Federal agencies launch $9M Civic Innovation Challenge
Source: Smart Cities Dive Published: April 9, 2020
Dive Brief:
The National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a competition on Wednesday to award research teams with grants that will enable them to develop scalable, sustainable solutions to community-identified challenges.
The Civic Innovation Challenge will offer grants under two tracks: "communities and mobility" or "resilience to natural disasters." Teams will first compete for planning grants of up to $50,000 over a period of four months. Those who are issued grants — approximately 12 teams per track will be selected by fall 2020 — will move on to a 12-month competition to refine projects until they are ready for implementation. Winning teams will receive $1 million each — about $9 million is expected to be issued over the entire competition.
Teams should be comprised of civic partners, including government officials, nonprofit or community leaders, working with technical and social science researchers. Applications are due July 1.