On September 21st, the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the 17 recipients of their Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage 2 Awards. One of the winners was the Connecting Underrepresented Youths with Employment Opportunities, led by the University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc. This project, which KC Digital Drive is partnering on, will build and test an integrated mobile application to help underrepresented youth find and access out-of-school-time learning opportunities.
The Civic Innovation Challenge is a research and action competition that launched in April 2020 with funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Teams of academic and civic partners competed for awards of up to $1 million to support the rapid implementation of community-driven, research-based pilot projects that address mobility and resilience priorities. In early 2021, 52 teams were given Stage 1 planning awards, and NSF, DOE, and DHS are now announcing the 17 Stage 2 full awards to carry out their envisioned pilot projects. Each Stage 2 awardee will receive $1 million to implement their project over a 1 year timeframe.
Click here to learn more about the Civic Innovation Challenge