Viral Vigilance: Next-Gen Outbreak Response

• Challenge Overview: Recent cuts to surveillance programs have left our defenses weakened, compromising the U.S. ability to swiftly detect and manage health threats. This challenge emerges amid rising national risks, calling for innovative solutions that bridge data science with epidemiology to safeguard communities. 
• Challenge Scope & Innovation We invite epidemiologists, data scientists, global health NGOs, biotech startups, AI researchers, and tech companies to design cutting-edge products and systems. Participants should aim to create scalable, cost-effective technologies that rapidly pinpoint and respond to outbreaks, transforming data into decisive action and diminishing public health vulnerabilities. 
• Leadership & Collaborative Impact Led by HeroX, this challenge is a call-to-action for trailblazers dedicated to enhancing national and global resilience to disease outbreaks. Harness the power of predictive analytics and AI to turn surveillance limitations into opportunities for revolutionary public health protection.

This challenge is part of HeroX’s new co-sponsor initiative - where anyone can help make bold solutions possible.

Across the globe, people see the warning signs of failing outbreak surveillance. They want to help, but often don’t know how. That’s where HeroX comes in: empowering the crowd to solve problems that matter. We're turning concern into action through two powerful mechanisms: open innovation and crowd-driven funding.

This isn’t just a competition—it’s a movement.

🤝 Co-Sponsorship: Fueling Innovation Together

Organizations and individuals can directly contribute to this challenge by:

• Donating toward the prize purse to reward top solutions.
• Becoming a co-sponsor to publicly align with this mission.
• Creating a matching fund (e.g., double the prize once the crowd hits a target).

Co-sponsors receive brand visibility on the challenge page, media outreach, and challenge materials - demonstrating their leadership in the fight against future outbreaks. Most importantly, they help turn good ideas into real-world tools that protect communities.

Together, we can build the future of outbreak response—faster, smarter, and more resilient.

The goal of this challenge is for innovative solvers to design a deployable solution [a tool, platform, process, or system] that uses data, advanced analytics, data visualization, or AI to improve early detection or rapid response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Teams must define a specific gap in the current outbreak response pipeline they are targeting. For instance:

• Early signal detection from nontraditional data (e.g., wastewater, social media, pharmacy sales).
• Prediction models that flag unusual patterns in known data streams.
• Decision support tools that accelerate triage and resource allocation.

Solutions will be submitted in one of the forms below:

• Prototype or MVP of a digital tool or platform.
• Algorithm or model with validation on a real or synthetic dataset.
• System architecture and deployment plan, including partners/stakeholders.
• Process innovation (e.g., decentralized outbreak reporting workflow with privacy guarantees).

In your submission, you will walk through:

• What data sources your solution uses.
• How the signal is detected or outbreak flagged.
• Who receives the output and what action it enables.

Solutions:

• Must be cost-effective and scalable
• Must clearly articulate deployment context (e.g., local public health office? Global surveillance network?)
• Should be human-in-the-loop where appropriate
• Should account for real-world testability or alignment with existing systems (e.g., GPHIN, WHO GOARN, CDC syndromic surveillance)

Solvers can select into one or more solution tracks:

• Early Signal Detection
• Predictive Modeling & Forecasting
• Actionable Insights for Frontline Response
• Community-Based or Low-Resource Solutions