By Sanjana Ramachandran, APS Projects and Engagement
Round 2 of the Capability Reinvestment Fund (the Fund) recently kicked-off on 1 July 2024.
The Fund is an innovative approach to capability investment. Implementing scalable activities will support all agencies to better prepare for current and future challenges.
$6.5 million has been allocated this round for nine projects, involving 24 agencies.
Project proposals were pitched against 5 priority capability areas, which included:
- Enhancing data analytics and policy integration capabilities.
- Ensuring cultural and psychological safety in physical and virtual workspaces.
- Adapting to a green economy workforce.
- Building APS understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) application in the public sector.
- Enhancing APS capability for working in Asia and the Pacific.
The quality and competition of prospective projects was high with 44 proposals received.
Following an evaluation process, the below nine projects recently commenced on 1 July 2024:
- AI for integration and inclusion to deliver AI-powered tools, training and testing to enhance policy development, inclusive design, and community engagement across the APS; and build foundational knowledge in using data and AI effectively.
- APS data integrity framework to develop a prototype framework to better harness data to measure and monitor the effectiveness of the integrity system and the impact of reforms.
- Uplifting APS capability to work effectively with First Nations data and evidence to deliver workshops, engage in collaborations and develop learning materials to enhance APS data and policy officer capabilities to understand and engage with First Nations data, knowledge and evidence.
- Building APS capability to draw strong policy insights through an integrated data tool to raise cross-portfolio capabilities through piloting a digital integrated map of human service delivery that will integrate multi-disciplinary data and information from a range of jurisdictions.
- Building safety and integrity capability across the APS to build and strengthen integrity and psychological safety within the APS through improved understanding of psychological safety and how it can be established and maintained through behaviour and good work design.
- APS integrated unconscious bias training program to deliver an APS-wide Integrated Unconscious Bias training program to mitigate the adverse impact of unconscious bias on the workplace experience of employees.
- Greening Government microcredentials to develop and trial nationally focused, internationally aligned Greening Government microcredentials.
- Narratives of the lived experience to capture the lived experiences and stories of APS CALD and non-CALD employees to build our understanding of cultural diversity, communities and languages. The stories will form a suite of resources that will be shared across the APS to inform, educate and build empathy.
- Futures exercises for developing Asia and the Pacific expertise to develop three scenarios/futures exercises to enhance understanding of Asia and the Pacific, integrate domestic policy agencies into the national security conversation and develop whole-of-government responses to future challenges in the Indo-Pacific.
We are excited to facilitate progress updates on the above projects through future MyAcademy Newsletter articles. The APS Academy provides secretariat support to project teams including project advice, connecting teams with each other and access to the APS Academy’s service offerings to enable outputs to be shared with the wider APS at scale.
Round 1 of the Fund supported ten projects involving 14 agencies sharing in funding of $8.4 million. These projects recently wrapped up on 30 June 2024.
The evaluation phase of round 1 projects is now underway with an Evaluation Report to be published in September 2024.
Stay tuned for more Capability Reinvestment Fund project updates and stories!
