A challenge or prize competition is a type of project that allows the public to solve challenges presented by federal agencies and receive awards for the best solutions. The process boils down to three steps:

    1. Agency announces a prize competition and invites the public to solve it.

    2. Participants create and submit solutions to the problem.

    3. Agency evaluates solutions and awards prizes to the best ones.

In grants and contracts, an agency receives proposals to do tasks or research, chooses one or more entities to participate, and then pays the monetary award incrementally for the work to be done. In prize competitions, an agency generally selects a winner or winners based on the work that has already been done. In prize competitions, only the winner(s) receives an award.

Prize competitions define a smaller set of requirements, which allow participants to bring their creative solutions. This can be advantageous when a problem can be solved in many different ways, including ways that the agency is not even aware of. The open innovation approach can entice participation from those who may not have direct expertise in the problem subject matter area but can lend expertise from their diverse backgrounds.

No, submissions that propose mRNA vaccine development will not be considered competitive.

Unless the RNA-based technology targets endogenous RNA, RNA-based technologies and therapeutics will not be considered competitive.

Yes, the expectation is that this Challenge would result in several validated RNA-targeting technologies that are publicly available.  Phase I, the current active Phase, is for planning a comprehensive RNA-targeting technology that can be elaborated into a working prototype in the second stage of the Challenge.

The expectation is that technologies developed in response to this Challenge will address an unmet need in the RNA-targeting space that is relevant across multiple human diseases.  Individual diseases can be used as proof of concept, but the final technology must be applicable across many diseases.

No, the Challenge will accept many types of submissions to develop novel and innovative technologies that modulate RNAs in human disease, such as:

• Approaches to modify RNA-RNA binding protein (RBP) interactions to modulate splicing, stability or translation;

• Targeting long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) to regulate gene expression in cis or trans (nearby vs. distant genes, respectively);

• Novel assays to identify native RNA-RBP interactions and examine therapeutic effects;

• Design and validate screening libraries that are enriched with RNA-targeting small molecules;

• Approaches that modify aberrant RNA structures for therapeutic purposes.

These are only examples, and submissions need not be limited to the above. Only solutions that target endogenous RNA to treat disease will be considered competitive for this Challenge.

Yes, technology that targets RNAs among different diseases within one broader disease area would be considered multiple disease and thus would be considered competitive. 

These types of solutions would be considered competitive, as the output would still be a technology that develops therapies to treat endogenous RNA.   The proposed technology does not need to be the RNA-targeting entity itself.

Technologies of this type would be competitive for this Challenge as they still target endogenous RNA, even if it is through a mediator.  

As stated in the Challenge:

To address the need for RNA-targeting therapeutics, the Challenge focuses on developing novel and innovative technologies that modulate RNAs in human disease, such as:

•    Approaches to modify RNA-RNA binding protein (RBP) interactions to modulate splicing, stability or translation.

Novelty will be evaluated by our panel of experts in the field during review – but it is expected that the technology that is proposed will be ground-breaking in that it should not be well established and/or have a significant number of other groups already working on it.

Yes