Official Site of The State of New Jersey

The Innovation ENJINE Challenge is open to all New Jersey State employees of executive branch departments, as well as those of select commissions and agencies. For a list of participating entities, click here.

You can submit your ideas online at enjine.smarter.nj.gov. Your ideas should focus on ideas that are impactful for the people of New Jersey and feasible to implement. In your submission, you will need to address the following questions:

• What’s your idea? (60 characters or less)
• What problem does it solve for the people of New Jersey? (500 characters or less)
• What’s your solution? (1000 characters or less)
• What’s the anticipated impact? (1000 characters or less)

Stage One Awards will be selected based on peer voting. Any New Jersey State employee of an executive branch department, or of a select commission or agency, will be eligible to cast votes during a voting period that will run through April 29, 2019. For a list of participating entities, click here

The 20 ideas that receive the most votes will be selected to advance to Stage Two.

Eligible State employees are encouraged to vote on one another's ideas - you can vote for as many ideas as you like. Once you log in, all you need to do is click the "thumbs up" icon on a specific idea to cast your votes. As you browse ideas, you can sort and filter ideas by clicking on the "Filter Ideas" button. Remember, votes should be cast based on an idea's impact and feasibility:

Impact: How large is the potential impact of the proposed idea? Impact could be measured in terms of the money or staff time saved and/or the number of people, agencies, or departments that are positively impacted.

Feasibility: How feasible is it to potentially implement a proposed idea? Feasibility could be measured in terms of how likely it is that a proposed idea could be implemented, how much staff time would be required to implement it, or whether laws or regulations would need to change.

The individuals who submit the twenty ideas that receive the most votes will:

Be showcased on the SmarterNJ website and recognized at a ceremony;

Receive a certificate of achievement; and

Have their ideas advance to the next stage.

Any New Jersey State employee of executive branch departments, as well as select commissions and agencies can form and/or join a team that submits a proposed implementation plan. For a list of participating entities, click here.

Individuals, or teams of up to six, can now submit their implementation plans for any of the Top 20 ideas, or the five Governor's Office "Impact Ideas." For further details, click here to download the Stage Two Implementation Plan Submission Form. You can view all ideas that you can submit implementation plans for by clicking here

Stage Two awards will be selected by a review committee composed of representatives from the Governor’s Office, the Office of Innovation, and other senior Administration officials. The review committee will evaluate proposals on the following criteria:

Quantifiable Impact: How large is the potential impact of the proposed idea, and can that impact be measured?

Implementation Capacity: Can the Executive Branch independently implement the proposal?

Rapid Implementation Feasibility: How feasible is it to implement the proposal within a period of one year?

Proposal Completeness: Is the implementation plan comprehensive enough to be executed on in its current state?

The individuals or teams with the five winning plans will:

Receive expert advising and support to realize their plans; and

Be recognized at a special awards ceremony with the Governor.

Questions regarding the ENJINE Challenge must be submitted via email to enjine@smarter.nj.gov. All questions and responses will be posted publicly at this link, and be available to be viewed by all potential participants.