Johnson & Johnson QuickFire Challenges

Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery QuickFire Challenge — #2

Funds surgical artificial intelligence projects in decision support, data governance, and operating efficiency.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech launched the Polyphonic AI Fund for Surgery QuickFire Challenge to accelerate artificial intelligence applications in surgery. Cohort #2 ran from October 21, 2025 through a February 27, 2026 application deadline, with awardees announced on a rolling quarterly basis from Q2 through Q4 2026. Each selected applicant receives up to $100,000 in grant funding — confirmed cash, not in-kind only — plus mentorship from Johnson & Johnson experts and computing resources including GPUs, cloud platforms, ML and AI modeling toolkits, and SDKs. Johnson & Johnson explicitly does not acquire intellectual property as a condition of the award. Prior recipients include Mayo Clinic and QAS.AI.

The program targets three surgical data science domains: surgical decision support (perioperative AI as a surgeon co-pilot), data management and governance (infrastructure, privacy, consent, labeling, and regulatory research), and surgical efficiency (care team coordination and perioperative care). Soft tissue surgical specialties are the primary areas of interest, including colorectal, bariatric, thoracic, urology, gynecology, and general surgery. Applications are accepted from global innovators at any stage — ideation through commercial launch — provided they have a path to commercialization. Pure academic research without a commercialization pathway is out of scope. One application per novel solution per company is permitted.

Cohort #2 applications are closed as of February 27, 2026. Evaluation criteria include clinical relevance and patient impact, patient safety and ethics, feasibility, innovation, team expertise, regulatory compliance, and cost effectiveness. Cohort #3 has not been announced but the program is designed for recurring cohorts; applicants should monitor jnjinnovation.com/innovation-challenges for the next opening. Applications are submitted through the J&J QuickFire secure platform portal.