Future Health Challenge: Building Anticipatory Health Systems through Population Sensing

About this funding opportunity

Presented with How can technology-powered sensing shift health systems towards anticipatory models of care that improve outcomes at scale?

Future Health Challenge: Building Anticipatory Health Systems through Population Sensing

Closed

Submissions are closed ### Applications Open

January 29, 2026 9:00am EST ### Application Clinic

February 17, 2026 10:00am EST ### Solution Deadline

February 23, 2026 12:00pm EST ### Screening & Reviews

February 24, 2026 - March 11, 2026 ### Semifinalists Notified

March 24, 2026 ### Finalists Announced

April 7, 2026 ### Finals & Winners Announced

May 19, 2026

OverviewChallenge EligibilityEvaluation CriteriaFrequently Asked QuestionsApplication Clinic Challenge Overview

The world faces accelerating health challenges, from non-communicable diseases to the impacts of climate change and emerging infectious threats. Currently, an estimated 4.5 billion people lack access to essential health services, placing immense strain on health systems already burdened by funding gaps and workforce constraints ( WHO, 2024, World Bank, 2023). To help meet these challenges, health systems must act with greater speed, intelligence, and efficiency by shifting from reactive to predictive health care.

Advances in AI and increasingly accessible sensing technologies that are embedded in communities and frontline services are making it possible to better capture health data and predict health risks. However, despite these advances, a critical gap remains: health systems still struggle to translate this vast amount of sensing data into actionable insights for decision-makers. Closing this gap requires innovative approaches to population sensing that strengthen the link between information and prediction, enabling earlier and more effective intervention. At the same time, it’s crucial that these approaches ensure that expanded sensing is implemented thoughtfully to mitigate surveillance risks and protect individual privacy.

The Future Health Challenge seeks solutions that accelerate the shift from reactive healthcare delivery to anticipatory models of care, improving resilience and outcomes at scale. Specific areas of interest include: Improving populationrisk forecasting by using digital and data-driven approaches to capture early signals from communities, environments, and frontline health systems; Strengthening technology-enabled disease surveillance and early warning systems, improving the prediction of infectious disease outbreaks, non-communicable disease trends, and emerging health threats; Developing low-tech, proxy, and community-based data solutions, including digitally supported methods that enable sensing and prediction in fragile or underserved settings; Enabling AI-powered decision support for public health and primary care, transforming fragmented and heterogeneous data into interpretable, forward-looking forecasts that support action.

USD 300,000 in prize funding is available for three winning solution teams:* One USD 200,000 grand prize Two runner-up prizes of USD 50,000 each

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_*Future Health (the ‘Organizer’) shall not be liable for any failure, delay, or inability to host the prize event in person, or to perform any related obligations, where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond the Organizer’s reasonable control. Such circumstances include, but are not limited to, acts of God, natural disasters, public health emergencies, pandemics, epidemics, government orders or restrictions, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, transportation disruptions, utility failures, or any other event that makes the in-person event impracticable, unsafe, or unlawful._

_In the event that a force majeure circumstance occurs, the Organizer reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify the format, timing, or location of the event, or to replace the in-person event with an alternative arrangement. Such alternative…

Topic areas: Life Sciences and Health, Smart Cities, Digital Society and E-Inclusion.

Funding amount

This other provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no single fixed deadline.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Not specified by the program.

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

Future Health Challenge: Building Anticipatory Health Systems through Population Sensing is administered by MIT Solve (MIT Solve), listed via MIT Solve.