The President’s Executive Order 14110 identified TMF as a source for funding artificial intelligence (AI) projects across the federal government in service of mission delivery. We are calling for agencies to identify AI projects—including but not limited to generative AI—for possible investment. To encourage proposals, we are offering multiple paths to funding.

Seeking use of AI that helps agencies deliver on their mission

We aim to support mission-enabling implementation of AI. Mission-enabling projects help agencies operate across organizational boundaries, coordinate between existing programs to improve delivery of the agency mission, and modernize legacy systems. This includes AI projects that enable rapid deployment, process automation, delivery of assistive technology, better customer experience, and reduced administrative burden for staff. Expected outcomes include but are not limited to:

Enhanced user experience & outcomes

  • Save time and effort for users
  • Recommend services to customers
  • Improve health outcomes
  • Possible examples: use of chatbots, audio or video transcription, video captioning, language translation

Improved business operations & organizational performance

  • Reduce administrative burden
  • Better internal process, staff placement, or productivity
  • Possible examples: reducing manual processes, improving planning and resource allocation, improving records retention schedules, digitizing forms, enhancing document processing with optical character recognition

Optimized security, operations & risk management

  • Secure cyber infrastructure
  • Threat detection
  • Network monitoring
  • Ensure compliance
  • Possible examples: cyber vulnerability reporting, automated detection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), enhancing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request fulfillment

Data-informed decision-making

  • Analyze and evaluate data
  • Predict outcomes
  • Manage inventory
  • Prepare data for use
  • Generate reporting, summaries, or other resources
  • Possible examples: patent application screening and classification, case record summarization, comment summarization

Shared services

  • Enable cross-agency collaboration
  • Possible examples: developing shared infrastructure or models

All proposals must include a clear plan for user testing, risk mitigation, evaluation metrics, and senior executive support. Please see TMF criteria for areas the Board evaluates when reviewing proposals. The Chief AI Officers (CAIO) Council will support the continued refinement of AI focus areas for priority implementation.

Multiple paths to funding

We welcome AI proposals of all sizes. Knowing that experience with and readiness for AI varies widely across the federal government, we offer several paths for agencies to apply. Agencies should expect to repay a minimum of 50% of their investment to TMF over five years.

  If: And: Then:
A Proposal is larger than $6 million Proposal is based on significant prototyping and user research Apply through our usual Initial Project Proposal (IPP) process
B Proposal is $6 million or less Agency has done user research or proof of concept research and wants to expand to a pilot Apply through our Expedited AI pilot process
C Agency is in an exploratory phase Not applicable Complete our Expression of Interest form or email tmf@gsa.gov to discuss how we can support progress to the pilot phase, through discovery or other methods

For each of these pathways, or if you have questions about where your proposal fits into this schema, we recommend that agencies first reach out through our Expression of Interest form or by emailing tmf@gsa.gov. Submissions are open on a rolling basis with no due date.

Our expedited AI pilot process

To be considered, proposals must:

  • Request $6 million or less, with a project timeline of no more than 1.5 years: By keeping the pilot small and tightly scoped, the agency will demonstrate impact more quickly and create foundations to scale or implement lessons learned.

  • Include a clear plan for user testing: By testing with users, including the public or agency staff, agencies can better assess the strengths and weaknesses of their approach.

  • Address human, organizational, and security risks, and include plans to mitigate risks: Agencies must demonstrate how they will comply with the safety and security requirements of the AI executive order and related guidance. The proposal must outline the structure of government accountability and oversight of AI implementation within the agency, especially if work is outsourced to trusted contractors.

  • Include clear metrics to evaluate success: To inform future development, metrics must be defined in advance and align closely to project objectives.

  • Adopt a streamlined, agile, and objective-based procurement method that tests multiple approaches in a short period of time, funding only those that show promise:

    • Procurement approach: A traditional procurement approach (with a single, one-year period of performance) will not allow agencies to generate or evaluate results within a project timeline of no more than 1.5 years. We have a recommended approach, based on Parts 12 and 13.5 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which does not require special authorization or specialized funding.
    • Time to award: The procurement approach should take less than 75 calendar days from solicitation release to award.
    • Period of performance: The contract award should include multiple, shorter periods of performance, each not lasting more than 90 days. Shorter periods of performance provide post-award flexibility that allow for user testing and feedback to help inform follow-on funding decisions.
    • Important elements: Agencies must ensure that they have contractual mechanisms to reinforce the importance of user testing, analysis for bias, cybersecurity concerns, and other metrics for success.

Download details on our recommended procurement approach

Benefits of this expedited process:

  • Prioritized consideration of IPP
  • Expedited Full Project Proposal (FPP) process: The IPP will also serve as the FPP; agency teams only need to add financial data using TMF templates
  • Membership in an AI pilot cohort: Agency teams can attend workshops with other project teams on problem and use case definition, risk identification and mitigation, and data suitability and transformation
  • Procurement assistance, using TMF’s recommended procurement approach to reduce risk and increase impact

FAQs

The expected outcomes list is not exhaustive. We are open to ideas and advise you to reach out through our Expression of Interest form or tmf@gsa.gov before you invest deeply in an application.

We expect to receive proposals that use AI to drive outcomes for agency missions. This may come in a variety of forms. While we identified a non-exhaustive list of expected outcomes above, we are open to ideas and suggest you submit an Expression of Interest form or contact tmf@gsa.gov to explore further.

Agencies are expected to address potential project risks in their proposals and include plans to mitigate and evaluate them. The TMF Board, TMF Program Management Office (PMO), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will evaluate risk mitigation plans and interrogate proposals to ensure they are technically sound, have executive support, and that project teams are able to successfully execute on the vision.

Resources that may help agencies evaluate risks include:

All proposals must include a clear plan for user testing, risk mitigation, evaluation metrics, and senior executive support, but agencies have flexibility in how they approach their project and potential solutions.

GSA and OMB do not typically provide legal review for proposals. If agencies have legal questions about their proposal, they should inquire with their respective Office of General Counsel before formally submitting a proposal.

All AI proposals will require senior executive support. Requirements to submit the IPP can be found here. If the Board votes to advance the IPP to the FPP phase, the agency will be required to obtain signatures from the Project Lead, Executive Sponsor, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Information Officer. If the FPP is approved for investment, the head of the agency (or authorized delegate) will be required to sign the Interagency Agreeement.


Ready for the next step? Reach out to us through our Expression of Interest form or tmf@gsa.gov.