Challenges & Competitions: Template for Annual Reporting Requirements
The America COMPETES Act of 2010 requires a report to Congress on all challenge and competition activities conducted under Section 105 of the Act. The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is taking the lead role in coordinating this report to Congress, and has asked that each federal agency provide OSTP with reports on their challenges and competitions (please note that OSTP is also encouraging agencies to also provide reports of challenges and competitions conducted under other legal authorities as well). To assist HHS in collecting the relevant information, we ask that challenge managers provide the following information in accordance with OSTP guidelines.
HHS OPDIVS and STAFFDIVS have five days after the selection of awardees to complete data entry on each competition, allowing the ASA to capture the data in real-time and then aggregate as necessary for submission to the Office of Science and Technology Policy by December 30th of each year.
Reporting Template
- Title of prize competition or challenge
- Sponsoring Agency
- Primary point of contact for the prize competition
- Tagline of 350 words or less. Similar to the first line of a newspaper story, the tagline should clearly explain what the prize competition is, who the prize challenged, what it challenged them to do, and why it is important or unique.
- Link to the homepage for the prize competition (e.g., on Challenge.gov)
- Problem Statement. Explain the problem the prize competition solves.
- Proposed Goals. What was the primary objective of the prize competition?
- Why a Prize. Provide an analysis of why a prize competition was the preferable method of achieving the goals described in #7 as opposed to other authorities available to the agency, such as contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements.
- Participants. Who did the agency hope to mobilize to compete?
- Solicitation & Outreach. What methods did the agency use to market the prize competition, mobilize potential participants, and ensure high quality submissions? How would the agency evaluate the effectiveness of such methods? What lessons did the agency learn about outreach that might be valuable for future prize competitions?
- Incentives. What incentives did the agency provide for participants to compete in the prize competition (monetary and non-monetary)? What is the total amount of cash prizes awarded for the prize competition, including a description of the amount of private funds contributed in the program, the sources of such funds, and the manner in which the amounts of cash prizes awarded and claimed were allocated among the accounts of the agency for recording as obligations and expenditures?
- Evaluation. What methods did the agency use to evaluate submissions to the prize competition? How would the agency evaluate the effectiveness of such methods? What lessons did the agency learn about evaluation that might be valuable for future prize competitions?
- Partnerships. What partnerships did your agency form (formal or informal) with other agencies or private sector entities to make successful a prize competition conducted under § 105 of the America COMPETES Act? What were the benefits derived from those partnerships? What lessons did the agency learn about public private partnerships that might be valuable for future prize competitions?
- Resources. What resources, including personnel and funding, did the agency use in the execution of each prize competition? Please provide a detailed description of the activities for which such resources were used and an accounting of how funding for execution was allocated among the accounts of the agency for recording as obligations and expenditures.
- Results. Please explain how the prize competition advanced the mission of the agency and the specific objectives identified in 7.
- Winners. Please identify the winners of the competition and describe the winning solutions. If feasible provide weblinks to the winning solutions if they are available in the public domain.
