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THE MS INNOVATION CHALLENGE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED!

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted their brilliant ideas, and to our Steering Committee, as well as to all the colleagues at Roche and Genentech who helped bring the MS Innovation Challenge to life.

We can't wait to introduce you to the selected projects and the teams behind them—more to come soon!

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY!
See how it all started

People with MS often wait for months or years for an accurate diagnosis and a personalised care plan. They also struggle with monitoring disease worsening and receiving appropriate care along their disease journey. This delays appropriate treatment and can result in worse outcomes, poorer quality of life for people with MS and their caregivers, and increased societal burdens of MS. The rise in the number of patients with long-term conditions, a shortage of neurologists, and increased healthcare costs have also intensified the pressure on healthcare providers and decision makers.

With recent advances in science and technology, there are many opportunities to better address unmet needs and achieve sustainable value for people with MS and for society.

As leaders committed to advancing the standard of care worldwide and working towards health equity, Roche and Genentech are keen to drive change and improve care through healthcare innovation.

THE MS INNOVATION CHALLENGE HAD TWO MAIN FOCUS AREAS

Provide early detection of disease worsening, thus enabling early and efficient treatment

Improve monitoring and prediction of the impact of disease on people's lives, including disability trajectories

Here were the six key criteria against which the submissions were evaluated:

1. Relevance:  

Describe how your proposal has direct and short- to mid-term (up to 5 years) impact on early detection of disease worsening and/or monitoring and prediction of the multidimensional impact of the disease on people’s lives, including disability trajectories.

2. Readiness for implementation & execution:

Clearly describe how the project will lead to changes in clinical practice (improve care, outcomes), the relevance for patient care and who will benefit from the innovation.

3. Technical & innovative merit: 

Clearly describe your approach for achieving project objectives, highlight innovative aspects of the project that will impact patient care, and include examples of innovative tools and measures to be implemented. Also mention potential barriers and how you will address them.

4. Project personnel qualifications: 

Provide details on the expertise of team members. Can you name any examples of the team executing projects of similar size, scope, and complexity?

5. Patient-centeredness: 

Describe if a diversity and inclusion approach or framework will be incorporated into the project (e.g., patients with risk of poor outcomes, or disparities in healthcare). The potential for the project to help patients and HCPs make more informed healthcare decisions and improve health outcomes will also be considered.

6. Stakeholder engagement: 

Describe your plan for engaging relevant stakeholders (e.g., academic centres, healthcare systems, patient advocacy groups, or payers).

Submission has expired on 1st March 2024

Funding information

Funding was available for different types of research, including pilot, proof-of-concept research, and larger, translational projects.

We considered funding proposals ranging from small pilot, proof-of-concept projects (in the range of up to $200K) to larger translational projects (in the range of up to $1M).