The global medical firm, Johnson & Johnson, has launched the second edition of its Africa Innovation Challenge, which will help drive entrepreneurship and advance promising health care solutions. Chosen applicants will receive funding up to US$50,000 and technical mentoring from some of the brightest minds at Johnson & Johnson to help bring their idea to life and create meaningful change in their community or country.
The challenge focuses on identifying scalable and sustainable solutions to six major health and
environmental problems for Africa’s population.
Solution Categories:
The challenge’s six new solution categories aim to address significant threats to Africa’s health care systems and the environment:
• Botanical Solutions: Sixty to eighty percent of households in Africa still rely on traditional medicine to care for themselves and loved ones. We are seeking naturally-derived, plant-based solutions that tap into traditional
knowledge and deliver consumer health and wellness benefits through topical application.
• Packaging Innovations: Managing packaging waste from the increasing consumption in Africa is a challenge for many communities. We are seeking sustainable innovations for packaging of single-dose units and other affordable product sizes that will reduce or eliminate waste, while protecting the product.
• Mental Health: Caring for someone with mental illness, especially the youth, can be very challenging for rural communities. As a result, 75-85% of persons living with mental illness in Africa may not have access to mental
health care. We are seeking innovations that create awareness for mental illness as a public health problem and offer solutions for patients, caregivers, and their communities to address these issues.
• Health Worker Support: African frontline health workers experience high rates of stress and burnout due to the heavy burden of disease and marked health system challenges. We are seeking innovations that support the
wellbeing and resilience of nurses, midwives and community health workers at the heart of delivering care.
• Digital Health Tools: The African continent has the world’s poorest health outcomes, with HIV, TB, Mental Health, Maternal Health and Ebola having especially large impact particularly on women. We are seeking digital tools (including apps and other mobile/web/data enabled tech) for these important health care areas that can inform, educate, communicate and connect people to treatment, support and care through their reach and
information and improve health outcomes especially for women.
• Essential Surgical Care: A significant portion of the burden of disease in Africa can be treated with surgery. However, many health facilities in certain areas do not have the capacity to deliver even basic surgical
services. We are seeking innovations that promote access to timely, safe, and skilled surgical care.
Eligibility:
Challenge submissions may originate from anywhere in Africa, and from one or more individuals, teams or companies; subject to certain eligibility requirements set out in the terms and conditions for the challenge. The submitted health care solutions will be evaluated based on their ability to meet the following criteria:
1) Idea submission addresses at least one of the six challenge categories.
2) Idea submission is innovative and creative.
3) Idea submission is scalable.
4) Idea submission outlines how the award would help the applicant(s) reach a critical milestone within the timeframe of a single year and provides a full commercialization plan.
Application Process:
To apply to the Challenge and review the applicable terms and conditions, please visit here. The deadline to submit applications is January 16, 2019. Neither Johnson & Johnson nor any of its companies is granted any rights to applicant ideas as a result of their participation in the Challenge. Applicants and winners remain free to continue the further development of their ideas on their own.
Award recipients will be announced in Spring 2019.