The HTHA 2024 Innovation Challenge is more than just a competition. It’s a platform empowering innovators to develop concrete use cases for their local public health systems.

With up to $100,000 in funding provided by HTHA, innovators can fast-track and demonstrate the implementation of their solutions in their local public health sector. These demonstrations will help innovators to establish an implementation track record, foster relationships with new public sector stakeholders, generate real-world evidence on feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness, and gather credible insights to refine their solutions.

The challenge awards will be distributed across two tiers, offering distinct opportunities:

1. Tier 1: Scaling Impact within the Public Health System: Eligible organizations can receive funding of up to $100,000 to demonstrate the scalability and effectiveness of their solutions within the public health sector. To qualify, applicants must be part of current or past “scaleups” track of The HealthTech Hub Africa.
2. Tier 2: Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Eligible organizations can receive funding of up to $50,000 to develop use cases that address specific healthcare challenges in the public health sector. To qualify, applicants must be part of the current or past “growth start-ups” or  “scaleups” track of The HealthTech Hub Africa.

By observing and documenting these demonstrations, HTHA continues to build an understanding of the critical enablers and barriers that start-ups encounter when trying to introduce and scale their solutions within the public sector. These insights will inform HTHA’s policy and advocacy agenda.

The HTHA 2024 Innovation Challenge is sponsored by the Novartis Foundation and the Global Fund.

The HealthTech Hub Africa Innovation Challenge 2024 aims to achieve the following goals:

1. To align health tech solutions from innovators with public sector priorities
2. To catalyse the development of scalable health tech solutions relevant to various African countries
3. To foster partnerships between HTHA pipeline start-ups and public sector stakeholders
4. To support real-world demonstration of innovative health tech solutions within the public health sector to support population health – attracting more funding and partners for scalability of the solutions
5. To generate new insights into the regulatory barriers and facilitators of public sector implementation and B2G business models to inform HTHA stakeholders and future versions of the Policy Blueprint
6. To foster collaborative learning across the cohort of winners

Primary applicants are required to be members of one of the HealthTech Hub Africa cohorts of enterprises (2022-2024) but should not have received funding previously through HTHA. They may partner with other organizations, including other HTHA cohort members or external organisations.

The applications will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Innovation and Impact:

• The degree of innovation demonstrated by the solution
• The degree to which the solution addresses a priority problem experienced within the public health sector
• Potential positive and catalytic impact on population health

Feasibility:

• Clear demonstration of how the health tech solution can be implemented within the given 6-month timeframe, including a skilled and motivated team and a realistic budget that demonstrates how the grant funds will be utilized

Scalability and Sustainability:

• The potential for the solution to be scaled up and replicated in other regions or communities

Collaboration and Partnerships:

• Evidence of past or future collaboration with relevant public sector stakeholders, such as national or sub-national governments, public healthcare training institutions, healthcare providers working in the public sector, public health facilities (e.g., Memorandum of Understanding; Letter of Support).

Compliance:

• A plan for obtaining necessary approvals (including ethics approvals as required) and ensuring compliance with local health regulatory requirements and standards, including data privacy and security.
• Alignment with relevant national digital health strategies

Clear Success Definition and Measurable Outcomes:

• Well defined impact and success parameters for the use case

A monitoring and evaluation plan with key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and measure success.