interventions appropriate for that stage of adoption. With attention and action by policy entrepreneurs to address factors that discourage risk-taking, experimentation, and piloting of new methods by federal agencies, it will be possible for federal agencies to utilize a further-expanded strategic portfolio of methods to catalyze the development, demonstration, and deployment of technology and innovative solutions to meet agency missions, solve long-standing problems, and address grand challenges facing our nation. 

Photo by Nick Fewings

NASA and the Defense Department have developed an analytical framework called the “technology readiness level” for assessing the maturity of a technology – from basic research to a technology that is ready to be deployed.  

A policy entrepreneur (anyone with an idea for a policy solution that will drive positive change) needs to realize that it is also possible to increase the “policy readiness” level of an idea by taking steps to increase the chances that a policy idea is successful, if adopted and implemented.  Given that policy-makers are often time constrained, they are more likely to consider ideas where more thought has been given to the core questions that they may need to answer as part of the policy process.

A good first step is to ask questions about the policy landscape surrounding a particular idea:

1. What is a clear description of the problem or opportunity?  What is the case for policymakers to devote time, energy, and political capital to the problem?

2. Is there a credible rationale for government involvement or policy change?  

Economists have developed frameworks for both market failure (such as public goods, positive and negative externalities, information asymmetries, and monopolies) and government failure (such as regulatory capture, the role of interest groups in supporting policies that have concentrated benefits and diffuse costs, limited state capacity, and the inherent difficulty of aggregating timely, relevant information to make and implement policy decisions.)

3. Is there a root cause analysis of the problem? 

One approach that Toyota has used to answer this question is the “five whys,” which can prevent an analyst from providing a superficial or incomplete explanation with respect to a given problem.

4. What can we learn from past efforts to address the problem?  If this is a problem U.S. policymakers  have been working on for decades without much success, is there a new idea worth trying, or an important change in circumstances?

5. What can we learn from a comparative perspective, such as the experiences of other countries or different states and regions within the United States?

6. What metrics should be used to evaluate progress? What strategy should policy-makers have for dealing with Goodhardt’s Law? 

Goodhardt’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to become a good measure.  A police chief under pressure to reduce the rate of violent crime might reclassify certain crimes to improve the statistics.

7. What are the potential policy options, and an assessment of those options?  Who would need to act to approve and implement these policies?

This question – as is often the case – leads to more questions:

• What is the evidence to support different options?
• What is the logic model associated with a given option?  Why is it likely that a given policy change will have the desired impact?
• What policy instrument or instruments are required to achieve the goals associated with the idea?  Who would need to act to both approve and implement these policies?
• Is it possible to measure the costs and benefits?  Some policy fields, such as global health, measure the “outcome per dollar” of different interventions as measured by QALYs (quality-adjusted life-years) saved per dollar.
• What is the political and administrative feasibility of a given option?
• What are the potential unintended consequences of a policy proposal?

8. What are the documents that are needed to both facilitate a decision on the idea, and implement the idea?  

In the U.S. context, examples of these documents or processes include:

• Decision memos.  These memos typically provide background information on the policy proposal, why a decision is required, the policy options, and the pros and cons of those options.
• Executive Orders signed by the President.
• Policy guidance provided by one or more agencies, such as the Office of Management and Budget.
• Strategy documents that describe how a mix of policy actions is designed to achieve a goal or set of goals.
• Budget proposals and Congressional appropriations.
• Legislation or legislative amendments.
• Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for regulatory actions.
• A charter for an inter-agency working group.
• Job descriptions for efforts to recruit people with important skills to the public sector.
• A “request for proposals” for competitively-allocated funds for grants and contracts.
• Rules for an incentive prize, Advance Market Commitment, or other market-shaping intervention. 
• Descriptions of “commitments to action” from companies, non-profits, universities, philanthropists and foundations, state and local governments, investors, etc.

9. Has the idea been reviewed and critiqued by experts, practitioners, and stakeholders?  Is there a coalition that is prepared to support the idea?  How can the coalition be expanded?

• What legitimate concerns have been raised, and what are potential responses to these concerns?
• To the extent that there are significant disagreements about those ideas, why might people and stakeholders disagree?  This might be different interpretation of data, different views about whether a given policy proposal is likely to be effective, ideological disagreements, or divergent interests.
• Are there creative ways to reconcile differences of opinion and interests?

10. How might tools such as discovery sprints, human-centered design, agile governance, and pilots be used to get feedback from citizens and other key stakeholders, and generate early evidence of effectiveness?

11. What steps can be taken to increase the probability that the idea, if approved, will be successfully implemented? 

For example, this might involve analyzing the capacity of the relevant government agencies to implement the recommended policy.

12. How can the idea be communicated to the public?  

For example, if you were a speechwriter, what stories, examples, quotes, facts and endorsements would you use to describe the problem, the proposed solution, and the goal?  What are the questions that reporters are likely to ask, and how would you respond to them?

Perhaps you have some experience with policy entrepreneurship and have suggestions on the right questions to ask about a policy idea to increase its “readiness level”. Comment on Tom’s LinkedIn post, where you can add wisdom that could be helpful to others learning about how to make positive change through policy.