Funder: NIH Challenges
Due Dates: November 23, 2026 (Registration) | December 7, 2026 (Alternate registration date) | January 22, 2027 (Phase I) | July 9, 2027 (Phase II) | November 19, 2027 (Phase III)
Funding Amounts: $1,000,000 total prize purse; Phase I: $10,000 per winner; Phase II: $100,000 per winner; Phase III: $275,000 and $225,000
Summary: A three-phase prize competition for reusable AI-ready datasets, computational methods, and interoperable infrastructure addressing whole-person chronic disease disparities.
Key Information: Only winners of each phase may compete in the next phase.
Description
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) runs this SCHARE Grand Challenge to transform fragmented data into reusable infrastructure for AI-driven chronic disease disparities research. It invites multidisciplinary approaches integrating biological, behavioral, environmental, healthcare, and community data to understand how interacting factors shape disease across the lifespan.
The competition progresses from a concept blueprint (Imagine), to a working prototype (Build), to model testing and validation (Prove). Priorities include missing data, small samples, population representation, interoperability, and transparent, reproducible resources accessible to other researchers. Projects should move beyond describing disparities or predicting outcomes toward discovering disease mechanisms and actionable intervention targets for prevention, treatment, and population health.
