The Secretary of Defense, acting through the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the service acquisition executive for each military department, may carry out programs to award cash prizes and other types of prizes that the Secretary determines are appropriate to recognize outstanding achievements in basic, advanced, and applied research, technology development, and prototype development that have the potential for application to the performance of the military missions of the Department of Defense.

Each program under subsection (a) shall use a competitive process for the selection of recipients of cash prizes. The process shall include the widely-advertised solicitation of submissions of research results, technology developments, and prototypes.

No prize competition may result in the award of a prize with a fair market value of more than $10,000,000.

(1) No prize competition may result in the award of a prize with a fair market value of more than $10,000,000.

(2) No prize competition may result in the award of more than $1,000,000 in cash prizes without the approval of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

(3) No prize competition may result in the award of a solely nonmonetary prize with a fair market value of more than $10,000 without the approval of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

A program under subsection (a) may be carried out in conjunction with or in addition to the exercise of any other authority of an official referred to in that subsection to acquire, support, or stimulate basic, advanced and applied research, technology development, or prototype projects.

In addition to such sums as may be appropriated or otherwise made available to the Secretary to award prizes under this section, the Secretary may accept funds or nonmonetary items from other departments and agencies of the Federal Government, from State and local governments, and from the private sector, to award prizes under this section. The Secretary may not give any special consideration to any private sector entity in return for a donation.

Use of prize authority under this section shall be considered the use of competitive procedures for the purposes of section 2304 of this title.

(Added Pub. L. 106–65, div. A, title II, § 244(a), Oct. 5, 1999, 113 Stat. 552; amended Pub. L. 107–314, div. A, title II, § 248(a), Dec. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 2502; Pub. L. 108–136, div. A, title X, § 1031(a)(20), Nov. 24, 2003, 117 Stat. 1598; Pub. L. 109–163, div. A, title II, § 257, Jan. 6, 2006, 119 Stat. 3184; Pub. L. 109–364, div. A, title II, § 212, Oct. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 2119; Pub. L. 111–84, div. A, title II, § 253, Oct. 28, 2009, 123 Stat. 2243; Pub. L. 111–383, div. A, title IX, § 901(j)(4), Jan. 7, 2011, 124 Stat. 4324; Pub. L. 113–66, div. A, title II, § 263, Dec. 26, 2013, 127 Stat. 726; Pub. L. 113–291, div. A, title II, § 211, Dec. 19, 2014, 128 Stat. 3324; Pub. L. 114–92, div. A, title X, § 1079(a), Nov. 25, 2015, 129 Stat. 999; Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title X, § 1081(c)(6), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2420; Pub. L. 115–91, div. A, title II, § 213, Dec. 12, 2017, 131 Stat. 1324; Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title X, § 1081(a)(21), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 1984.)