{
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    "title" : "An Innovation Framework That Delivers: The SunShot Catalyst Program |Digital.gov",
    "description": "An Innovation Framework That Delivers: The SunShot Catalyst Program",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/08/07/an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"An Innovation Framework That Delivers: The SunShot Catalyst Program","summary" : "Behind every great innovation is a team. And behind successful innovation teams are efficient tools, processes, and most importantly, people. The Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative funds projects that make solar energy more affordable and accessible for Americans. As part of the initiative, the SunShot Catalyst open innovation program seeks to rapidly deliver solar solutions","date" : "2015-08-07T10:00:00-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"awichman" : "Ashley Wichman"},"topics" : {
        
            "challenges-and-prize-competitions" : "Challenges and prize competitions",
            "innovation" : "Innovation",
            "open-data" : "Open data"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-08-07-an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/08/2015-08-07-an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/08/2015-08-07-an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/08/2015-08-07-an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program.md","slug" : "an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/08/07/an-innovation-framework-that-delivers-the-sunshot-catalyst-program/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eBehind every great innovation is a team. And behind successful innovation teams are efficient tools, processes, and most importantly, people.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Department of Energy’s \u003ca href=\"http://energy.gov/eere/sunshot/sunshot-initiative\"\u003eSunShot Initiative\u003c/a\u003e funds projects that make solar energy more affordable and accessible for Americans. As part of the initiative, the \u003ca href=\"http://catalyst.energy.gov/\"\u003eSunShot Catalyst\u003c/a\u003e open innovation program seeks to rapidly deliver solar solutions through prize challenges.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCatalyst has been recognized as a leader in the innovation field. The \u003ca href=\"http://ispim.org/\"\u003eInternational Society for Professional Innovation Management\u003c/a\u003e (ISPIM) recently \u003ca href=\"http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/06/30/ispim-grand-prize-2015-we-have-a-winner/\"\u003eawarded Catalyst the ISPIM Grand Prize 2015 for excellence in innovation management\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMichael Contreras, Managing Director of Catalyst and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, said Catalyst has a unique framework that delivers by linking incubation to innovation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The feedback I received at ISPIM was that prior to Catalyst, there was not a proven open innovation framework that had been able to create real products from raw ideas. Previously, open innovation was often focused on public engagement,” Contreras said.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-catalyst-way\"\u003eThe Catalyst Way\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo deliver innovations quickly and cost-effectively, Catalyst uses a four phase cycle for its challenges: ideation, business innovation, prototyping, and incubation. Each round offers \u003ca href=\"http://catalyst.energy.gov/a/pages/resources#Prizes\"\u003eprizes\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIdeation: Problem statements are uploaded to a crowdsourcing platform. The DOE and the public are invited to vote on ideas.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBusiness Innovation: Interested innovators submit a video pitch. Judges evaluate the videos and winners are selected.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePrototyping: Round 2 winners have about 90 days to develop a prototype of their product and a business pitch.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIncubation: Products are pitched at a Demo Day, and five winners receive cash prizes to grow and scale their businesses.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Catalyst model has proven effective in time, cost, and magnitude. In comparison to Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, Catalyst moves twice as fast as SBIR phase 1, and for 1/10th the cost of SBIR phase 2 awards, according to Contreras. For the Solar Apps challenge, 17 products were prototyped in 90 days.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/08/600-x-388-SUNSHOT-InfoGraphic_v2.jpg\"\n    alt=\"D.O.E. SunShot program graphics\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eCurrently, Catalyst is in its \u003ca href=\"http://catalyst.energy.gov/a/pages/schedule\"\u003esecond challenge cycle\u003c/a\u003e. To date, more than 200 problems have been crowdsourced, and video pitches will be accepted until August 14th.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"a-broader-impact\"\u003eA Broader Impact\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCatalyst touches more innovators than just the ones who submit videos, prototypes, and products. Video pitch winners are linked with \u003ca href=\"https://www.topcoder.com/\"\u003etopcoder\u003c/a\u003e, an online crowdsourcing platform for design, development and data science. Topcoder participants can compete in challenges to demonstrate their expertise, improve their skills, and win cash.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContreras said that the Catalyst team began working with topcoder after seeing that many freelance techies were looking for an incentive to dive into entrepreneurship.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“There’s a lot of people willing to do work, and as the momentum builds, it becomes a passion and a livelihood,” Contreras said. “We see it with the sharing economy and we’re seeing it here, with our ability to take these communities and plug them into the Catalyst framework.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCatalyst also aligns with other federal efforts: for the Solar apps challenge, all 17 finalists made an effort to incorporate \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/02/04/saving-energy-one-green-button-at-a-time/\"\u003eGreen Button data\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Everybody knows that data, in and of itself, is valuable,” Contreras said. “I think Catalyst has shown that we are capable of building products on that data. Underneath this software development is a wealth of open data that solar has put out there. We have a ton of data assets from DOE labs across the nation, and they are the data layer for these products. Not only are we successful with engaging new people, we are unlocking data. The more people who know about energy, who can code, and who are entrepreneurs, are helping the data movement.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eData from Catalyst has also been used to improve the program itself. A master’s student did a thesis on Catalyst, and Catalyst awardees and participants participated in the qualitative analysis.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"social-impact-through-catalyst-solutions-gridmates\"\u003eSocial Impact Through Catalyst Solutions: GridMates\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the participants in the first challenge cycle was \u003ca href=\"http://www.gridmates.com/\"\u003eGridmates\u003c/a\u003e. Gridmates aims to eliminate energy poverty through the sharing of energy resources: utility customers can help people or organizations in need by donating electricity to their accounts.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs part of Catalyst, \u003ca href=\"http://catalyst.energy.gov/a/dtd/Gridmates-brings-peer-to-peer-energy-sharing-in-the-first-transactive-energy-platform-to-eliminate-energy-poverty/74100-29324\"\u003ethe Gridmates team focused on solar energy\u003c/a\u003e and created a special plug-in for solar users, who typically have excess power around noon.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This is an example of how we brought new talent to the solar space: we would never have thought of this solution,” Contreras said. “This is the true power of innovation; it was purely based on how these individuals could solve this problem.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUltimately, innovation is about people, Contreras said.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We get focused on technologies, and technologies are important to drive innovation, but they are just one component,” he said. “How can we reach people, and how we can get people to look at problems? How much impact we can have will be based on how we can manage people in multiple communities.”\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}