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GovTech Poland

Enterpreneurs

męska dłoń trzymająca świecącą się żarówkę, zmieniającą się w sieć

GovTech Polska was created so that Polish innovators and entrepreneurs have a chance to design and implement on a national scale technological solutions directly responding to the specific challenges of the Polish public sector. This is the missing element of the innovation ecosystem to which we are opening the public sector in Poland. As part of "connecting" entrepreneurs and innovators with the central administration, we offer the opportunity to participate in GovTech competitions, hackathons, and Civic Brainstorms.

What are the challenges in GovTech competitions?

A public challenge is an invitation to create a solution that responds to problems of a social or economic nature that are faced by public institutions - creators of challenges. They are often related to the implementation of public policies - detecting crimes committed in cyberspace, strengthening the physical protection of the Polish borders, or identifying signs of aggression in video recording. GovTech challenges are characterized by the fact that solving them requires the use of new technologies. Usually, it is related to methods of processing images, sound, big data, or machine learning. 

Benefits of participating in GovTech competitions

Participation in GovTech competitions is a chance to find yourself among the creative Polish innovators and compete with the most innovative technology-oriented companies. The winner is promoted by GovTech in the press, social media, or at various conferences. The main prize in the competition is a substantial contract with a public institution and entering into single-source contract negotiations. 

“GovTech Polska competitions are competitions in which winners can prove that they can do it in practice and not on paper” - Justyna Orłowska, Plenipotentiary of the Prime Minister for GovTech. 

Requirements for participation in GovTech competitions

The requirements created for the teams participating in the competitions are constructed directly for a specific need. Sometimes knowledge of image processing methods will be required otherwise you will need to work freely with terabytes of data. 

How does the competition process look like?

The universal scheme of the GovTech Polska competition: 

  • Call for applications - accepting applications for the competition 

  • Stage I - preparation of a solution presentation (POC - proof of concept) 

  • announcement of the results of the 1st stage and selection of 5 finalists who will advance to the 2nd stage, the 1st stage awards 

  • Information workshops between Contractors and the Ordering Party - clarifying the criteria of the 2nd stage 

  • Stage II - preparation of a demo of the solution (MVP - most viable product) 

  • announcement of the results and invitation of the winner to negotiate the contract in the single-source procurement procedure 

Schemat konkursu

How and when can you enter GovTech competitions?

All challenges are published on the competition platform competition konkursy.govtech.gov.pl. 

Competitions are announced throughout the year in a continuous call. The time for accepting applications for participation as well as the dates of each stage of the competition and the presentation of solutions is specified. You can create an account on the contest platform and receive notifications each time a new challenge is published. The competition platform collects all administration needs coordinated by the GovTech team. All the rules of participation in the competition and the relevant documentation can be found in the information about individual challenges on the platform. It should be emphasized that the entire process, excluding information workshops, is carried out electronically via the competition platform. 

Who is the potential investor?

The design investors of GovTech Polska competitions and thus the creators of the competition challenges are: 

  • Local government units 

  • Administration Units 

  • State-owned companies 

  • GovTech Polska 

 Each competition has its individual implementation budget. 

Hackathon

It is a method of quickly reviewing possible solutions to a specific problem raised by the public sector. It can be stationary or online, during which participants working in teams have several dozen hours to solve the task. It is an event that requires intensive and creative work but gives a lot of satisfaction in achieving the goal in such a short time. 

Examples of GovTech hackathons: 

Civic Brainstorm on non-technical topics - Service Jam

Civic Brainstorm is a new way of opening the state to the ideas of talented people and inviting them to jointly solve socially significant challenges, improve the living conditions of citizens, or the effectiveness of the public sphere. 

Examples of Civil Brainstorms are on the website 

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