Recent DOI Accomplishments

At the Department of the Interior, the majority of prizes are offered by the Bureau of Reclamation develop new, or improve existing technologies in the general theme areas of environment, infrastructure sustainability, and water availability.  In Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, Reclamation launched its first competition to develop, test and demonstrate new methods to remotely track fish.  By the end of FY 2016, Reclamation initiated five competitions, of which four had been completed. Collectively, these 5 competitions awarded a total of $110,000 in prizes dispersed across 23 winning solutions. 

During FYs 2017 and 2018, DOI was actively engaged in offering fifteen prize competitions using authorities under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010  (ACRA) [15 USC § 3719(p)] to advance technologies to address mission needs.  These include all competitions that were completed, underway or initiated (1) during that two-year period.  Fourteen of these were or are being undertaken by Reclamation in cooperation with a variety of other federal and non-federal partners extending from state agencies to private entities, and one was offered by the Office of Hawaiian Relations. The fifteen competitions cumulatively offered an estimated $1,875,000 in prize purses.  

During FY 2019-2020, DOI offered or conducted 14 prize competitions which cumulatively offered $3,860,000 in prize purses using authorities under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (ACRA) [15 USC § 3719(p)] or procurement authorities to advance technologies to address mission needs. These include ten competitions that were completed and four that were initiated or ongoing during the two-year period. Eleven of these were offered by Reclamation in cooperation with a variety of other federal and non-federal partners, including state agencies and private entities. Of these, two Reclamation competitions were functionally, but not formally, completed by FY 2018 and were reported in the previous (FY 2017-2018) Biennial Report. Three additional competitions were active during FY 2019-2020. These include competitions offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and one offered jointly by the Office of Hawaiian Relations, the National Invasive Species Council, and the National Park Service.  

Additional details can be found via DOI's reports on prize competitions. 

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