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Cardiovascular HealthTech Innovation Challenge: #Play4Health

"Increasing Healthy Living Options for School Children in Africa Today to Decrease Cardiovascular Complications Tomorrow"

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What is the Challenge

The Novartis Foundation through the HealthTech Hub Africa (HTHA), a hybrid pan-African health tech accelerator, launches the #Play4Health call for applications.  

The challenge aims to identify one or two innovative health tech solutions to receive a fast-tracking grant(-s) to increase healthy living options for school children in Africa, and as a result – have a long-term positive impact on their cardiovascular health.

A study conducted by the University of Basel, the University of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the Novartis Foundation found that 40% of school children in the disadvantaged communities in and around Port Elizabeth, South Africa, did not meet international physical activity recommendations and 30% of them classified as hypertensive.

The purpose of this Challenge is to highlight the main requirements and design principles for HealthTech (HT) innovations to address the priority gaps in the cardiovascular (CV) population health for school children, with the goal to accelerate or scale up two selected solutions (-s) in one or more countries in Africa, and make recommendations for a larger scale up plan upon completion of a successful fast-tracking project. Solutions building on the findings of the KaziBantu initiative are encouraged.

This grant opportunity is the result of collaboration between the HealthTech Hub Africa and the 2023 Africa Digital Health Summit.

Opportunity Statement

HTHA startups and scale-ups can apply with their innovations for the following challenge.

#Play4Health: Increasing healthy living options for school children in Africa

The HT innovation should respond to the needs of school children between the ages of 5-17 years old (and their teachers) in Africa as its primary beneficiaries. The solution must enable the strong foundational knowledge about the importance of regular physical education and healthy nutrition and support the physical condition and health literacy of school children in Africa.

 

The solution should promote at least 1h per day of physical activity at moderate to vigorous intensity, demonstrate improvements in BMI and the creation of healthier long-term healthy habits for children.

 

Consequently, the latter will reduce the risk and occurrence of CV complications. The innovation should be able to build on the impact of the KaziBantu initiative, and if feasible, leverage its existing resources.

Why is this important?

“This challenge is co-created in a public-private partnership to support teams to propose growth or scale up projects to validate, refine, accelerate and integrate HealthTech solutions with a sustainability approach in the context of the public health system.”

Home to more than 1 billion people, Africa is a major contributor to the global burden of cardiovascular disease. In 2019, more than 1 million deaths were attributable to CVD in sub-Saharan Africa, which constituted 5.4% of all global CVD-related deaths and 13% of all deaths in Africa. With rapid population growth and often unplanned urbanization, over half of the urban populations in Africa will be children. Hence the importance of supporting children to create an active and healthy lifestyle, even where infrastructure and resources are limited.

The #Play4Health Challenge enables technology innovators, community providers, regulators, grassroots organisations, caregivers, residents, public service officers, corporate volunteers and persons with lived experience coming together to jointly validate and refine implementable and sustainable solutions to help Africans thrive in their Cardiovascular Health.

Who Can Apply?

  • HTHA Cohort members and alumni

Startups and scale ups from the HTHA 2022 and 2023 cohorts are welcome to submit proposals with their fit-to-purpose solutions corresponding to the challenge brief. Their solutions can be supplemented by other best practices and available assets on CV population health.

Exception: startups and scaleups who have already received a HTHA grant award for a project which is not going to be finalized prior July 1st 2023, are not eligible to apply.

  • Other startups, scaleups and complementary organizations

Local and international organizations which are not part of the HealthTech Hub Africa official partner network or startup cohorts can apply in joint venture proposals led by the HTHA Cohort startups and scaleups.

We strongly encourage African startups and scale-ups which are not yet part of the HTHA program to collaborate with alumni or current cohort companies to strengthen their existing solutions by combining them for a larger impact and qualify for the challenge.

View 2022 Startups
View 2023 Startups

Which projects are we looking for?

  • The solutions at the core of the project proposals need to have a solid proof of validation and traction – both in terms of positive health outcomes and economic viability. Proof of concept solutions or brand-new solutions are not eligible to apply.
  •  The applicants need to showcase a proven business-to-government monetization model or a revenue model allowing for cost coverage of public health related tech costs by private partners funding.
  • The project duration should not exceed 12 months.

The applicants can apply with a proposal for one of the following types of public-private partnership fast-tracking projects:

(a) Acceleration project: Refining and expanding the current reach of the innovation to address the needs in one country. The existing solution must have between 5.000-50.000 beneficiaries, existing commercial partnerships and previous revenue or acquired funding.

(b) Scale-up project: Expanding the scale and scope of the innovation to address multiple countries. The existing solution must have more than 50.000 beneficiaries, existing commercial partnerships, previous revenue and acquired funding.

The grant can be leveraged for two possible types of public-private partnership projects.

Public-Private Acceleration project: Refining and expanding the current reach of the innovation to address the needs in one country

Public-Private Scale-up project: Expanding the scale and scope of the innovation to address multiple countries

What are the impact targets

The main expected impact target for the #Play4Health Challenge must include:

 

For an Acceleration Project

1. Number of actively engaged beneficiaries of the HealthTech innovation – minimum 100’000 school children.

2. Number of schools onboarded across a minimum of 1 country within the project duration – 300 schools.

3. Number of teachers/educators/community volunteers demonstrated to use the solution and promote physical activity and nutrition curriculum – 1000 educators.

4. Number of positive testimonials and/or expressions of support from policy-makers and governmental institutions in Africa endorsing the value of the further scale-up of the innovation – minimum 5

5. Number of signed partnerships enabling post-project scale-up of the solution – minimum 3

For A Scale-up Project

1. Number of actively engaged beneficiaries of the HealthTech innovation – minimum 300’000 school children.

2. The number of schools onboarded across a minimum of 1 country within the project duration – 500 schools.

3. Numbers of teachers/educators/community volunteers demonstrated to use the solution and promote physical activity and nutrition curriculum – 3000 educators.

4. Number of positive testimonials and/or expressions of support from policymakers and governmental institutions in Africa endorsing the value of the further scale-up of the innovation – minimum 15

5. The number of signed partnerships enabling post-project scale-up of the solution – minimum 5

In addition, the applicant team must include additional indicators of success for each type of project – they can choose from the listed below or propose new ones. They should specify the targets for each indicator of success.

6. Number of other beneficiaries enabled to change their behaviour towards healthier lifestyle (more physical exercise and/or healthier nutrition)

7. Number of other beneficiaries who have demonstrated an improved BMI.

Grant Award

One or two applicants will receive:

  1. One scale up grant of up to U$250.000 or two acceleration grants of up to $125.000
  2. Invitation to participate and present during the 2023 Africa Digital Health Summit on June 22-23th in Lagos, Nigeria, where the Grant recipient(-s) will be announced.
  3. Access to the expansive networks of BETTEReHEALTH, DHIS2, and HISP, and have the opportunity to showcase your solution to a broader audience through a collaborative webinar with BETTEReHEALTH.
  4. Free participation in DHIS2 Academy and/or any of the DHIS2 Academies.
  5. Masterclass on successful schoolchildren interventions with proven impact on health.
  6. Access to a network of government champions and mentors.
  7. Pro bono resources and technical support from members of the public-private partner network of the HealthTech Hub Africa.
  8. HealthTech Hub Africa project completion certificate.
  9. Opportunity to present their project results during the HTHA Summits in Kigali, Rwanda and/or Dakar, Senegal in 2023/2024.

Deadline to Apply

Applicants can submit their proposals by April 25th, 23:59:59pm CET.

The willing applicant(-s) must attend and present during the 2023 Africa Digital Health Summit on June 22nd -23rd in Lagos, Nigeria.

Africa Digital Health Summit website

Evaluation Committee

The evaluation of innovation applications will be done from an intersectoral committee composed of the official partner network of the HealthTech Hub Africa and government champions from Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Botswana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Cameroon, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Libya and others.

What you need to submit

1.     HealthTech Innovation Solution Assessment Form

Download Assessment Form

2.     Project Proposal: max 4 A4 pages (one pdf only containing the below items)

  • Description of the digital solution and its impact (indicators and targets)
  • Implementation plan
  • Description of the technology
  • Sustainability plan and knowledge transfer
  • Profiles of team members
  • Similar experiences in the field
  • Budget and payment plan

3.     Applicant organization’s intro deck (max 10 slides, one pdf only)

4.     The budget overview in Excel

 5.     Annex: (one pdf only containing the below items)

–  Core project team resumes.

–   References and/or letters of intent from public health stakeholders and other partners

–   A theory of change – that describes the logical sequence of activities expected to lead to the desired impact. (A graph, accompanied by no more than 1000 words)

Timeline

Applications Submission Closure: April 25th 

Applications Shortlist Announcement: May 14th

Review of the Top 5: May 25th 

Virtual Live-Streamed Pitch Presentation from Shortlisted Candidates Top 3: May 31 – 3:30pm – 5:30pm CAT 

Refined Proposal Submission: June 8th

Application Outcome: June 15th

Award Ceremony in Lagos: June 22nd

Selection Criteria

Impact

How well does the proposed innovation effectively address the problem statements and end-user needs? Does it address the strategic national objectives set by government authorities of the respective geography(-es)?

Does it have sufficient proof of validation?

Does it demonstrate a convincing revenue model/sustainability plan?

Excellence

How well does the innovation present new HealthTech concepts or approaches to tackle the challenge?

Does it go beyond the state of the art in technology?

How well does it integrate into the local context, including existing channels?

Feasibility

How easy will it be to develop and implement the proposed project?

What is the innovation’s scalability potential after the project’s end?

How experienced is the team, and do they bring the right partners on board?

Applications were closed on 23:59 : 25th April 2023