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State Wants to Distribute $25 Million in Tech Modernization Funds

The California Department of Technology will award the competitive Technology Modernization Fund grants to state government entities that best meet a series of project criteria, including implementation within a year.

The California Department of Technology has set aside $25 million in grant money for state government departments that wish to modernize their technology.

“The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) allows CDT to provide quick funding to state departments to invest in technology modernization efforts or to stabilize IT systems at risk of failure,” the department announced on its Tech Blog this week. “This fund will help drive departments forward and improve and secure government services.”

The TMF grants, CDT says, “will be used to enable departments to deliver timely business modernization wins through high-value proof of concepts, fulfill immediate needs, and optimize services for digital government.”

Criteria for grant awards include:
  • Strong program, technical and operational leadership team
  • Sound analysis of the business problem to be solved
  • Viable, fast path to delivery (12 months or less)
  • Return on investment (measured in risk reduction, financial returns or increased quality of service)
  • Support of statewide goals

The application process for the grants is competitive and multi-staged. The first round for proposal submissions opened Oct. 25 and will close Nov. 12 or as soon as a viable number of proposals have been submitted. Proposals from the first round must be ready to launch as early as January, with a goal of implementation by the end of the fiscal year. Initial pitch presentations for selected proposal teams will occur on Dec. 10.

More information on the Technology Modernization Fund is available on the TMF website. State departments that want to submit a proposal must request access to the TMF Portal.
Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.