Lone Star Prize Is Good News For Texans with Good Ideas

Here’s some good news — and it may lead to even more good news.

The Lone Star Prize is a new statewide competition that invites Texans to submit ideas to improve health care, protect the environment, or help the workforce in Texas.

The winner gets a $10 million grant to help make their idea a reality.

The prize is the brainchild of Lyda Hill Philanthropies, a foundation based in Dallas. Nicole Small, the foundation’s CEO, is one of Texas 2036’s board members.

Texas 2036 is proud to be a partner in this effort — we’re offering applicants access to the more than 350 data sets we’ve put together that help identify where Texas stands — and where we’re headed — on a range of issues facing the state. As our President and CEO Margaret Spellings put it, the prize “taps our state’s innovative spirit to find solutions to these critical issues that will ensure Texas is the best place to live and work for years to come.”

Like Texas 2036, which was created to help Texas prepare for its bicentennial in 16 years and the roughly 10 million more people expected to live here then, the Lone Star Prize is focused on the future. Specifically, with regard to its three key focuses:

  • On health, the prize seeks projects that “cultivate stronger communities, improve health systems, and support healthier families to improve health outcomes for Texans.”
  • On the environment, it seeks to “restore natural resources, promote energy efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions to sustainably protect Texas from climate change.”
  • And on workforce, it’s looking for ideas to “boost the employability of workers (including those displaced during the COVID-19 pandemic), build promising career pathways, and spur job creation to strengthen the workforce in Texas.”

Given the state’s challenge responding to the coronavirus, the Lone Star Prize couldn’t be more timely. Said Lyda Hill, founder of her namesake foundation: “Our great state of Texas has a rich history of responding to challenges with ingenuity and bold solutions. In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the Lone Star Prize is an opportunity to put good ideas into action … We must ensure Texas remains the best place to live and work for the next generation of Texans.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

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