The Innovation Fund is designed to connect residents to government by putting more information and services online.
We are proud to announce the 2022 SIPA/NIC Colorado Innovation Fund grant awardees! The SIPA/NIC Colorado Innovation fund was created in 2019 to reinvest in state agencies by providing funding or in-kind services to support innovative projects for state agencies to put more information and services online and to help Colorado residents interact with Colorado governments. This year, the Innovation Fund received twenty six applications from 15 state agencies requesting over $4.5M in funding. Seven of those were awarded for a total of almost $650K. Through this program, we have funded a total of 27 projects valued at $2.25M in total investment.
Awarded Projects
Awarded projects are listed in the table below.
| Project | Agency | Description | Award Amount | Award Year |
| Cyber Self Insurance | Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology | Help fund the cyber self-insurance programs needed for an incident response retainer for the state of Colorado. | $68,000 | 2022 |
| Aviation Application Migration | Colorado Department of Public Safety - Colorado Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting | Migrate the existing custom Colorado Firefighting Aviation use tracking website/application to a modern open-source environment that is more supportable, preserves multiple years of data, and allows growth and expansion. | $79,000 | 2022 |
| Website Accessibility | Colorado Department of Natural Resources | Develop fully accessible public websites to ensure equitable access for all users. | $45,000 | 2022 |
| myColorado Identity Management | Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology | Implement and evaluate an alternative identity management component, login.gov, for residents using the myColorado App. | $287,000 | 2022 |
| Virtual Empathy Lab | Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology | Formulate and implement an OIT Virtual Empathy Lab which would initially focus on capability, awareness-building, and creating a direct feedback loop with Coloradans experiencing technological barriers. | $91,000 | 2022 |
| InnovateCO Forum | Colorado Secretary of State - Business Intelligence Center | Create the Business Information Center's InnovateCO Forum and Challenge, a high visibility educational event to bring together data providers, business data users and the tech community to increase understanding, access, and usability of public data to grow and sustain Colorado businesses. | $50,000 | 2022 |
| Crime Ledger Digitalization | Colorado Department of Higher Education - History Colorado | Digitize the Sam Howe Collection of 71 oversized crime ledgers (16,000 pages from 1863-1934) making them more accessible and discoverable. | $30,000 | 2022 |
| Farm Fresh Program Support | Colorado Department of Agriculture | Expand access to the Farm Fresh publication with additional translations and interactive versions. | $15,000 | 2021 |
| Law Enforcement Records Management System | Colorado Department of Law | Procure a modern records system to control documents and create efficiencies and workflows for DOL's law enforcement units. | $250,000 | 2021 |
| Online Referral and Application Form | Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Division of Vocational Rehabilitation | Provide an online referral and application form so Coloradans with disabilities can easily apply for DVR Services virtually. | $47,000 | 2021 |
| Salesforce Application | Colorado Department of Human Services Aging and Adult Services | Migrating to a new data system to streamline data entry and make work easier for providers and volunteers that provide critical services. | $95,000 | 2021 |
| State-Owned Facilities Map Tool | Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration | Provide a user-friendly map based tool for parties interested in the beneficial use of unused or underutilized state land. | $10,800 | 2021 |
| Study for Underserved and Underrepresented Populations | Colorado Department of Revenue | Conduct a gap analysis for underserved and underrepresented Coloradoans as it pertains to DMV services | $160,000 | 2021 |
| Demography Dashboards and Storymaps | Colorado Department of Local Affairs | Increase its data storage and software licenses to expand its online data visualizations and tools. | $7,000 | 2020 |
| Local Government Information System Modernization | Colorado Department of Local Affairs | Construct user interfaces for DOLA's Local Government Information System and E-Filing Portal (LGIS). | $45,000 | 2020 |
| Online Dispute Resolution | Colorado Judicial Branch | Implement an online dispute resolution platform to reduce court users’ barriers to courts to be able resolve civil disputes online. | $20,000 | 2020 |
| Student Transfers | Colorado Department of Higher Education | Provide students information about transfer opportunities, primarily focused on transfer from the community college system to universities. | $68,000 | 2020 |
| User Interface/User Experience Study for Department of Motor Vehicle Platforms | Colorado Department of Revenue | A study of DMV customer platforms to improve customer utilization of online and remote services. | $150,000 | 2020 |
| Water Quality Control | Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment | Develop a program to store and share important water quality information and significant water impairment data. | $30,000 | 2020 |
| Chatbot Pilot | Governor’s Office of Information Technology | A chatbot pilot for Colorado.gov bridging all agency websites with comprehensive search and FAQs. | $25,000 | 2019 |
| Go Code Colorado and Data Accessibility | Governor's Office of Information Technology and Secretary of State's Office | Improve the breadth and accessibility of Colorado's open data to make more data sets available and expand access to existing data. | $50,000 | 2019 |
| Governor's Dashboard | Governor's Office | Enhance the Governor's Dashboard with new data visualizations and monthly data updates. | $75,000 | 2019 |
| Inventory Management System | Colorado Department of Corrections Colorado Corrections Industries | Develop and implement an inventory management system to allow the Canteen to more accurately track inventory and orders. | $50,000 | 2019 |
| Legal Help Center Website | Colorado Judicial Branch | Develop an interactive website that will provide plain language legal information and serve as a hub to connect Colorado citizens to legal resources. | $100,000 | 2019 |
| Revenue Online Updates | Colorado Department of Revenue | Enhance the Revenue Online system to be more intuitive and technologically current. | $50,000 | 2019 |
| Web Portal Standardization | Governor’s Office of Information Technology | Create a common look and feel to the State of Colorado web presence. | $100,000 | 2019 |