The Ministry of Interior and Safety at Government Complex Sejong [Newsis]
The Ministry of Interior and Safety at Government Complex Sejong [Newsis]

The Ministry of Interior and Safety announced Tuesday that online public voting for the "2026 Government Innovation Championship" — a competition to select the year's best government innovation cases — will run from Wednesday through Sept. 1.

The Government Innovation Championship is the government's flagship competition for identifying and spreading outstanding innovation cases pursued by central administrative agencies, local governments, education offices and public institutions. This year's contest covers three categories — participation and communication innovation, basic society innovation, and administrative innovation — and aims to select policies that citizens feel in their daily lives.

The evaluation begins with a preliminary round combining expert review and online public voting, followed by a main round that includes online policy communication and an in-person competition, before final rankings are determined.

A total of 546 innovation cases were submitted from 254 institutions nationwide — 166 in participation and communication innovation, 179 in basic society innovation and 201 in administrative innovation. Expert panels in each category selected 79 cases to advance to the online public evaluation stage.

The online public evaluation will be conducted through Sotong Hyeoksin 24, a government online communication platform.

Any member of the public may review the innovation cases and vote for up to three entries per category they consider most outstanding. Participants will be entered into a draw for prizes.

Public voting results will be combined with expert review scores to determine which entries advance to the main round. From there, 13 finalists for the final competition will be confirmed through an online policy communication process consisting of policy introduction videos and public question-and-answer sessions.

Final rankings will be decided through on-site voting at a policy promotion hall and competition held as part of the "2026 Government Innovation Expo," which opens Nov. 25 at Kintex in Ilsan.

Noh Hong-seok, director general of the ministry's Participatory Innovation Organization Office, said small innovations in the field become the driving force that changes people's daily lives and leads to sweeping change across the country. "Your vote carries great weight in building better government innovation, so we ask for your keen interest and participation in this online public evaluation," he said.


thlee@heraldcorp.com