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. These challenges often delay appropriate treatment and can cause 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.

Roche and Genentech are organising the MS Innovation Challenge to help:

• HCPs to optimise how care is delivered by applying innovative healthcare delivery solutions
• People with MS and their caregivers to not only better understand their disease but also empower them to be more actively involved in their health management for better outcomes

By doing this, more people with MS may receive a timely and accurate diagnosis and will have access to early and more personalised treatment and continuous monitoring.

We want to support teams that address the areas outlined in this challenge to accelerate innovative initiatives.

Through a stepwise process, we will identify up to 10 applicants who will have the opportunity to pitch virtually to a panel of MS and innovation experts.

We will provide direct funding for up to 10 teams or organisations. Funding is available for different types of research, including pilot, proof-of-concept research and larger, translational projects. We will host an investigators' meeting for a representative of each team and project whose proposal will be funded.

Please note that we are not an incubator and want to encourage the intellectual curiosity and passion that led to your transformative innovation.

The finalists will have the opportunity to virtually present to a panel of MS and innovation experts.

Roche and Genentech will make the final decision on the awardees.

We will consider 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).

These funding ranges are only given to convey the potential scope of projects and should not be construed as budget targets. The budget for each submission must be appropriate for the proposed work and will be subjected to a fair market value assessment.

Please see our application Policy here

For more specific information or if you have other questions, please contact us at
ms.innovationchallenge@roche.com