Use of Prize Competitions to Develop Advanced Military Medical Capabilities

Research and development of military-required innovations are usually funded through the issuance of grants and contracts. The limitations of these funding methods are the a priori specifications and objectives that limit creativity and often do not produce capabilities beyond the desired outcomes or leverage the best ideas and solutions available. This limited engagement of commercial industry to develop military-required innovations usually relies solely on government funding and receipt of proposals from companies whose business model is built on receiving government grants and contracts, with the government owning most of the risks. Because the produced capabilities or products are designed to be military-unique, there is a limited or no commercial market available, usually driving the price per unit extremely high to the point that the military cannot afford to procure products in quantities sufficient to enable businesses to keep production lines open, however, for military-required or desired capabilities or products that have a commercial market, there are other funding pathways available to develop products by partnering with industry, academia, and other non-government organizations and leveraging their ideas and funding. One such way of engaging the commercial industry is through the use of prize competitions. This often under-utilized pathway has several notable strengths such as (1) reduced risks and costs for the military to develop novel capabilities and products; (2) new and novel creative solutions to solve military problems; (3) utilizing a results-oriented approach that funds the successful achievement of acceptance criteria versus funding of potential to achieve; (4) enticing investors by increased competition for a successful product or capability; and (5) delivery of a commercially available, affordable, field-tested, and viable capabilities and products. Prize competitions may be used by any/all federal agencies as authorized by Congressional Public Laws and Federal regulations. The specifics of this pathway for funding pathway and applications for use by medical researchers, developers, and project/program managers are spelled out in the article, along with the regulatory guidance and resources for finding out more about current and past prize competitions.