The Office of Management and Budget said in a notice posted on Challenge.gov that the competition seeks innovative approaches to bolster the government’s digital information technology acquisition expertise.
OMB noted that the resulting training and development program for digital service contracting professionals will supplement OFPP’s Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting program for implementation at the Federal Acquisition Institute and Defense Acquisition University.
The program should run a maximum of six months and cover market conditions, industry best practices and acquisition strategies through in-classroom training, rotational and detail assignments, mentoring and other methodologies, the notice stated.
Through the program, OMB said federal contracting professionals should be able to understand and apply digital service procurement concepts from TechFAR and the Digital Services Playbook, measure contract success using industry standards, identify value received and facilitate the use of commercial procurement practices.
According to the agency, the prize competition will be in three phases.
Phase one seeks white papers on the proposed training and development approaches.
Phase two will award $20,000 to each selected proposal to continue through the program design, oral presentation and demonstration of the training program.
Phase three will award up to $250,000 to one finalist for completed milestones for continued program development toward a 30-student pilot program and up to $50,000 upon completion for fully meeting objectives.
OMB will accept submissions for phase one through June 23.