Government Innovation Awards

Government colleagues, vendors, sponsors, speakers, delegates, and PSN community members can submit a nomination. Each entry must have the approval of a named government contact. For California, the nominated team or project must meet the in-state eligibility rules. Federal organizations are not eligible.

You’ll provide details about the project, the government lead and the people who benefited. You’ll also submit a short public summary and answer three category-specific questions. You can include up to three supporting links and three files.

Judges independently score entries against the published criteria for each category. They look for credible evidence of results, strong delivery and lessons other organizations can use. Scores reflect the quality of the work, not the size of its budget.

Entries open: November 16, 2026
Entries close: December 24, 2026, 6pm PT
Awards ceremony: March 2, 2027

No. Government entries are free.

Do not include classified information, protected personal information, confidential commercial information, security vulnerabilities, or sensitive operational details. Only submit material you have permission to share.

• Nominees must be an eligible team, agency, department, cross-agency partnership, or government-led project, including eligible tribal and education initiatives.
• Nominees must be based in the event’s state. For California, eligible nominees include California state and local government, tribal organizations, and education institutions located in California; federal organizations are excluded. Interstate partnerships are eligible where at least one eligible in-state organization has a substantive role and the entry demonstrates benefits within the event’s state. This geographic requirement applies to nominees, not to nominators or technology partners.
• The work must be live, operational, or sufficiently implemented to show credible results by the submission deadline. An implemented pilot or partial deployment can qualify only where real users/operations and evidenced results exist; a future rollout date alone is insufficient. Concepts alone are not eligible.
• A commercial product or vendor product pitch is not an eligible nominee. An eligible government implementation using commercial products may enter; the award recognizes the government outcome, not the product.
• Qualifying results period: entries must demonstrate credible results achieved within the 12 months leading up to the relevant awards entry closing date. Projects may have started or been implemented earlier, provided they show qualifying results in that period. Identify when those results occurred; earlier baselines and project history may be included for context. Results must already have been achieved when the entry is submitted.
• Entries should show the capability behind the outcome, not simply describe the technology purchased or activity completed.
• Government colleagues, vendors, sponsors, speakers, delegates, and PSN community members may nominate.
• A named government contact must approve the entry, evidence, and publication permissions before judging.
• Attendance at the awards ceremony is required. Winners will be notified confidentially in advance. The rules for team representation and handling non-attendance must be confirmed before publication.
• Each entry should select one primary category. PSN may move an entry after consulting the nominee if another category is clearly more appropriate.
• Government entries are free.
• Sponsors may nominate and present awards, but may not judge or influence results.
• Sensitive, protected, classified, confidential-commercial, or security-compromising information must not be submitted. The not-for-publication field is for approved, non-sensitive material that may be judged but not publicly used; it does not override these prohibitions.