Challenge Grant Competition: Re-Thinking Government Management and Operations Given the Impact of COVID-19

Published 30 July 2020
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By

Dan Chenok

Executive Director

IBM Center for The Business of Government chenokd@us.ibm.com

The IBM Center for The Business of Government is pleased to announce a Challenge Grant competition to solicit essays describing how existing and emerging technologies will transform how government works and delivers services to the public in light of the impact of COVID-19. Topics to explore include:

  • Changing the nature of work – government jobs best suited to shift virtually, the new “work-day,” best practices, government as a model workplace, and workplace health, safety, and privacy.
  • Reimagining how government delivers services and products to the public – citizen engagement, public-private partnerships, resilient delivery ecosystem, and federal, state, and local government relationships.
  • Managing risk and building resilience – Enterprise Risk Management, cybersecurity, data privacy, information sharing across agencies, AI, and physical, digital security of home office.

The Challenge Grant process is straight forward:

  • Stage One: Submit one or more proposals of up to 300 words presenting your thoughts on government management and operations given the impact of COIVD-19. Proposal submissions will be reviewed and placed on the IBM Center website for feedback, allowing readers to share additional perspectives with the authors, who may then refine their proposals and re-submit. Schedule: Deadline for the 300-word proposals is September 10, 2020.
  • Stage Two: The IBM Center will review proposals and select up to six finalists who will each be offered a $2,000 Challenge Grant to prepare a longer essay (at least 2,000 words) refining their vision. Schedule: The Center will announce the winning proposals by the end of September.
  • Stage Three: The winners of the Challenge Grant will prepare their essays for publication by the IBM Center. Schedule: The 2,000-word essays will be due to the Center by November 10, 2020 and will aim to publish by January 29, 2020.

Questions? Please email us at businessofgovernment@us.ibm.com