Additionally, Nearly 140 Global Innovators Awarded for Projects aimed at improving Healthy Longevity

The National Academy of Medicines (NAM) Healthy Longevity Global Competition is pleased to announce the extension of its international Catalyst Awards through 2025, adding three annual cycles to seed innovative ideas. Focusing on helping accelerate research and entrepreneurism to foster potential breakthroughs in healthy longevity, the Global Competition is a multiyear, multi-phase international competition designed with the aim to help advance bold, novel ideas with the potential to dramatically improve health as people age. The Global Competition consists of three progressive phases during which innovators have the opportunity to compete for increasingly larger awards at the Catalyst, Accelerator, and Grand Prize levelsthe latter up to $5 million.

The Global Competition, along with its sister program the Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity, are part of a larger initiative to fuel a worldwide movement to help improve physical, mental, and social well-being for people as they age, known as the Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge. Unique to the Global Competition component in particular is the emphasis on bold, new ideas with the potential for big impactin disease prevention, mobility, functionality, social connectedness, the biology of aging, and more.

Weve been pleased to see the momentum, excitement, and innovative research that the Grand Challenge has generated in the field of healthy longevity since its inception, said NAM President Victor J. Dzau. This award competition program has attracted widespread interest from global innovators to explore novel ideas that may ultimately improve health throughout the lifespan, fostering opportunities for meaningful engagement at all stages of life. We are so pleased that our global collaborators enthusiastically support the extension of the Catalyst Awards competition through 2025 which would sustain the momentum and trajectory of this important movement.

Since its launch in October 2019, the Global Competition has brought together eleven global collaborators representing over 50 countries and territories. The NAM founded the competition and coordinates among a network of global collaborators, each sponsoring a Catalyst Award competition, while also administering a U.S.-based competition. Catalyst Awards are worth $50,000 USD. To date, the NAM and its global collaborators have issued more than $23.5 million in award funding to nearly 430 Catalyst and 13 Accelerator Awardees worldwide.

In addition to announcing the extension of the Catalyst Awards today, the NAM and its global collaborators announced the winners of the 2022 Healthy Longevity Catalyst and Accelerator Awards at the annual Global Innovator Summit. This year, innovators around the world submitted more than 1,100 applications, with over 470 of those from U.S.-based applicants. Ultimately, the NAM selected 25 Catalyst Awardees in 2022. They include:

The U.S.-based awards are sponsored by Johnson and Johnson Innovation, Bia Echo & Yun Family Foundations, and the NextFifty Initiative, which support of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition in the quest to find bold and transformative innovations to extend human health and function later in life.

Other organizations issuing Catalyst Awards in 2022 include the Academia Sinica of Taiwan; Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; EIT Health of the European Union; Agency for Medical Research and Development of Japan; Ministry of Health and National Research Foundation of Singapore; National Agency for Research and Development of Chile; Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; and UK Research and Innovation.

As Catalyst Awardees and Finalists projects progress, they become eligible to apply for support in the second phase of the competition, the Accelerator Phase. The three global Accelerator sponsorsJohnson and Johnson Innovation, Eisai, and the European Investment Bank (in partnership with kENUP Foundation)each administer awards.

This year, Johnson and Johnson Innovation announced the second cohort of awardees from its NAM Healthy Longevity QuickFire Challenge (Accelerator Awards). Each awarded project team will have the opportunity to receive funding and mentorship from experts across The Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies with the aim to help advance their Catalyst Award-winning work further. Awarded projects are listed below.

From the 2021 International Catalyst Award Winners:

From the 2020 International Catalyst Award Winners:

As part of the Global Competitions commitment to share knowledge and stimulate an entire field by not only rewarding innovative ideas but also sharing those ideas with the world, project summaries are available atwww.healthylongevitychallenge.org.

The final phase of the global competition, the Grand Prize, is anticipated in 2025 and will award one or more prizes of $5 million each for the achievement of a potentially transformative innovation that extends healthspan. Learn more about the NAMs Global Grand Challenge Competition and sign up for updates.

The Healthy Longevity Global Competition is sponsored by Anthony J. Yun and Kimberly A. Bazar, the Bia-Echo Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, John and Valerie Rowe, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, NextFifty Initiative, United Therapeutics Corp, and the Yun Family Foundation, in addition to commitments from the global collaborators of the Catalyst Phase and organizations sponsoring the Accelerator Phase.

TheNational Academy of Medicine, established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, is an independent organization of eminent professionals from diverse fields including health and medicine; the natural, social, and behavioral sciences; and beyond. It serves alongside theNational Academy of Sciencesand theNational Academy of Engineeringas an adviser to the nation and the international community. Through its domestic and global initiatives, the NAM works to address critical issues in health, medicine, and related policy and inspire positive action across sectors.The NAM collaborates closely with its peer academies and other divisions within theNational Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

For questions, contact:Dana Korsen, Media Relations ManagerOffice of News and Public Information202-334-2138; e-mailnews@nas.edu

Read the rest here:
NAM Extends Catalyst Phase of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition Through 2025 at Global Innovator Summit - National Academy of Medicine