The Office of AIDS Research (OAR), the coordinating body of the HIV/AIDS research agenda and priority-setting entity at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is sponsoring the “Access, Delivery, Engagement, and Retention for Long-Acting HIV Prevention and Treatment in the United States” Challenge (LAUNCH Challenge) to encourage and reward innovative ideas to address persistent, well-documented barriers to the implementation and scale up of HIV prevention and treatment interventions. The LAUNCH Challenge is one opportunity to foster and reward innovation in HIV implementation science under an umbrella program recently launched by OAR, called Advancing Research in Implementation Science to End HIV (ARISE-HIV).
The HIV prevention and treatment landscape is rapidly changing with the introduction of long-acting products, creating new opportunities, and new implementation challenges, for how prevention and treatment interventions are delivered and scaled. Long-acting (LA) products for HIV prevention and treatment have the potential to be transformative innovations, but their impact will depend on effective implementation strategies that address health system, provider, and community-level determinants of adoption, delivery, and sustained use. LA products refer to biomedical interventions that last longer than single-day dosing. For example, Cabotegravir consists of a bi-monthly injection that prevents HIV transmission, and as a formulation for antiretroviral therapy, it consists of a bimonthly injection to treat HIV and suppress viral load. Another promising example is lenacapavir (LEN), a long-acting capsid inhibitor currently being evaluated for HIV prevention and treatment, with formulations designed to be administered as infrequent injections with dosing intervals of up to six months. These products – and others – offer important opportunities to accelerate progress toward ending the HIV epidemic. However, considerable implementation challenges must be addressed to achieve the greatest public health impact from such innovations.
With long-acting HIV prevention and treatment products becoming available, there is an urgent need to develop and deploy timely practical implementation solutions to overcome barriers to delivery and scale up and realize their full public health impact. To address barriers and constraints at multiple levels we need solutions that focus on health system adaptation and service delivery innovation. The success of these solutions will rely on robust stakeholder engagement, partnerships - across industry, donors, implementers, researchers, and community members, as well as dedicated leadership and vision.
This competition solicits innovative and actionable ideas to address challenges and constraints associated with the prevention of HIV transmission, and HIV treatment, through uptake of LA antiretroviral products. This competition will prioritize the rewarding of ideas that propose creative solutions, pragmatic approaches, and novel implementation strategies to address these challenges. The Challenge is offering a total prize purse of $1 million dollars across two phases. Prizes will be awarded to teams who submit the most compelling ideas (Phase 1) and related implementation and evaluation plans (Phase 2).
As mentioned above, this LAUNCH Challenge is one part of the ARISE-HIV program. The goal of the ARISE-HIV program is to accelerate implementation research to end the HIV epidemic. ARISE involves all NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices that award HIV funds and support research on prevention, care, and treatment, including co-occurring conditions / co-morbidities, as well as capacity-strengthening around HIV implementation science.
What is the Opportunity?
This Challenge offers the opportunity to compete for cash prizes. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of AIDS Research (OAR) is currently offering a prize pool of $1,000,000 that will be awarded across teams who successfully complete the defined objectives of the challenge. Phase 1 of the Challenge seeks actionable, pragmatic, and innovative ideas to optimize the implementation of LA products by addressing access, delivery, engagement, and retention across a range of settings, providers, health systems, and institutional and policy leaders in the United States. Phase 2 of the Challenge seeks plans for implementing those winning ideas from Phase 1. Ideas from a large range of submitters are welcome, including individuals or teams of individuals, community-based organizations, academia, industry, and teams across multiple organizations and sectors. Submissions from individuals or organizations not currently funded by NIH are encouraged. Ideas that bridge settings and propose key partnerships are likely to have the greatest generalizability and are encouraged. OAR will host informational webinars to provide additional guidance on the Challenge and submission process. Ultimately, the goal of the current Challenge is to identify promising ideas and reward teams in developing implementation plans (including how to evaluate the effects of implementation), with the potential for future Challenge awards recognizing successful implementation of the plans.
OAR recognizes that developing a rigorous implementation and evaluation plan requires skills and experience that not all teams will have in equal measure. Phase 1 is intended to surface the best ideas, not the most credentialed teams. To support Phase 1 winners as they develop their Phase 2 submissions, OAR will offer a series of webinars and office hours covering key topics in implementation planning, evaluation design, and partnership development. These sessions are designed to be accessible and useful to participants from all backgrounds, including community-based organizations, peer navigators, and others who bring lived experience and frontline expertise to this work. Participation is encouraged but not required. Additional details, including session schedules and topics, will be provided to Phase 1 winners at the time of invitation to compete in Phase 2.
Recently published data from the CDC and UNAIDS suggest that more than a million people in the United States, and more than 40 million globally, have HIV (CDC 2026, UNAIDS 2026). The number of people who could benefit from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is estimated to be over 2.2 million. Despite the availability of highly effective biomedical HIV prevention and treatment options, U.S. data indicate that only 76% of people with diagnosed HIV are receiving some HIV care, and only 67% demonstrate viral suppression (CDC 2026). Similarly, there were more than 39,000 new HIV diagnoses in 2023. Patterns in new diagnoses reveal a disproportionate impact in Black or African American populations (12% of population; 38% of new diagnoses) and Hispanic or Latino populations (18% of population; 34% of new diagnoses). Recent estimates suggest that 87% of new HIV transmissions are attributed to people who are unaware of their HIV or are out of care (CDC 2026). Notably, nearly a quarter of people with HIV in the United States are women, and more than half are age 50 years or older. Preventing new HIV transmissions remains a public health priority and greater uptake, adoption, and widespread scale-up of HIV prevention and treatment are essential to end the epidemic (CDC 2026).
Early attempts at HIV prevention and treatment implementation have been impeded by individual, contextual, systemic, organizational, and structural factors. Within delivery settings, barriers include payor obstacles, and the need for the establishment, maintenance and monitoring of new protocols to ensure safe and effective new product delivery. Addressing these barriers requires organizational changes to meet the need for leadership, identification of product champions, staffing adjustments or task-shifting, and/or technical assistance to support new delivery sites and providers in implementing best practices for new product (e.g., LAs) delivery.
Outside of delivery settings, innovations are needed to maximize access by reaching potential consumers where they are, provide choice in products to accommodate individual lifestyles, and make prevention and treatment options, and make services easier to access and sustain. Differentiated services have been successfully deployed for many previous biomedical advances in HIV to optimize reach. These include mobile units, community and home-based delivery, and HIV treatment integrated with other services (such as mental health, substance use care, and care for other co-occurring or co-morbid conditions) (WHO 2024). Both within and outside delivery settings, there is a compelling need for innovative strategies to build awareness, facilitate trust, and ensure engagement among providers, patients, family, and community members to strengthen uptake and sustained use of LA products.
Innovations should ensure: (I) Access, whereby LA products are affordable and available, particularly for those whose needs have not been met by current HIV prevention and treatment options; (II) Delivery, establishing effective and innovative service models to distribute and administer LA products within existing health systems and less traditional delivery settings -- which might include decentralized care, outreach modalities, and/or integrated services; (III) Engagement, creating awareness, understanding, and trust, and generating demand for LA products; and (IV) Retention, to maximize the benefits of prevention and treatment.
The domains described below provide illustrative examples of potential areas of focus but are not intended to be exhaustive. Note that when describing the idea, challenge participants should identify components that already exist in practice and those that are aspirational. The proposed ideas should address one or more of the following challenges to uptake, adoption, fidelity, and scale-up of LA products. For each domain, examples are offered but not exhaustive.
1) How can access to LA products be maximized?
Leaders, innovators, and delivery models should reflect the reality that LA products will be a treatment option that is offered in the context of increasing choice for potential users. Ideas will need to describe the population of focus. Why are these individuals important to prioritize? How will the proposed idea(s) overcome the real-world challenges? Examples could include, but are not limited to, low-barrier care, mobile units, street medicine, at-home care, and task-shifting injection administration (e.g., pharmacists). What strategies should be in place to maximize individual uptake and system-wide adoption of LA products?
2) What strategies and modifications are needed to deliver LA products safely and effectively to maximize reach and impact?
Delivery of LA products will require new workflows and staffing, protocols, and/or systems to support scheduling and coordination. Submissions should consider what innovations are needed to increase effective delivery to meet individual lifestyle needs and challenges associated with engagement and adherence, such as transportation, childcare, and expanded delivery hours. Are there staffing or other organizational changes that will require de-implementation to accommodate enhanced activities towards LA product delivery? Submissions should specify how their proposed delivery methods and modifications address barriers to uptake, adoption, fidelity, and care for patients, providers, and health systems. Does the proposed idea need to assess implementation readiness? What degree and type of technical assistance may be needed to deploy proposed changes effectively within organizations or by providers?
3) What creative approaches could be designed and implemented to increase engagement with LA products (or with their families and communities)?
Previous research illustrates that uptake and adoption of new biomedical HIV prevention and treatment interventions require awareness, understanding, and trust among consumers who could benefit. Submissions should consider all forms of potential communication avenues and modalities to increase awareness and trust, including provider-patient interactions, patient navigation including peer-to-peer, digital and other communication forms, social media and other community campaigns, and engagement of community leaders, traditional healers, and organizations for partnership and support. Any new product delivery will be most successful when both supply and demand are optimized.
4) How can individuals be supported to adhere to their medication schedule and retained in care to maximize the benefits?
There are known barriers to retention in HIV prevention and treatment, and participants are encouraged to innovate and tailor their ideas to unique aspects of LA product delivery. For example, it is common for people with HIV to experience real or anticipated stigma, and fear of disclosure as a barrier to retention in HIV treatment. What strategies can be adopted to reduce stigma? Potential side-effects of some LA products (e.g., an injection site reaction or nodule) could drive non-adherence. Because appointments and interactions with patients could be less frequent with LA products, mechanisms to maintain contact between appointments are needed. Examples of such strategies include, but are not limited to, check-ins and monitoring of barriers and constraints, such as mental health distress, poor social support, lack of housing, logistic hurdles, or any other competing life circumstances. Participants are encouraged to advance ideas to address challenges to uptake, adoption, retention, and scale-up. Strategies that mobilize the strengths and resilience of individuals, families, communities, providers, and health systems to bolster retention in treatment are encouraged.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National HIV Prevention and Care Objectives: 2025 Update. CDC. Published June 5, 2025. Accessed April 8, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/national-hiv-prevention-and-care-objectives-2025.htm
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Global HIV & AIDS statistics — fact sheet. UNAIDS. Updated 2025. https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet
World Health Organization. Differentiated and simplified pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention: Update to WHO implementation guidance. WHO; 2024. https://www.differentiatedservicedelivery.org/models/prevention/
Challenge Launch/ Phase 1 Submission Start: June 10, 9:00AM EDT
Phase 1 Submission Final Due date: August 6, 5:00PM EDT
Phase 1 Winner Announcement: September 29
Phase 2 Start: early October 2026
Phase 2 Submission End: mid-February 2027
Phase 2 Winner Announcement: late-February 2027
Statutory Authority to Conduct the Challenge. The NIH Office of the Director is conducting this Challenge under the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010, as amended [15 U.S.C. § 3719].
OAR was established in accordance with 42 U.S.C. §§ 300cc-40, as amended. Housed within the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives in the NIH Office of the Director, OAR coordinates the HIV research program across NIH.
This Challenge aligns with the NIH priority related to implementing advances in HIV/AIDS research (highlighted in a statement by the NIH Director) and is consistent with the mission of OAR, which is to ensure that NIH HIV/AIDS research funding is directed at the highest priority research areas and to facilitate maximal return on the investment. With this Challenge, OAR seeks actionable pragmatic and innovative ideas to optimize the access and use of evidence-based Long-Acting HIV prevention and treatment products across a range of settings.
The NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) launched the Advancing Research in Implementation Science to End HIV (ARISE-HIV) program in 2025. ARISE-HIV involves all NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices that award HIV funds and facilitates IS research on HIV prevention, care, and treatment — including co-occurring conditions. ARISE-HIV leverages multiple approaches to accelerate research in IS, including funding opportunities (e.g., Challenges), highlighted topics (e.g., Implementation Science to Optimize HIV Prevention and Treatment), agenda-setting and training workshops, engagement at key conferences, and targeted publications. ARISE-HIV will catalyze and coordinate IS research across the NIH, and strengthen IS capacity, to support ending the HIV epidemic.
Eligibility Rules
Submissions can come from individuals, teams and / or entities. We encourage participation from submitters from diverse backgrounds, including those with proven research capacity to conduct implementation science, capacity for implementing programs relevant for LA PrEP promotion, and/or representatives of communities substantially affected by HIV. Examples of eligible team partners could include one or more of the following: a community-based organization, individuals with lived experience, a health advocacy organization, an implementing partner from PEPFAR or other HIV program and / or individual researchers or universities. We encourage youth engagement on teams, where appropriate, noting that receipt of the Challenge Prize is restricted to participants 18-years-old or older.
To be eligible to win a cash prize under this Challenge, a Participant (whether an Individual, a group of individuals competing as a Team, or an Entity):
Shall have registered to participate in the Challenge under the rules promulgated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as published in this announcement.
Shall have complied with all the requirements set forth in this announcement.
In the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. In the case of a team, the Team Leader shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. However, non-U.S. citizens and non-permanent residents can participate as a member of a team that otherwise satisfies the eligibility criteria. Non-U.S. citizens and non-permanent residents are not eligible to win a monetary prize (in whole or in part). Their participation as part of a winning team, if applicable, may be recognized when the results are announced.
Shall not be a federal entity or federal employee acting within the scope of their employment.
Shall not be an employee of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS, or any other component of HHS) acting in their personal capacity.
If employed by a federal agency or entity other than HHS (or any component of HHS), should consult with an agency ethics official to determine whether the federal ethics rules limit or prohibit the acceptance of a prize under this Challenge.
Shall not be a judge of the Challenge, or any other party involved with the design, production, execution, or distribution of the Challenge or the immediate family of such a party (i.e., spouse, parent, stepparent, child, or stepchild).
Shall be 18 years of age or older at the time of submission.
Participation Rules:
Participants (whether an individual, team, or entity) may not use federal funds from a grant award or cooperative agreement to develop their Challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of their Challenge submissions.
Federal contractors may not use federal funds from a contract to develop their Challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of their Challenge submissions.
By participating in this Challenge, each Participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) agrees to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the federal government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from participation in this Challenge, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.
Based on the subject matter of the Challenge, the type of work that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood of any claims for death, bodily injury, property damage, or loss potentially resulting from Challenge participation, no Participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) participating in the Challenge is required to obtain liability insurance, or demonstrate financial responsibility, or agree to indemnify the federal government against third party claims for damages arising from or related to Challenge activities in order to participate in this Challenge.
A participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) shall not be deemed ineligible because the participant used federal facilities or consulted with federal employees during the Challenge if the facilities and employees are made available to all participants participating in the Challenge on an equitable basis.
By participating in this Challenge, each participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) warrants that they are sole author or owner of, or has the right to use, any copyrightable works that the submission comprises, that the works are wholly original with the participant (or is an improved version of an existing work that the participant has sufficient rights to use and improve), and that the submission does not infringe any copyright or any other rights of any third party of which the participant is aware.
By participating in this Challenge, each participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) grants to the NIH an irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to publish, post, link to, share, and display publicly the participants’ names and the title and/or summary of their submission on the web or elsewhere. Each participant will retain all other intellectual property rights in their submissions, as applicable. To participate in the Challenge, each participant must warrant that there are no legal obstacles to providing the above-referenced nonexclusive licenses of the participant’s rights to the federal government. To receive an award, participants will not be required to transfer their intellectual property rights to NIH, but participants must grant to the federal government the nonexclusive licenses recited herein.
Each participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) agrees to follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies.
Each participant (whether an individual, team, or entity) participating in this Challenge must comply with all terms and conditions of these rules, and participation in this Challenge constitutes each such participant’s full and unconditional agreement to abide by these rules. Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements herein.
Amount of the Prize: The total cash prize purse offered by this Challenge is $1,000,000. Prizes will be distributed to winning participants across two phases in the following amounts:
Phase 1: Up to 35 awards at $10,000 each
Phase 2: Up to 13 awards at $50,000 each
Phase 1 of the Challenge invites submission of ideas describing solutions that are feasible to implement. Selected ideas will receive an initial award of up to $10,000 each. OAR anticipates awarding up to 35 prizes for a total Phase 1 prize purse of $350,000, subject to review of the submissions. Winning participants from Phase 1 will exclusively be invited to submit a more detailed implementation and evaluation plan in Phase 2 and compete for a second more substantial prize of approximately $50,000 each. OAR anticipates awarding up to 13 winners in this second phase, subject to review.
Award Approving Official
The Award Approving Official will be the Director of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives within the NIH Office of the Director, or as otherwise delegated.
Payment of the Prize: Prizes awarded under this Challenge will be paid by electronic funds transfer to either an Individual, Team Leader, or Entity and may be subject to federal income taxes. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/NIH will comply with the Internal Revenue Service withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable. Entities participating in this Challenge are encouraged, but not required, to request and obtain a free Unique Entity ID (UEI), if they have not already done so, via SAM.gov as this will expedite prize payment. Additional information can be found at https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration. Winners must be able to provide bank account and routing information to receive the cash prize funds and must be prepared to obtain additional documentation or funds transfer information from their financial institution as needed. In the case of a Team entry, OAR will pay the cash prize directly and in full to the eligible Team Leader who registers and submits on behalf of a Team. In the case of an Entity entry, OAR will pay the cash prize directly and in full to the Entity and not to the Point of Contact who registers and submits on behalf of the Entity.
Disqualification. Submissions may be disqualified for plagiarism, falsification of any information submitted, use of copyrighted material without permission, and use of profanity, violent images, or nudity. OAR is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, invalid, unintelligible, or misdirected entries, which will be disqualified.
NIH reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to: (a) cancel, suspend, or modify the Challenge, or any part of it for any reason, and/or (b) not award any prizes if no submissions are deemed worthy.
Basis Upon Which a Winner Will be Selected.
Phase 1:
Only complete and properly formatted submissions will be evaluated. A panel of technical experts with subject matter expertise directly relevant to this Challenge will evaluate submissions. Winners will be selected by the panel based on the scores (including quality of submissions and portfolio balance), subject to the final decision by the Award Approving Official.
Phase 1 Judging Criteria :
Public Health Impact and Significance (40%). To what degree does the participant consider factors like environment, social conditions, economic stability, and other barriers to access to care that will enable the idea to have widespread population level impact and move beyond treatment of individual illness? Does the submission address a specific, important problem or barrier, and describe how the idea’s success will influence clinical practice, driving the field forward? How well does the submission explicitly prioritize populations disproportionately affected by HIV? To what degree does it address the structural or social factors that have made existing options less accessible or less effective for those populations?
Innovation/Novelty (35%). To what degree does the participant describe innovation(s) to improve access, delivery, engagement, and/or retention that have not been previously attempted (or successful) for their focus population, or will be deployed in a way that substantially increases reach towards individuals who have not benefited from daily regimens and more conventional services?
Pragmatic (25%). To what degree does the participant make a persuasive argument that the idea will work in applied settings / the ”real world" instead of under optimal / “controlled” conditions? To make this case often involves patients, families, clinicians, and other implementer input, to ensure relevance and feasibility. To what degree does the submission make a plausible case that the idea could be adopted beyond a single setting or population, or describe the conditions under which scaling would be possible? To what degree does the submission identify relevant partners (across delivery settings, community organizations, and/or other sectors) whose involvement would strengthen the feasibility of the proposed approach?
Phase 2 Judging Criteria:
Phase 1 winners will exclusively be invited to compete in Phase 2. With this more detailed plan, judging criteria will again include criteria from Phase 1 (a. Public Health Impact, b. Innovation, and c. Pragmatic) plus criteria related to d. quality of the defined Workplan, and e. quality of the plan to measure program success / the implementation science plan, including methods and outcomes. Additional details will be shared when participants are awarded the Phase 1 prize and exclusively invited to compete in Phase 2.
Phase 1
Registration and Submission Process: The official announcement for the Access, Delivery, Engagement, and Retention for Long-Acting HIV Prevention and Treatment in the United States Challenge can be found at www.nih.gov/challenges.
During the registration process, participants will be required to identify whether they are registering to compete in this Challenge as one of the following: as an Individual (i.e., on behalf of yourself), a Team (i.e., registering as a group of individuals competing together but not on behalf of an established organization, institution, or corporation), or as an Entity (i.e., registering as a group of individuals competing together on behalf of a legally established organization, institution, or corporation). Participants will need to provide the name, affiliation, and contact information of all individuals competing in this Challenge as part of a Team or on behalf of an Entity. All Participants must certify they have read, understand, and agree to abide by the official eligibility rules, participation rules, and requirements for the Challenge as stated in this announcement.
For Teams: Each participating Team is required to identify a Team Leader who will register and submit on behalf of the Team. The Team Leader is responsible for all communications with the Challenge sponsors and, in the event of winning a cash prize, will be paid the prize directly and in full. Any subsequent distribution of the cash prize to the Team members is the responsibility of the Team Leader. To be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Team Leader must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. In the event that a dispute regarding the identity of the Team Leader who actually submitted the entry cannot be resolved to NIH’s satisfaction, the affected submission will be deemed ineligible.
For Entities: Each participating Entity is required to identify a Point of Contact who will register and submit on behalf of the Entity. The Point of Contact is responsible for all communications with the Challenge sponsors. In the event of winning a cash prize, the prize will be paid directly and in full to the Entity, not to the Point of Contact. To be eligible to receive a cash prize, the Entity must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States. In the event that a dispute regarding the identity of the Point of Contact who actually submitted the entry cannot be resolved to NIH’s satisfaction, the affected submission will be deemed ineligible.
Completed submissions must be received by 5:00 PM ET on August 6, 2026.
Phase 1 submissions are completed entirely through the online submission portal. Each submission consists of a completed registration and a structured concept submission covering four content areas totaling approximately three pages. Submissions that do not address all required content areas, or that are otherwise incomplete or improperly submitted, will be disqualified and removed from prize consideration.
Submissions for Phase 1 should describe the public health significance of the idea, the target population, how it builds on existing evidence-based research or practice-based community insights, describe the logic driving the idea and a one-page proposal for an approach.
The concept submission must address the following:
Public Health Significance & Target Population (~1 page): The specific problem or barrier the idea addresses, its public health significance, and the population(s) the idea is designed to reach — including any relevant health equity considerations.
Innovation & Novelty (~0.5 page): What makes the approach new or different, and the existing evidence-based research or practice-based community insights it builds on.
Implementation Approach (~1 page): How the idea would be carried out in real-world settings, and its potential for broader adoption or scale.
Team & Partnerships (~0.5 page): The people behind the submission and any key partners whose involvement would support the proposed work.
In addition, participants will provide a short publicly releasable abstract (up to 500 characters) and identify which of the four challenge domains their submission addresses (Access, Delivery, Engagement, and/or Retention). Participants will also be invited — but not required — to respond to a brief, non-scored question about areas where Phase 2 support would be most useful to them; this response is not visible to judges.
All submissions must be in English. Participants must not use the HHS logo, official seal, or the logo of NIH in their submissions and must not claim federal government endorsement.
Phase 2
Only Phase 1 winners will be invited to submit a Phase 2 implementation plan. The Phase 2 submission must provide a detailed, actionable plan for implementing and evaluating the proposed idea. Submissions should clearly describe the implementation strategy, including target population(s), setting(s), delivery model, and key partners; a defined workplan with milestones and timeline; and a description of how the approach will be adapted to context while maintaining fidelity to core components. Phase 2 submissions must also include an evaluation plan with specific, measurable outcomes aligned with program goals (e.g., reach, uptake, retention, equity), as well as a plan for data collection, analysis, and rapid-cycle learning. Submissions should outline anticipated barriers and mitigation strategies, workforce and training needs, and a sustainability plan describing how successful components could be maintained and resourced beyond the award period. Additional formatting and submission instructions (including page limits and required templates) will be provided to selected Phase 1 winners at the time of invitation to compete in Phase 2.
