Total Prizes of $2.04 Million

• ‍Challenge Launch: June 15, 2026
• Phase 1: Concept Development, up to $155,000 in prizes. Submissions due August 28, 2026. Phase 1 Finalists announced September 16, 2026.
• Phase 2: Innovation Milestones up to $150,000 in prizes. Submissions due TBA. Winners announced CY 2027.‍
• Phase 3: Live Validation up to $1.1 million in prizes. Submissions due TBA. Winners announced CY 2027. ‍

Sponsored by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), this prize competition seeks forward-thinking solutions to strengthen the nation’s ability to rapidly produce and distribute critical medical supplies during public health emergencies and supply chain disruptions. Through three challenge phases, participants will develop an innovative conceptual systems design using technologies and frameworks that advance the future of resilient medical manufacturing, logistics, and digital coordination capabilities.

Why are We Running this Challenge?

Addressing a National Health Security Gap

When disaster strikes, hospitals and healthcare systems need a continuous supply of many common drugs, PPE, and other medical products. Disasters often result in supply chain disruptions that can extend far beyond the disaster zone. Having manufacturing specifications for critical medical products at the ready can help fill that gap more quickly.

To enhance national medical supply chain resilience, manufacturers may license product and manufacturing specifications as well as technical expertise from firms with experience in that product domain. Building this collection of manufacturing specifications and related knowledge, capabilities, and licensing mechanisms before a disaster-related supply chain disruption manifests can make our nation better prepared to address disaster-related shortages. By stockpiling digital assets, such as medical product design or manufacturing specifications, a capabilities-based approach to filling gaps in the domestic pharmaceutical and medical product supply chain can help accelerate responses to disruptions.

‍Help shape the future of resilient medical supply response systems

This three-phase federal innovation challenge focuses on practical, scalable system solutions for distributed medical supply response, digital coordination, interoperability, and production readiness. Upon implementation, the DS-MRN, will be a secure digital infrastructure of medical product designs and a network of domestic industry manufacturers ready to produce and deliver at-risk medical goods during shortages or supply chain disruptions.

Future DS-MRN surge-capacity will be tied to pre-matched manufacturing partners to stabilize patient and provider access to at-risk medical products during disruptions that are not covered by stockpiling or normal manufacturing capacity.

Solutions from this challenge could inform the DS-MRN, developed and tested at limited scale in 2020 by Veteran’s Health Association, and in federal partnership with U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Standards and Technology, and Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (Links).

The Challenge

Develop an innovative conceptual systems design utilizing technologies and frameworks that advance the future of resilient manufacturing, logistics, and digital coordination capabilities

ASPR, a division of HHS, invites innovators to produce solutions for the Digital Stockpile & Manufacturing Response Network to enable rapid, reliable production and distribution of safe and effective medical products to the American people that are not covered by stockpiling or normal manufacturing capacity during crises. Participants will submit and validate conceptual systems design proposals inclusive of critical components such as:

• Manufacturing Capability
• Scalability
• Secure Digital Infrastructure
• Interoperability
• Federal Incentives
• Clinical Acceptability
• Intellectual Property Sharing Agreements
• Other Legal Frameworks

Participants should: 

• Analyze the needs of DS-MRN users and ASPR.
• Describe your solution and how key DS-MRN components will be integrated to meet DS-MRN partner needs, and how your solution will transform from concept to demonstration in a competitive final live validation phase.
• Align your quantitative and qualitative design to the Judging Criteria, paying specific attention to intellectual property, manufacturing incentive structure, and cybersecurity capabilities.

Three-Phase Competition Structure

This challenge has 3-phases.

Phase 1: Participants will submit:

1. A 8-page submission paper,
2. A 3-minute Pitch video, and
3. Blueprint supporting the key capabilities and structure of the solution.

Submissions will be evaluated per challenge Judging Criteria. Following the Judge evaluation period, up to 8 Finalists will receive a $5,000 prize each and be invited to the hybrid (in-person and virtual) Pitch Event at ASPR headquarters in Washington, DC. Up to 3 Winners from the Pitch Event will receive a $150,000 prize each and be invited to the innovation development phase.

Phase 2: Two developmental milestones will monitor solution development and will include $75,000 additional prizes for each milestone complete (up to $150,000 in total milestone prize payments).

Phase 3: At the end of the development milestone period, up to 3 teams may be invited to the final Live Validation Event to test their solution under applicable real-world simulations and compete for a total prize purse up to $1,100,000.

Why should I participate?

Who Should Join: This challenge is open to U.S.-based innovators across a wide range of fields; including industry (manufacturing, information technology, logistics, systems engineering, data science, and health supply chain) academia, emergency preparedness, or nonprofit.

Challenge Impact: Beyond the prizes and the chance to drive national impact, participants have a rare opportunity to take their ideas from concept to live validation.

• Impact and National Health Security: Participants will directly contribute to U.S. medical industrial base resilience, creating a tangible impact in areas such as patient care, supply chain optimizations, and manufacturing innovation.
• Interdisciplinary Learning: Healthcare manufacturing and supply chain are inherently interdisciplinary, blending elements of logistics, geography, public health, intellectual property, and engineering. This challenge offers participants a rich experience that integrates various fields of study, fostering well-rounded organizational and professional development.
• Networking and Collaboration: This challenge provides participants with valuable networking opportunities, access to mentorship, and potential collaborations that can enhance their entrepreneurial journey and career prospects on a national stage.
• Cross-Applicability: The DS-MRN targets multifaceted and interdependent problems. Participating in a challenge containing such complexity will demonstrate cross-sector problem solving abilities in high risk and highly visible environments.
• Prizes: Participants of the Challenge will compete for up to $2.04 million in total prizes. ASPR anticipates multiple awardees and the prize will be divided among the awardees as described in Prizes.

What Comes Next?

Register:

• The first step is to register for the competition. Registering early is the easiest way to stay informed and can be completed on the registration link.
• Visit the Schedule page to view important events, submission due dates, and winner announcement timelines.

Understand the competition:

• Background: Familiarize yourself with the background information and resources available for the challenge.
• Competition Structure: Be aware that the competition has 3 phases, with specific requirements and deadlines.
• Eligibility Requirements and Participation Agreement: Review Eligibility Requirements and familiarize yourself with the Participation Agreement.
• Judging Criteria: Ensure your submissions align with these Judging Criteria.
• Frequently Asked Questions: See the FAQs, which we will update throughout the competition.

Access the available resources:

• While not required for the competition, the resources ​​​provide additional guidance on ASPR strategic initiatives and other available documents and data.

Stay informed:

• You may also reach out to us through email at DSMRNChallenge@expeditionhacks.com.
• Join Slack to keep up-to-date on relevant announcements, important tips, share resources, connect with teams and other mentors and event staff. Slack engagement is optional.

Prepare and submit Phase 1 products:

• Prepare a 8-page Submission Paper:
  
  • Describe your idea or systems concept to address the DS-MRN Challenge addressing innovation, technical feasibility, scalability & adoptability, and key feature impact criteria.
  • Adhere to the provided formatting guidelines, including font size, margins, and content organization. See formatting instructions here.
  • A suggested submission paper template is provided here.
• Prepare a 3-Minute Pitch Video:
  
  • Leverage the video as a high-level "pitch" for the solution that makes the reviewer want to learn more--creativity in presentation style is encouraged but substance is most important.
  • Adhere to the provided video rules. See instructions here.
  • Suggestions for an effective video are provided here.
• Prepare a Blueprint supporting the key capabilities and structure of the solution. See instructions here.
• Submit: Ensure all materials are submitted by the specified deadline.

If selected as a Finalist, more information will follow.

Good luck to all participants!

Background

Background. The domestic industrial base is America’s most powerful asset to combat medical supply chain disruptions during public health emergencies. When disasters, pandemics, or supply chain disruptions strike, the pressure on existing supply chains may limit U.S. ability to rapidly produce critical medical supplies. Recent crises exposed fragmented, inaccessible manufacturing knowledge and uncertain manufacturing capacity when it mattered most. These lessons learned, combined with recent advances in agile and advanced manufacturing, digital technology, and distributed manufacturing, provide ideal conditions to develop and pilot a novel system to respond at various levels of scale.

The Digital Stockpile and Manufacturing Response Network (DS-MRN) is an initiative aimed at strengthening U.S. emergency preparedness and response capabilities by leveraging existing distributed and flexible manufacturing methodologies within the U.S. economy. The purpose of the DS-MRN is to leverage public-private partnerships to store and transmit manufacturing specifications for critical medical products and connect a vetted network of domestic manufacturers capable of rapid production during shortages or emergencies with these specifications.

The DS-MRN will contain a robust digital repository to enhance emergency preparedness by identifying a need for and closing the gap of critical medical supply disruptions based on historical data, clinical needs, and supply chain vulnerabilities. This adaptive stockpile will support a wide range of crisis scenarios by ensuring access to essential items like personal protective equipment (PPE), medical consumables, decontamination supplies, sterilization tools, and other crucial items, as well as vital informational resources such as protocols and training guides.

Though the purpose of the DS-MRN is to enable expansion and upscaling of manufacturing capacities during disruptions, considerable development, maintenance, and evaluation will need to be operationalized during normal conditions. By storing digital files and establishing a consortium of highly skilled U.S. based producers, the DS-MRN enables rapid fabrication of critical items when they are needed, where they are needed, and how they are needed. Key considerations for a functional DS-MRN include:

• Manufacturing Capability
• Scalability
• Secure Digital Infrastructure
• Interoperability
• Federal Incentives
• Clinical Acceptability
• Intellectual Property Agreements
• Other Legal Frameworks

Product Scope. During the challenge period, capabilities of DS-MRN will remain limited to solutions that contain information on medical devices, medical device components, medical supplies, and limited pharmaceuticals appropriate for domestic additive manufacturing that fall under the HHS and ASPR missions and authorities and that serve the U.S. population and U.S. military personnel.

Challengeable elements of the DS-MRN. The core components of the DS-MRN will be designed to facilitate communication and connection between customers, designers and producers by providing secure, efficient, and traceable product lifecycle workflows. From customer needs and design requirements to item fabrication and production feedback, the network will also enable rapid scalability during crises. Key elements are identified and described below.

• Streamlined Standardization: Definition of intellectual property agreements, data sharing agreements, templated technical data packages, and other time-intensive barriers to traditional surge manufacturing during crises will be pre-determined and defined.
• Secure File/Data Storage and Computing: Secure storage, auditing, and transfer of manufacturing specifications for clinically acceptable medical products to qualified domestic producers through functional databases, technical data packages, capability assessments, training information, production records, and feedback forms.
• Vetted Manufacturer Network: An incentive-based model will coordinate a pre-qualified network of U.S. manufacturers to offer ready-surge production on short notice
• Scalability: Dramatically reduced ramp-up time during trigger events and emergency response, closing gaps in product availability and allowing traditional manufacturers to recover from disruption, delay, or bottlenecks impairing product availability
• Prioritization and Matchmaking: Intelligent (e.g. algorithmic or potentially artificial intelligence enabled) order management across the DS-MRN network. The system will evaluate available manufacturing partners based on a combination of factors, including urgency of need, geographic proximity to demand, logistics channels, production capability, and historical throughput
• Traceability and Reporting: Detailed tracking of parts and assemblies throughout their lifecycle, from raw material acquisition to final delivery demonstrate continued safe and trusted operation.
• Dashboard: Dashboards will provide centralized visual platforms for monitoring the performance of the DS-MRN in a role-based manner across all portals.
• Role-Based Access Portals: Healthcare organizations, product designers, and manufacturing partners will have access to the DS-MRN platform via secure login portals with profiles that include affiliation, location, and other details