The National Institutes of Health is offering up to $8 million in cash prizes to accelerate development of technologies to improve maternal health outcomes for those who live in areas lacking access to maternity care.
Donor Name: National Institutes of Health
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Challenge
Deadline: 11/01/2022
Size of the Grant: up to $500,000
Details:
The Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Technology (RADx® Tech) for Maternal Health Challenge prioritizes home-based or point-of-care diagnostic devices, wearables and other remote sensing technologies to improve postpartum healthcare in these regions. The postpartum period is defined as the first year after giving birth or the end of a pregnancy, and it accounts for a large proportion of maternal deaths in the United States. Successful technologies will enable extension of postpartum care by empowering postpartum individuals, their caregivers or healthcare providers with actionable health information they can use to inform decisions about when to seek additional care. Priority conditions for prediction, detection, diagnosis, and monitoring during the postpartum period include cardiovascular diseases (such as cardiomyopathies), hemorrhage, sepsis, and mental health conditions (such as postpartum depression and psychosis), which are associated with high rates of severe maternal morbidity and mortality during the first year after delivery or end of pregnancy.
Diagnostic technologies that are in the prototype stage or further along in development will be evaluated using the RADx Tech “innovation funnel” approach, which compresses the technology development timeline by using expert teams to simultaneously address scientific, technical, regulatory, clinical and commercialization requirements across milestone-based stages. The RADx Tech for Maternal Health Challenge will consist of three phases, and only those Innovators selected to win in each phase will be permitted to advance to the subsequent phase:
- Viability Assessment Phase – Following an administrative triage, proposals will be reviewed by a Viability Panel of scientific/technological, clinical, and commercialization experts and evaluated against the Evaluation Criteria.
- Deep Dive Assessment Phase – A Project Team of healthcare technology commercialization and content experts will engage directly with each Innovator to assess the prototype technology across the Evaluation Criteria and will work with NIH to identify key risk factors for accelerated development and implementation and establish ways to mitigate these risks.
- Technology Assessment Phase – Progress made by Innovators in furthering the development and de-risking of their technologies will be evaluated at two points throughout this phase: at an interim milestone point and at a final point at the end of the phase following the independent testing and verification of the technology’s performance and usability.
Prizes
The total prize purse for this challenge is $8,000,000. Prizes will be awarded following the successful completion of each phase of the challenge in the following amounts:
- Viability Assessment Phase – $20,000 per winner; up to 25 winners
- Deep Dive Assessment Phase – $75,000 per winner; up to 12 winners
- Technology Assessment Phase – prizes will be disbursed across the following stages within this Phase:
- Interim Milestone: up to $300,000 per winner; up to 12 winners
- Testing & Verification: up to $500,000 per winner; up to 6 winners
Eligibility Criteria
- Participation in the Challenge is open to any U.S.-based Innovators that can demonstrate the feasibility and readiness of its technology to accurately predict, detect, diagnose and/or monitor conditions affecting maternal health during the postpartum period. Innovators must formally register and compete as either an independent Team (i.e., registering as a group of individuals competing together but not on behalf of an established organization, institution, or corporation) or as an Entity (i.e., registering as a group of individuals competing together on behalf of a legally established organization, institution, or corporation). Innovators may include, but are not limited to, teams of individuals, start-ups, small- or mid-size businesses, large businesses, non-profit organizations, and academic or independent research institutions. Innovators intending to use Federal grant or cooperative agreement funds, if permissible, must participate in the Challenge as an Entity on behalf of the awardee institution or organization.
- For Teams: Each participating Team is required to identify a Team Captain who will register and submit on behalf of the Team members. The Team Captain is responsible for all communications with the Challenge sponsors and, in the event of winning a cash prize, will be paid the prize in full. To be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Team Captain must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.
- For Entities: Each participating Entity is required to identify a Point of Contact who will register and submit on behalf of the Entity. The Point of Contact is responsible for all communications with the Challenge sponsors. In the event of winning a cash prize, the prize will be paid directly to the Entity, not to the Point of Contact. To be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Entity must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.
For more information, visit NIH.
