Announcement of Brilliant Failures Award AI in the public sector 2026

Artificial Intelligence (TO THE) offers many opportunities for optimizing public services. Taking advantage of these opportunities often involves trial and error. When innovating in AI in the complex government domain, it is often (almost-)failures that drive progress. A Brilliant Failure is a well-prepared attempt to achieve something with a different outcome than planned. Failures are brilliant when they are learned from and the experiences are shared with others. We find the opportunities to learn when things go wrong or (upon success) could have gone wrong, but where that didn't happen. You can because you were lucky, but also because you consciously made the right decision, based on thinking, knowledge use, to collaborate, etc.

In 2025 the Institute for Brilliant Failures, in collaboration with the AI ​​and Government Platform, has awarded the prize for the fourth time for the most brilliant failures in the field of AI/Data Science in the public sector. read here everything about the award ceremony. The AI ​​and Government Platform and the Institute for Brilliant Failures want to continue to emphasize the importance of experimenting with AI and hereby convey that (brilliant) failure in the responsible development and application of AI is inevitable.

We would like to invite you to submit your case below for the edition of 2026. You have until 30 september.

Jury assessment criteria

The assessment criteriaThe jury selects winners based on the VIRAL formula and considers the following matters:

  • Vision: The extent to which the failed project is based on a detailed vision of AI implementation
  • Effort: The extent to which one has committed to the success of the project and others
  • Risk management: The extent to which one has succeeded in striking the right balance between avoiding unacceptable risks, but daring to take acceptable risks
  • Approach: The extent to which one has prepared sight, cooperated, has used available knowledge
  • To learn: The extent to which people have learned from this project themselves and the knowledge has been or can be shared with others

Procedural criteria

  • Submission is through 30 september 2026 sent via the registration form on the right for the 'competition brilliant failure AI in public services
  • Transparent and compact information about your own position and specific role in the process
  • Email address and telephone number of sender known
  • The entrant has checked with his/her organization whether the case description may be made public in the run-up to the assessment of the entries, and announcing the winners.
  • Submitter's motivation why this failure matters, why does it have so much mhonor to share (e.g. as a closing word)
  • The project was carried out by party(and) in the public sector. Those are ministries, implementing organizations, municipalities, provinces, regional water authorities, collaborative organizations that carry out public tasks.

Composition of the jury

  • Sabine Herbrink, Program Manager Digital Thought, experience as coalition secretary at the Dutch AI Coalition
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Award uitreiking zorg 2020

Register Brilliant Failures Award AI Coalition 2026

  • Describe your Brilliant Failure in Public Domain AI

  • Briefly describe what your project was about.
  • Briefly describe your role in relation to the case
  • Give (If possible) roughly the period in which the project ran.
  • MM slash DD slash YYYY
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  • What was the aim of the initiative?
  • What steps have been taken to achieve the goal. Who is involved?
  • What went well or maybe even better than expected?
  • What has gone differently than planned? Why was the original goal not achieved?
  • What do you take with you to this or a next project? What are possible next steps?
  • What lessons can be drawn from this effort? What can others learn from this??
  • Don't you know what a brilliant failure is, look here (opens in new window).
  • If so, what needs to be done to move forward. If not, why not
  • You can do that below.
    Drop files here or
    Max. file size: 64 MB.