Options for Pregnancy Termination Innovation (OPTions) Initiative Hackathon

The Challenge

The OPTions Initiative is awarding $250,000 grants for the development and testing of next-generation methods of pregnancy termination. Ideas at all stages are welcome – including very early stage – and innovators from all fields are encouraged to participate.

The aim of the OPTions Hackathon is to save and improve the lives of women and girls through expanded and improved choices for methods of pregnancy termination.

The OPTions Initiative is seeking bold, innovative, transformational and ‘outside-the-box’ ideas for next-generation methods of pregnancy termination, including those that incorporate concepts, methods and technologies not currently being used for pregnancy termination.

Ideas

Next-generation methods of pregnancy termination should offer one or more improvements to existing pregnancy termination methods, including but not limited to:

• The ability to be effectively administered at later stages in gestation
• Effectiveness at terminating a pregnancy
• The ability for women and girls to access and self-administer with greater autonomy and privacy
• Ease of compliance (e.g. single pill administration)
• Reduced side effects and pain
• Stability profile
• Permissive within existing regulatory frameworks (e.g. having other primary indications)
• Cost-effectiveness

Participants

Innovators worldwide and in all fields are encouraged to participate, including but not limited to:

• FemTech
• Medicine
• Healthcare
• Biomedical engineering
• Biotechnology
• Biomedical physics
• Drug development and trials
• Biohacking
• Individuals with knowledge of traditional, folk, and indigenous methods of pregnancy termination

Innovators must be directly affiliated with an institution that is able to administer a grant (sole proprietorships are ineligible) and cannot be a previous or current direct grantees of the Very Large Anonymous Donor. For more details on eligibility, please see Section 4.1 of the OPTions Round 2 Request for Proposal.

Submissions

Participants of the Hackathon will submit an application for funding through our Fluxx Application Portal. Submitted applications will be reviewed by the OPTions Initiative expert Peer Review panel.

The OPTions Initiative aims to award approximately 20 grants to the top applications for the Round 2 Request for Proposals, including those submitted during the Hackathon.

Judging Criteria 

Applications will be evaluated on their boldness, potential for impact, project execution plan, ability to champion change, and value for effort. Additional details can be found in Section 4.5 of the Request for Proposals.

Timeline

• Now – Register Here
• May 19th, 2020 11:00 AM (EST)/5:00 PM (CET) – Opening Webinar
• June 1st, 2020 11:00 AM (EST)/5:00 PM (CET) – Application Walk-Through Webinar
• June 8th, 2020 1:00 PM (EST)/7:00 PM (CET) – Q&A Session
• June 11st, 2020 – Draft Application Submission
• June 15th – 17th, 2020 – Virtual Hackathon
• June 17th, 2020 1:00 PM (EST)/7:00 PM (CET) – Final Application Submissions
• June 22nd, 2020 – Expert Peer Review Panel for Applications Begins

Hackathon participants will receive proposal development support and mentorship to fine-tune their idea and craft their application, giving them the best possible chance of receiving a $250,000 grant.

For more information please visit the OPTions Initiative website.