Subscribe

Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog

  • Income-Based Repayment: Tell Us Your Story!

    Posted by Doug Rand on June 11, 2012 at 2:20 PM EDT

    Last week, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum that will streamline the application process for “Income-Based Repayment” (IBR), a way for borrowers to cap their monthly student loan payments at 15% of income. The President has also taken action to lower this cap to just 10% by the end of 2012, likely reducing monthly student loan payments for over 1.6 million responsible student borrowers. 

    Have questions? Here’s everything you need to know about IBR. 

    Have you already taken advantage of IBR since the program launched in 2009?  Has IBR allowed you to pursue your dream career, perhaps as a teacher or entrepreneur?  Click here to tell us your story!

    Learn more about , Education, Technology

  • Participate Tomorrow in Online Public-Sector Prizes Event

    Posted by Cristin Dorgelo on June 11, 2012 at 11:15 AM EDT

    The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Case Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation invite you to virtually attend tomorrow’s Collaborative Innovation: Public Sector Prizes event. Public- and private-sector innovators will share noteworthy examples to help inspire the creation of additional high-impact incentive prizes, challenges, and other open innovation-initiatives in the public sector.

    A recent Office of Science and Technology Policy report to Congress highlighted the innovation and impact created to date through public-sector incentive prizes, and we will learn what’s next for public-sector prizes at tomorrow’s event.

    Learn more and sign up to watch the live stream tomorrow, Tuesday, June 12th from 12-2pm ET.

    Presenters include Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, several public- and private-sector prize administrators, and Karim Lakhani of Harvard Business School.

    You can also participate in the conversation during the event using #PublicPrizes on Twitter.

    Cristin Dorgelo is Assistant Director for Grand Challenges in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

    Learn more about Technology

  • Dr. Holdren Highlights Tech Development and Commercialization in New Mexico

    Posted by Bobby Dresser on June 8, 2012 at 5:52 PM EDT

    Dr. Holdren and John Freisinger

    Dr. John Holdren participated in a business roundtable in New Mexico yesterday hosted by John Freisinger, President and CEO of Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC), a company that helps startups commercialize technology developed at the National Laboratories.

    OSTP Director John Holdren met with about 50 New Mexico science and technology business leaders in Albuquerque yesterday to discuss Administration initiatives that support technology development and commercialization, and to find out what issues are at the top of the New Mexico tech community’s agenda.

    The business roundtable—hosted by John Freisinger, President and CEO of Technology Ventures Corporation (TVC), which helps startup companies commercialize technology developed at the National Laboratories—was the kickoff of Dr. Holdren's two-day visit in New Mexico that included meetings at Sandia National Laboratories, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base.

    Those three research complexes—together with academic and commercial partners—have nurtured an innovation ecosystem in New Mexico like no other in the Nation, populated by technology companies focused on bringing new discoveries to the marketplace.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Technology

  • Safety Data Jam connects Tech Innovators with Public Safety Officers

    Posted by Todd Park, Brian Forde, and Jo Strang on June 8, 2012 at 11:08 AM EDT

    Government data are being released in unprecedented quantities as part of the Administration’s commitment to increase transparency, public participation, and collaboration. A lot of these data have to do with public safety and can be found at the recently launched Safety Data Community — Safety.Data.gov. The liberation of government datasets is important in itself, but  data are truly powerful when used in the development of informative apps. Last month, OSTP and the Department of Transportation co-hosted a Safety Data Jam at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that brought together 40 leaders from technology, public safety, and government communities to discuss public safety challenges and to brainstorm creative new solutions that leverage open government safety data. Our goal was to come up with novel ways to help people make informed decisions about their safety and the safety of others.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Innovations, Technology

  • What It Means to be a Presidential Innovation Fellow

    Posted by Doug Rand and John Paul Farmer on June 7, 2012 at 4:09 PM EDT

    The new Presidential Innovation Fellows initiative, announced at TechCrunch Disrupt last month, will pair top innovators from the private sector, academia, and non-profits with top innovators in government to work together to deliver game-changing solutions for the American people. The first five missions include creating common-sense tools for public participation, liberating government data to fuel job growth, giving everyone secure access to their own health information, streamlining the government contracting process for high-growth startups, and getting more bang for our foreign aid buck. 

    What is it like to be a Presidential Innovation Fellow? One team of intrepid innovators has been piloting this model to create new solutions at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Federal agency responsible for administering visa programs. This Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) team is mid-way through a focused sprint to streamline existing visa pathways for immigrant entrepreneurs interested in coming to the United States to create jobs in our country.

    Paul Singh is one of these entrepreneurs in residence. As a partner at 500 Startups, a seed-stage investment fund and startup accelerator in Mountain View, California, he describes the experience this way:

    One of the common things we run into [at 500 Startups] is a lot of our foreign entrepreneurs just have trouble coming into the country – even for short-term things like 90 days just to raise money. And my observation was that the real challenge was that the folks at the tip of the spear – the guys that actually interview these startups at the consulate, and the people that actually open these immigration forms at the federal processing plants – they don’t really know what startups look like. And again, it’s not because they’re inept; it’s because the rulebooks they have were designed in the ’90s, and then before that they were written effectively in the ’50s and ’60s. So I think we can all agree that startups just look different today.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Immigration, Technology

  • Green Button Momentum

    Posted by Nancy Sutley and Todd Park on June 7, 2012 at 11:30 AM EDT

    To make it easier for business and consumers to save energy and money, we need to make it easier for them to understand how they use energy. That is why the Obama Administration partnered with the utility industry and issued a challenge to them to make it easier for electricity customers to get secure online access to their own household or building energy-use in a consumer- and computer-friendly format, called “Green Button.”

    In addition to empowering consumers and business to make informed decisions, Green Button data can fuel new products and services.  By putting customers in control of their own energy data, they can choose which private sector tools and services can help them manage or upgrade their own household or building energy performance.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Energy and Environment, Technology