TOPx HHS Tech Sprint for AI and Invisible Illness — Grand Prize
Pays a $1,000,000 grand prize to the team with the best AI tool for Lyme disease or other invisible illness.
Runs in two phases: a non-monetary Team Mobilization round where a panel selects up to 15 teams per challenge area (up to 45 total, plus up to 15 alternates) from short concept proposals, then a TOPx Sprint round, roughly eleven weeks long, where advancing teams build and demo a working minimum viable product. Both phases are scored on the same 20-point rubric, split equally across four criteria: …
Open to individuals, teams and organizations that build AI-powered tools using U.S. Open Data to improve detection, care and understanding of hard-to-diagnose chronic conditions such as Lyme disease, Long COVID and other autoimmune illnesses. Entrants pick one of three challenge tracks: Lyme Innovation, Invisible Illness, or Cost of Illness. Entities must be U.S.-incorporated with a U.S. primary place of business, and individuals must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents aged 18 or over.
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Guides for this application
All guides →How to Write a Grant Proposal Reviewers Can Score
Learn how to write a grant proposal around reviewer criteria, evidence, work packages, budget logic, and commercialization for deeptech and R&D funding.
DocumentsGrant Work Plan Template: Work Packages, Gantt, Milestones, and Risks
Use this grant work plan template to structure work packages, tasks, owners, deliverables, Gantt timing, dependencies, and risk registers.
Write proposalGrant Concept Note Example: Pre-Proposal Structure for Startups
See a practical grant concept note example, with a worked deeptech pre-proposal, section map, invite-to-full logic, and reviewer checks.
DocumentsGrant Pitch Deck Example: Slides, Storyline, and Video Script
See a grant pitch deck example with slide outline, EIC-style pitch logic, demo-video script, and grant-vs-investor deck differences.
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