We are thrilled to welcome 43 incredible Americans as new Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIFs), here to serve 6- to 12-month intensive “tours of duty” in the US Government, where they will work hand-in-hand with top government innovators to develop solutions that can save lives, save taxpayer money, and help fuel private-sector job creation.
The PIF program was created in 2012 to tackle five inaugural projects—each focused on making a part of the Federal Government work better for the American people. In keeping with the “lean startup” philosophy of the PIF program, the 18 individuals who were selected from around the Nation to take on those challenges produced significant results in a matter of months, not years.
A case in point is RFP-EZ, a new system created by one of the inaugural PIF teams that simplifies how the Federal Government asks for bids on services like building websites. Before RFP-EZ, most such Requests for Proposals contained highly specialized language that only seasoned government contractors understood, and companies seeking to bid on projects were asked to fulfill a myriad of bureaucratic requirements before even being considered. By removing these obstacles, RFP-EZ has opened up the bidding process to hundreds of small businesses offering services at significantly lower prices. RFP-EZ has yielded very promising results and is already saving taxpayer dollars, with prospects for even more savings going forward.
Fonte: White House