Application Process
Texas Health Catalyst’s application process works to identify promising health and life sciences innovations and propel them toward real-world impact. Accepted applicants receive expert support and seed funding to accelerate their project’s journey toward viable solutions that enhance health outcomes.
Since Texas Health Catalyst’s inception, numerous projects have flourished after participation in the program, achieving significant milestones and garnering attention from investors and industry leaders.
Call for Proposals
The 2024 fall application cycle offers two exciting pathways for University of Texas at Austin innovators to turn their groundbreaking ideas into real-world solutions that improve lives.
Transformative Health Innovation Challenge
The Transformative Health Innovation Challenge is designed to catalyze groundbreaking health care innovations across a broad spectrum of disciplines. Texas Health Catalyst seeks visionaries ready to revolutionize health care in areas such as:
- Innovative medical devices, diagnostics and therapeutics
- Digital health solutions and artificial intelligence-driven technologies
- Preventive health and wellness innovations
- Health care delivery and operational improvements
Hospital of the Future Challenge
Aligned with the emerging University of Texas Medical Center, the Hospital of the Future Challenges focuses on the theme of precision health care and targeted therapies, including:
- AI-driven personalized treatments and diagnostics, including designs from generative biology
- Precision manufacturing of customized devices and therapies
- Secure, privacy-preserving multiomics data platforms
- Immersive training tools for complex medical data interpretation
Dell Medical School collaborates with the Cockrell School of Engineering, College of Pharmacy, College of Natural Sciences and Discovery to Impact to offer the fall application cycle.
Eligibility, Timeline & More
Eligibility
Texas Health Catalyst seeks innovators who are ready to collaborate, incorporate expert feedback and commit to advance their projects toward real-world impact. Innovators who meet either of the following criteria are eligible to participate in the fall application cycle:
- University of Texas at Austin faculty
- University of Texas at Austin physicians in training (residents and fellows), medical students, postdoctoral students and graduate students (with faculty supervision)
Proposal Requirements
Applicant proposals should accomplish the following:
- Address a clearly defined unmet health care need aligned with one of the two challenges.
- Provide compelling preliminary evidence of the solution’s novelty and potential.
- Describe a commercially viable path to market.
- Present a realistic one-year plan with milestoens to mitigate the most critical risks.
- Outline the use of up to $50,000.
Timeline
- Application opens: Sept. 16
- Information session: Sept. 24
- Application closes: Oct. 25
- Finalists announced: Nov. 22
- Mentor meetings: Dec. 2, 2024, to Jan. 24, 2025
- Showcase event: Jan. 28, 2025
- Award announcement: Feb. 19, 2025
Benefits
Texas Health Catalyst’s goal is to help innovators understand the path to market, refine their concepts, mitigate the most pressing clinical and commercial risks, and take concrete steps toward creating impactful health care solutions. To this end, Texas Health Catalyst provides accepted applicants the following benefits:
- Faciliated mentorship by clinical and industry experts
- Trained student associates to guide project development
- Invaluable insights on market potential and concept refinement
- Funding up to $50,000 to support critical research and development
- Subcontracts for the sole purpose of funded project activities
- Equipment, supplies and software for the sole purpose of funded project activities
- Principal investigator compensation (salary and fringe benefits)
- Resident, fellow, postdoctoral researcher, medical student and/or graduate student salaries
- Research staff support
- Software
- Indirect costs
- Administrative support
- Startup creation and support
- Computers
- Hiring expenses (background checks)
- Patient care
- Tuition
Contact
Questions? Contact the program at texashealthcatalyst@austin.utexas.edu.
Assessment Rubric
The program’s evaluation process ensures that proposals align with the overall goal of identifying health innovations with the highest potential for clinical impact and potential success. The rubric covers three key domains: clinical/scientific application, development and commercialization. Each domain includes specific criteria aimed at assessing the feasibility, potential impact and commercial viability of proposed innovationss.
The clinical/scientific application domain evaluates the potential impact of the innovation on patient outcomes and the scientific rationale behind it.
Texas Health Catalyst assesses whether the innovation addresses a significant unmet medical need, its potential to improve patient outcomes and its comparative advantage over existing therapies.
The development domain delves into the technical feasibility of the innovation, its intellectual property protection, resource availability, regulatory pathway and development timeline.
Texas Health Catalyst looks for a clear and realistic development plan, identification of key milestones and strategies to mitigate potential risks.
The commercialization domain explores the market potential, reimbursement landscape, competitive landscape and marketing strategy of the innovation.
Texas Health Catalyst assesses the potential market size, timing for commercialization, pricing strategy, barriers to entry and potential exit strategies.