Due: March 23, 2026

Global health threats continue to proliferate and evolve, threatening armed forces and civilians alike. As a result, the need for cutting-edge technologies to enhance and expand prevention, detection, treatment, and protection efforts is ever-present. 

The 2026 Health Security Innovation Prize Challenge invites entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, SMEs and innovators to propose their next-generation health security technologies that enhance resilience, preparedness, and response capabilities across civilian and government applications.

This Challenge unites biotechnology R&D with real-world threat detection, mitigation and response through medical countermeasures, protective technologies, and cutting-edge diagnostics. Whether your expertise is in materials, vaccines, sensors, therapeutics, or software, this Challenge is your opportunity to propose technologies that safeguard the health and well-being of everyone from chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats.

FOCUS AREAS

The Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Consortium and the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC) – and the government customer they support – seek disruptive technologies in the following key areas:

Threat detection technologies such as:

• Wearable biosensors
• Sensor integration platforms
• Reliable, inexpensive microsensors and microsensor arrays
• Chemical agent identification technologies
• Low-cost individual soldier detection tools

Sensor data fusion technologies that:

• Unite decision making across modalities
• Reduce false alarm occurrences
• Integrate features from disparate sources
• Increase data trustworthiness and relevancy

Integrated protection and response technologies including:

• CBRN-resistant materials
• Self-detoxification systems
• Decontamination systems
• Smart isolation approaches
• Collective protection systems
• Quarantine approaches

Adaptive and autonomous systems to improve situational awareness including:

• Air or ground robotics platforms
• Sensor fusion software
• AI/ML powered situational awareness systems
• Real-time threat detection and characterization tools 

Diagnostic technologies:

• For field deployment at Role 1 (initial point of injury care) and Role 2 (secondary treatment and response) levels
• Host-based assays for disease diagnosis to direct therapeutics and predict clinical outcomes
• Metagenomic sequencing for clinical diagnosis

Manufacturing approaches including:

• Stabilization of biological MCMs/biologics
• AI/ML for insights or evaluation
• New alternative methods (NAMs) such as organ-on-a-chip
• Scalable manufacturing/priority access
• Battlefield medicines/expeditionary manufacturing
• AI/ML digital twin of human physiology

Pharmaceuticals and therapeutics:

• Host-directed therapeutics (assessed based on spectrum of activity, product maturity, and BW applicability)
• Threat-agnostic therapeutics
• Platforms to generate therapeutic of vaccine from novel sequence
• Chemical warfare agent prophylaxis

WHO SHOULD APPLY?

We welcome startups, researchers, and companies working at the intersection of:

• Biotechnology and medical countermeasures
• Advanced materials and protective technologies
• Diagnostics, AI, and sensing systems
• Wearables, robotics and autonomous platforms
• Decontamination and environmental hazard mitigation

If your work contributes to strengthening global health security, emergency preparedness, or medical resilience, we want to hear from you!

WHY PARTICIPATE?

• Earn part of the $200K prize – top solutions walk away with non-dilutive funding. No strings attached.
• Present your technology to government, industry, and healthcare leaders seeking deployable solutions.
• Gain exposure to potential funding, partnerships, and commercialization pathways.
• Connect with innovators, researchers, and decision-makers shaping the future of health resilience and security.