WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking non-federal partners to join with Reclamation and other federal agencies on prize competitions to solve critical water and water-related issues. Several prize competitions may involve solving issues related to water availability, aquatic ecosystem protection and restoration, and sustaining water and water-related infrastructure.
Prize competitions bring many people together from diverse backgrounds to focus on solutions for difficult problems. Large competitions, also known as grand challenges, typically use online crowd sourcing platforms for conducting initial rounds of competition, but culminate with prototype demonstrations in laboratory or field based tests. Reclamation anticipates conducting multiple partnered competitions over the next several years and is looking for a mix of partners to work with on these competitions.
More information is available by going to www.fbo.gov and searching solicitation number R16PS01376. To learn more about Reclamation’s Water Prize Competition Center, please visit www.usbr.gov/research/challenges/. If you have any questions, please email prize@usbr.gov.
All federally sponsored prize competitions are posted on Challenge.gov. Recently, Challenge.gov celebrated its fifth anniversary. Challenge.gov is a historic effort by the federal government to collaborate with the public through incentive prizes to address our most pressing local, national and global challenges. True to the spirit of President Obama's charge from his first day in office, federal agencies have collaborated with more than 200,000 citizen solvers-entrepreneurs, citizen scientists, students, and such-in more than 700 challenges, with topics ranging from accelerating the deployment of solar energy, to combating breast cancer, to increasing resilience after Hurricane Sandy.
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
