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Prize competitions have played a prominent role in the Obama administration's innovation policy since the launch of the federal challenge.gov site in 2010. By announcing national Grand Challenges and allowing federal agencies to create their own prize competitions to encourage work in strategic areas, the administration has been able to generate interest and valuable contributions from a wide variety of untapped sources of innovation.

Six federal departments and agencies today announced a total of $200 million in commitments to support R&D related to the manipulation of large data sets. The Big Data Research and Development Initiative will invest in efforts to improve our ability to extract knowledge from large collections of digital data. The announcement comes in response to recommendations issued last year by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which found that the federal government was under-investing in data science. Learn more...

A new Office of Manufacturing Policy within the National Economic Council (NEC) will work across agency lines to coordinate the federal government's manufacturing programs and help develop manufacturing policy. On Monday, President Obama named Commerce Secretary John Bryson and NEC Chair Gene Sperling as co-chairs of the office, which will convene cabinet-level meetings on the administration's manufacturing initiatives.

President Obama announced the Health Care Innovation Challenge — a $1 billion initiative to support the most compelling new ideas to deliver better health, improve care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and/or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The objectives of this initiative are to:

The Obama administration recently announced two directives to accelerate the commercialization of research and provide small businesses with streamlined access to federal resources. In his announcement, President Obama tied the directives to his administration's recent jobs push, and noted the need to bypass Congress in order to quickly implement the changes.

The White House released a "progress report" for Startup America—a White House and interagency initiative to "celebrate, inspire and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation." The report looks at public and private sector commitments in several key areas that will improve the environment for high-growth entrepreneurship. The report also provides status updates for current and future Startup America related initiatives.

President Barack Obama recently announced the creation of a national Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) to accelerate the development of manufacturing technologies at top engineering universities. The AMP initiative, which was developed based on recommendations from a report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), would leverage existing programs and proposals to invest more than $500 million in university and private R&D. The partnership is being called an "umbrella" for federal innovation programs.