Are You Presidential? Apply to Presidential Innovation Fellows Program

I’m a big fan of the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program ever since it’s been announced. To me, it’s the way to do government innovation – clear focus, short term projects with quick wins, small focused team, with lots of top cover to rapidly skip any bureaucratic hurdles.

We covered it’s announcement last August and the five projects under the program (Project MyGov, Open Data, Blue Button, RFP-EZ, 20% Initiative). I even shared a number of my ideas about Project MyGov (my 7 ideas on the project, 3 thoughts on final results) and RFP-EZ (my 5 ideas, our panel of tips for RFP-EZ, and interview with Clay Johnson after it’s completion).

That’s why I was excited to hear the news this morning that they are opening application today for the 2nd class of Presidential innovation Fellows. If you are on GovLoop, you are exactly the type of person they are looking for (the last crop of fellows including folks from non-profit #gov20 community, contractor community, and from actual federal/state/local government) so make sure toapply.

9 Presidential innovation Projects:

There’s 9 projects this time to apply for this time. Five of them are basically a continuation of the last round of projects (some with slightly different scope or rebranding – check out the full descriptions here). This is important as it’s important to build on the strengths and move these ideas forward.

Plus there’s four new ones – descriptions below (I’m particularly intrigued by the Innovation Toolkit – as we see on GovLoop everyday so much talent within government that we need to leverage):

Disaster Response & Recovery – Collaboratively building and “pre-positioning” needed tech tools ahead of future emergencies or natural disasters in order to mitigate economic damage and save lives.

Cyber-Physical Systems – Working with government and industry to create standards for a new generation of interoperable, dynamic, and efficient “smart systems” – an “industrial Internet” – that combines distributed sensing, control, and data analytics to help grow new high-value American jobs and the economy.

Innovation Toolkit – Inspired by President Obama’s pledge to “make government cool again,” the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in connection with the General Services Administration and the U.S. Department of State, will lead an effort to apply technology to augment and tap into the skills, creativity, and capacity for innovation of the Federal workforce.

21^st Century Financial Systems – Moving financial accounting systems of Federal agencies out of the era of unwieldy agency-specific implementations to one that favors more nimble, modular, scalable, and cost-effective approaches.

Logistics

So I’m guessing you probably have a lot of logistical questions – here’s some of the top questions (check out the full FAQ here)

• When is it due ? Applications due Sunday, March 17^th, 2013, at 11:59pm EST.
• How long? Each project has its own timeline, but Fellowships generally last 6 to 12 months.
• When does it start? April or May 2013 (depends on each agency’s timetable)
• Do I have to be in DC? Yes, for the first weeks. After that, it’s decided on case by case basis by agency.
• What’s the pay/benefits? On case by case basis based on each person’s background but based on GS schedule and usually at higher end of GS scale.

Where do I apply: Click here!