Sustainability in Healthcare Challenge

As examples, we welcome innovative projects related to healthcare that have positive impact on the environment by:

• Reducing excess care
• Reducing the carbon footprint of the care we provide
• Reducing waste related to care
• Reducing the environmental impact of the healthcare supply chain
• Educating healthcare providers about sustainable practices
• Psychological approaches that promote environmental considerations
• Increasing reusability and recyclability, thus promoting a circular economy
• Creating renewable materials across the industry
• Improving the healthcare infrastructure
• Using electronic medical records to reduce environmental impacts
• Reducing the environmental impact of the research we conduct

Special consideration will be given to projects that include teams that:

• Foster innovative research that addresses sustainability challenges in healthcare.
• Develop sustainable health processes, technologies, and practices.
• Promote interdisciplinary collaborations with a focus on developing partnerships between the health sciences, the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, and a clinical partner.
• Encourage the adoption of sustainable practices within healthcare systems and communities.
• Have the potential to lead to additional funding.
• Demonstrate strong potential for rapid translation and/or commercialization of the proposed solution into real-world healthcare settings.

The Sustainability in Healthcare Challenge is a program designed to support teams that generate innovative solutions to challenging health problems. It offers funding and project management support to help advance high-quality health science research that serves people and communities beyond the university.

This program is operated and managed by the organization renowned for its successful PInCh program that brought together 153 teams that created solutions to health-related challenges, generating over $88 million in post-award investment and achieving an impressive 11:1 return on investment from internal funding.

Teams that enter must be led by at least one University of Pittsburgh faculty member (from any department, any level). Additional team members can be students (graduate or undergraduate), postdocs, and/or fellows. The team can include healthcare providers and individuals from other educational institutions or non-academic organizations such as community groups or industry partners. The Sustainability in Healthcare Challenge hopes to bring together a group of problem solvers who may not otherwise have considered working on a team.

Up to $125,000 in total awards are available for funding. One project will be selected to receive a $50,000 award, and up to three additional projects will each receive $25,000 awards. The winning teams receives an award for direct costs and will be provided project management support to help execute a 12-month project to take the team’s solution one step further along the path of development. Commercialization support will be available, as appropriate.

This program is a multi-round competition.

The project package submission for Round One should include:

• Title page
• Proposal (up to two pages)
• References (one page) (Optional)
• Budget justification (up to two pages)
  
• Submission Template
• Submission Instructions

Create a video abstract in the form of a narrated slideshow via either PowerPoint or video recording (e.g., Zoom). Presentations may not exceed 10 slides and 4 minutes in length. All videos must be uploaded to My Pitt Video (Panopto) and linked within InfoReady. Information stated in the video should be considered a public disclosure, as teams invited to Round 2 may have their video abstracts shared on the competition website. 

Instructions for making a narrated slideshow.

Note: The video must be uploaded by the Principal Investigator (PI), who must be a University of Pittsburgh faculty member.

Instructions for uploading to My Pitt Video.

Please refer to the template for all additional instructions and requirements. Please direct any questions about allowable expenses to Annie Gohn at amg459@pitt.edu.

Budget and Budget Justification

Use the Budget & Budget Justification Template form to outline plans for the $40,000 award, 12-month award.

The budget will support direct costs only. Salary support reflects non-Federal fringe benefit rates. PI must have a minimum of 0.5% effort on the project (direct or cost shared). Funds may not be used for indirect costs, manuscript preparation or publication fees, or travel (except as required to collect data).

Please refer to the template for all additional instructions and requirements. Please direct any questions about allowable expenses to Annie Gohn at amg459@pitt.edu.

• Problem Definition
  • Does the proposal clearly identify and address a key sustainability challenge within the healthcare system? Is the problem well-defined and significant in its potential environmental, social, or economic impact?
• Solution Innovation & Originality
  • How novel is the proposed solution compared to current practice or the status quo? Does it offer a creative approach or shift in clinical, operational, or research paradigms to address an unmet sustainability need?
• Project Plan & Milestones
  • Is the proposed project realistic and appropriate in scope for a 12-month, $50,000 award? Are clear milestones outlined, and do they align with the goal of reducing the environmental impact of healthcare?
• Environmental Impact & Translation
  • Does the proposal include defined metrics to evaluate environmental sustainability outcomes? Is there a clear and feasible plan for translating or commercializing the solution for real-world implementation?
• Team
  • Does the team demonstrate multidisciplinary expertise and collaboration? Preference will be given to proposals that include partnerships across two or more groups/centers and involve a clinical collaborator.

Path to Impact: Please see this CTSI guide for your Path to Impact plan.

We welcome applications from early-stage solutions – this section asks you to identify the project’s current stage of development along the Path to Impact continuum and define the macro-level steps needed to make an impact on the health of individuals, communities, and/or biomedical knowledge. For more developed solutions, align your application’s milestones with the immediate next steps of the Path to Impact continuum.

Intellectual Property: Before you share your ideas with outside parties or present your work publicly (conferences, publications, or media), we encourage you to submit an Invention Disclosure to the Innovation Institute. Please email Annie Gohn at amg459@pitt.edu if you would like to initiate intellectual property discussions or draft an Invention Disclosure.

For questions, please email Annie Gohn at amg459@pitt.edu.