Breaking traditional funding barriers to accelerate transformational research.
“By bringing together clinicians, basic scientists, engineers, data scientists, entrepreneurs, and industry, we can have more powerful “Aha!” moments and then wrap them around resources that Weil and the Grand Challenge process offers.”
The Weil Institute Grand Challenge is a powerful funding avenue for multidisciplinary critical care research teams. This unique program addresses the barriers between concept & realization by providing dedicated tools and resources to experts from medical, engineering, data, and industry backgrounds to help bring their biggest and best ideas forward.
The Grand Challenge supports high-impact proposals by funding milestone-driven research over a 12-month timeframe. This intensive process includes:
Education sessions
Two rounds of proposal submissions
Project reviews and collective feedback from top thought leaders and field experts from across the University of Michigan, industry, and the Department of Defense
And we don’t stop there. The Weil Institute focuses on continuously moving research along the pathway from the laboratory to licensing to getting desperately needed solutions into practice. Our specialized labs, clinical research services, big data resources, and commercialization coaching allow Grand Challenge teams to quickly and effectively transform academic discovery into impactful critical care products and solutions that will save millions of lives.
Flowchart depicting the Grand Challenge process, comprised of the following eight steps:
1. The Kickoff Event: A day for researchers to meet and learn about the program.
2.The Stage-One Proposal Submission: Researchers who are interested in participating submit a two-page proposal.
3. The Stage-One Review: The Grand Challenge oversight committee reviews the two-page proposal.
4. The Stage-Two Proposal Submission: Based on scores assigned during Stage One, select teams are invited to submit a 10-page proposal.
5. The Wolverine Den: An event in which teams who submitted for Stage-Two pitch their ideas before a panel of judges comprised of clinicians, business development, entrepreneurs and Department of Defense experts.
6. Awards Announced: Winning teams are selected for funding based on criteria such as project relevance, clinical impact, research plan, budget and timelime, and all-around potential.
7. Commercialization Support: The Weil Institute provides ongoing support to funded teams including collaborations with the teams and Weil's core units, quarterly progress reports sent to oversight committee, partner recommendations, and disclosure of new inventions and inellectual proper to U-M Innovation Partnerships before public disclosure.
8. Follow-on Funding: The Weil Institute helps awardees find additional funding through grants or even resubmitting to the Grand Challenge.
