Identifying and Deploying Next-Generation Solutions for Prevention, Protection and Rapid Response to CBRN Threats
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.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications are now open here! Submit your innovation for consideration, and join the mission to build a more secure, resilient future.