Featured April 3, 2025 Building AI leadership with the AI Center for Government™ Back to Blog 2025 Federal Data Excellence Awards highlight exemplary federal data products and the teams who make them Date April 9, 2026 Authors Hannah Sobran Tags Innovation and Technology, Recognition The Partnership for Public Service and USAFacts held their second annual Federal Data Excellent Awards ceremony on March 31 recognizing four exceptional data products and the teams who built them. The Federal Data Excellence Program was created in recognition of the impact that federal data has on policymaking, effective governance and the public. A key part of this initiative is designed to highlight the public servants that create accessible, helpful, interoperable and timely data products. In 2025, the Partnership and USAFacts reviewed over 40 data products using a grading rubric developed jointly by the two organizations. Meet the 2025 Federal Data Excellence Awards winners Administrative Product Award: BankFind Suite – Summary of Deposits (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) Recognizes products that share data on federal spending or other financial information Geospatial Product Award: Landscape Change Monitoring System (U.S. Forest Service – U.S. Department of Agriculture) Recognizes products that share administrative data with geospatial aspects through geographic formats or maps Statistical Product Award: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – Department of Health and Human Services) Recognizes products that share data collected via surveys, scientific studies or other research methods Honorable Mention (Static Product): National Fire Incident Reporting System (U.S. Fire Administration) Recognizes exceptional products that do not have an interactive component such as a dashboard or data explorer The 2025 Federal Data Excellence Award winners were honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on March 31. The event announcing the awards featured a panel made up of Karen Schleeweis and Kevin Megown from the U.S. Forest Service, Anup Sabharwal and Alex Marshall from the FDIC and Denice Ross, a former U.S. chief data scientist. The panelists discussed how to ensure public trust in government data, balancing timeliness with methodological rigor and operating in an environment with constrained resources. On public trust, panelists offered solutions and insights into increasing public engagement with government data, making the role of federal data more visible to the public and increasing representation in data for historically underrepresented groups. They also discussed navigating unpredictable environments and the importance of collaboration between different sectors within an agency that supports data products. Finally, the speakers explored ways to incorporate state-level or private-sector data to supplement the federal government’s work. In addition, the awards ceremony highlighted an issue brief that explored changes to federal datasets in 2025. The brief examined the status and functionality of the program’s inaugural set of nominees. It found that only about half of last year’s submissions remained functional and updated, while the other half missed updates, were not updated at all or experienced reduced functionality. Learn more about the Federal Data Excellence Program.
