Guidance

Live question and answer session transcript (12 June 2018)

Published 19 June 2018

Introduction

What we’re covering today is a quick recap on what the Catalyst is - a brief overview of the process itself. We’ll look at the challenges and how they are evaluated and a little more detail, including what we’ve changed since last time, challenge round 1.

There will be some time for questions from your good selves, and then we’ll move on to what to expect next.

To introduce the GovTech Catalyst, I think it’s fair to say that government tends to be bad at embracing change and notoriously slow at adopting technology. But we’ve got some important stuff to solve together that affects people exactly where they live.

At the same time, even a tech company with a great idea has a hard time selling it to government. This is because it takes a long time, and government isn’t great at dealing with risk or novelty. So we’ll unglue the process a bit - we will help the government body think about the problem rather than leaping to solutions.

We’ll introduce the players, give the public bodies some money to experiment with a few things that are out there and simultaneously find out what works.

We’ll get the projects set up that are grounded in user needs, to give them the best chance of success. Then we’ll step back and see what happens.

What is the GovTech Catalyst?

The GovTech Catalyst supports public sector organisations to find innovative solutions to operational service and policy delivery challenges. The Catalyst competitions help the public sector identify and work with cutting edge technology firms. The £20 million GovTech Fund, awarded via competitions, provides support to define, develop, test and assess, and access creative solutions to complex public sector problems.

The GovTech Catalyst supports the public sector to make innovative use of emerging technology to improve public sector efficacy, increase public sector productivity and grow the GovTech sector itself.

Eligible challenges

Let’s talk about what sort of challenges are accepted into the GovTech Catalyst Fund.

If you can already buy the solution, it’s not for the GovTech Fund. It’s not for things with an obvious route to procurement.

Second, the fund is set up to investigate how we can help shape a product or a service that meets the need using the emerging technology sector. It doesn’t fund in-house development itself.

Thirdly, it’s to work on difficult problems in the public sector. It’s got to be viable for the business and the department. And of course, best value for the public sector.

The solution has to have a potential to scale. This is about a real problem that affects people widely.

GovTech Catalyst challenge examples

So can you give me some examples, I hear you ask? Yes I can.

So this is a challenge: how might we identify, analyse and catalogue still images that are posted online? This was submitted by the Home Office in challenge round one.

The problem is about identifying still images. These images are made in a distributed way. Most shares on social happen in the first hour or so, so speed is absolute key. The current practice solution takes a few hours to notify the social platforms. This challenge aims to reduce the time scales.

The second example is from Defra: how might we use emerging technologies to improve the tracking of waste?

So how do we understand the waste that we produce as a society better? Can we use emerging technologies to identify waste? To set up the pyramid of recycling, reuse and reapplication? It’s currently a very complicated and lengthy system.

This problem is about exploring this space and perhaps breaking it down into smaller, more workable and manageable chunks.

The third, submitted by Monmouthshire Council in Wales, is a joint bid between two parts of the county council.

How might we combat loneliness by helping our communities to help each other in a digitally and transport-deprived area?

This is a very real problem about people moving to the country and feeling isolated.

The need is for social interaction in digitally-deprived areas and in age groups.

The fourth example was submitted by the Department for Transport and the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

How might we tackle traffic congestion using data and emerging technologies? So there’s an absolute ton of different data sets, with regards to traffic congestion. But no one as yet has found a manageable way of looking at these holistically. So the challenge is: how can we plan and how can we do this better?

And the fifth and final example is a joint bid submitted by the Durham County Council and the Blaenau Gwent County Council.

How might we better target local services by using sensors on fleet vehicles in order to make better decisions for our citizens? There are potholes, the need to know when to spread grit in the wintertime, to identifying incidents that might have an impact on old and vulnerable citizens.

Those are a few examples for you to think about.

Process overview

How does this all work? You should be seeing an overall picture of the process on the slides.

Typically the call for public sector challenges goes out first - that’s what we’re involved in now.

The submitted challenges are then received by the GovTech Catalyst team. Thereafter they’re reviewed and assessed. These challenges are turned into competitions.

And then companies, not for profit organisations and social enterprises can respond to those competitions.

The responses are evaluated and assessed by a panel.

Then up to 5 companies will be chosen and funded in order for them to show feasibility to tackle the challenges set by the public sector bodies.

These feasibility outputs are evaluated.

At this stage up to two companies are then funded for continued development of a prototype as the end of the process. The entire public sector can now buy the solutions that the tech companies have come up with.

So that’s a very high level overview of the process itself.

Just to recap, phase 1 will result in 5 companies having a 12-week period in which they are awarded around £50,000 each. Phase 2 has up to 2 companies funded for a year with up to £500,000 each.

Challenge evaluation

So how are the challenges themselves evaluated?

We’ve refined this to 4 evaluation criteria and 10 questions that we would like you to answer.

In round one the application was a form heavy on descriptive policy and solutions. We didn’t feel that we got enough detail about the users and the problems themselves. Some of the scoring categories overlapped, and market potential itself was very vague to score, especially as we were at the problem-describing stage.

The new questions ask you to walk us through the users, the impact on your organisation, your learnings and what you can put into it. We feel you have done enough research and exploratory work for a supplier to start working on a number of potential solutions.

In service design terms, you should have done a discovery before submitting a challenge.

The evaluation is now a 2-part process.

Firstly, is this right for GovTech, yes or no?

Regardless of merit, is the challenge about technological innovation or process innovation? Is this a £1 million sized problem? Do we expect to move the needle with £1.25 million of cash? Would we get to a viable product, that can demonstrably meet needs, and that other people can then buy?

Then there are 3 weighted criteria:

• demonstration of user needs
• understanding of the market itself
• your team’s capacity

What we’re looking for is:

• a demonstration of evidenced clear user needs within the scope of public policy
• an understanding of the market, including approaches that have been tried in the past in order to demonstrate the opportunity for innovation itself
• a demonstration of an empowered client-side team with sufficient time, money and people available to invest in the solution in the plans to procure that product

Bear in mind that you will need, if successful, to manage 5 contracts, make data available to suppliers, and essentially have a team in place that can be intelligent and available to the supplier.

Questions and answers

So that’s quite a speedy run through. Now we’re in a position to take some questions, which we’re going to do by email. The email is enquiries-gtc@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk.

We’ll answer these as best we can now. We’ll be collating these and then block publishing them on GOV.UK along with this presentation after the webinar, so that it’s there for your reference.

So while you’re thinking about and hopefully sending us some questions, here are a couple that you may be asking.

When can I submit my idea?

The round two call for challenges is currently open and closes Monday, 25 June 2018.

Where can I find more information?

Funnily enough on GOV.UK at www.gov.uk/gds/gtc-challenges.

All the information is at GOV.UK and you can email us at the address I just shared now that’s there on the screen with any specific questions if you can’t find the answers in the guidance.

We are now going to take some questions.

Are open source platforms encouraged?

Our answer to that would be yes. Evaluations of the competition solutions will include whether the solutions adhere to the Government Digital Service (GDS) Technology Code of Practice and the Government Service Standard, which actively encourage open source platforms.

How we can learn about the solutions to the shortlisted challenges?

The first shortlisted challenge from the Home Office is running at the moment. We envisage that the phase one contracts will be awarded in September and then research and development will begin.

A good way of finding more about the solutions is either to contact us here at enquiries-gtc@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk or indeed, come along to the GovTech meetups that we kicked off a couple of weeks ago.

If you have a look at the website, you’ll see the dates for the next ones, which are going to be in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and then back in London on 9 October, where we are planning a GovTech conference in central London.

For some specific questions around solutions to the shortlisted challenges, we can act as facilitator.

Will you be sharing copies of the slides?

Absolutely, yes we will. We will add the slides and questions we’ve been asked and a transcript as well as a copy of the webinar itself will be on our area at GOV.UK.

Does it need to be a collaborative bid?

No, no it doesn’t, however this is encouraged. Two of the winning challenges in the present round were collaborations, thus demonstrating that a user need in one area or one department could be reflected or mirrored in another part of government - or indeed, another part of the country.

So strictly, no it doesn’t, but yes, it is encouraged.

How much input does the challenge owner have in the evaluation of the challenge?

Plenty. The organisation which owns the challenge selects the winning suppliers. The GovTech Catalyst team has a seat on the panel, but the decision is the challenge owners’.

If your challenge is selected, then you will work quite closely and be supported by the GovTech team in setting up your assessment panel, working with Innovate UK and so on. So the challenge owning organisation has a lot of input and indeed a fair amount of work to do, but you’ll receive ample support from the team here at GDS.

‘The entire public sector can provide solutions.’ How can you stop these companies overcharging and costing the public sector too much?

As a part of the SBRI process, you are able to negotiate licence-free use of the successful solution that is developed as a result of the process. It still needs to go through standard best value process.

In the longer term, as emerging technologies become more widely adopted, more suppliers will be able to enter the market and pricing will become more competitive, we feel. We strongly encourage a diverse range of suppliers to apply in that part of the process.

Is there a general guide to the sort of length of the answers?

For this round we have not restricted word count on the answers, and would recommend you answer the questions as clearly and concisely as you can.

Try to include enough detail so that somebody who doesn’t know anything about the problem can easily understand it.

But of course try to keep it short and to the point.

Can you explain the end procurement process? Does it have to be the challenge owner who procures? Or can it be local government or those who need the service?

The idea is that the entire public sector can buy the solutions at the end of the process. We aim for these pilots to become viable products and services.

We envisage that the challenge owner that has the need will buy the product or the service at the outcome and then it will become available to the wider public sector.

What is the timescale for turning an accepted challenge into a competition?

It will take a few weeks. The assessment challenges, announcement of winners, and so on takes about 12 weeks. Then the 5 successful challenges are released for competition: one each month.

An example of the timeline for the above question is this:

• the Identifying Daesh still imagery challenge opened on 14 May and runs to 27 June 2018
• competition opens to suppliers on 14 May 2018
• briefing event on 18 May 2018
• registration closes on 20 June 2018
• competition closes on 27 June 2018
• applicants notified on 31 August 2018
• phase 1 contracts awarded around 30 September 2018 if this all runs to plan

So, it’s quite a lengthy process in between those milestones. There are activities that we will work out with the challenge owners at the time.

That’s a high level view for you there. I hope it’s useful.

Is there a preferred template for the submission?

We’re asking that you submit clear and concise answers by email to the 10 questions that are found on GOV.UK.

Should you be successful then the move to the fuller SBRI process will involve some more paperwork.

Can I discuss my challenge submission with you?

The GovTech Catalyst team is not currently set up to provide bespoke advice in an open and transparent way. We ask that you email us at enquiries-gtc@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk if you’re unclear on any of the evaluation criteria.

Will we be blogging about our process and progress?

And our process? Yes, yes we will. Keep an eye on the GDS blog.

And indeed Twitter at @gdsteam. We will be updating that regularly.

Can you give some idea of a good submission, what does it look like? Is it just submitting responses to the 10 questions?

So as touched on before, a good submission can and will explain a problem and the needs the product or service is trying to meet.

It will demonstrate that this comes from an evidenced base. A good submission itself would clearly explain why the solution can’t be found in an existing route to market such as the Digital outcomes and specialist framework or G-Cloud, or why those existing solutions do not meet your needs.

Finally, a good submission would demonstrate how the challenge owner will be able to support the challenge should they be successful.

The structured 10 questions will be able to help you do that.

Will the bids need to show clear return on investment (for example, invest £x and save £y)?

Our challenge evaluation criteria do not require you to make an economic case. However one of the end goals of the GovTech Catalyst is to make public services more efficient and cheaper to run.

At assessment time, we would expect to see words that reflect that challenge owners had given due consideration to efficiency and value for money.

Conclusion

So, that’s all the questions we’ve received, and thank you very much for sending those to us.

Thank you indeed for joining us this morning, for this webinar.

As we’ve said and just to recap, we will be publishing all of the outputs of this on our website. To close, we would just remind you that the round 2 call for challenges is currently open and closes on Monday, 25 June 2018.

Thank you and have a great day. Cheers. Bye-bye.