Event Type : Pathways

The Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship is a hybrid in-person and virtual program designed to immerse two nurse leaders from 15 U.S. health systems in human-centered design, design thinking, and strategic leadership.

The fellowship combines innovation training from Penn Nursing with business, change management, and leadership development from Wharton Executive Education, culminating in a final pitch of solutions that fellows aim to implement within their healthcare systems.

Applications are open January 6, 2026, and close February 10, 2026. To begin your application visit the webpage here.

The M2D2 pitch competition offers medtech and biotech innovators the opportunity to connect with industry leaders and present groundbreaking solutions across six key tracks including:  Uterine, Pelvic, Breast, Health as well as Oncology Impacting Women, Non-Surgical Visualization and Point of Care Diagnostics.

A webinar information session will be open to all medical device and life sciences startups interested in entering M2D2’s 15th annual global pitch competition. Get insider tips on how to maximize your application and align with sponsor priorities. The virtual event will take place Thursday. January 15th at 2pm EST. To RSVP click here.

Applications for the challenge must be submitted by February 15th at midnight . To apply to the M2D2 challenge visit the challenge webpage here.

The RepAir: Advancing Aircraft Maintenance opportunity, hosted NASA’s Gateway to Blue Skies (GBS) Competition, invites multidisciplinary student teams from post-secondary institutions to develop innovative concepts for aviation maintenance. The competition looks for innovations that could be implemented by 2035 or sooner, aiming to improve efficiency, safety, and reduce costs in the commercial aviation industry.

The proposal and video submission by February 16, 2026. To learn more about this opportunity, visit the Blue Skies competition webpage.

The Parkinson’s Disease Therapeutics Pipeline Program, hosted by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), is a funding opportunity designed to advance promising Parkinson’s disease therapeutics through pre-clinical and early clinical development. The program supports pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions with strong biological rationale and clear translational potential to prevent, slow, or reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

It is open to industry applicants and academia–industry partnerships worldwide that are developing differentiated therapeutic approaches with a viable path toward the clinic.

Pre-proposals must be submitted by the deadline and are reviewed on a rolling basis; selected applicants are invited to submit a full proposal through scheduled review cycles. The next application deadline is February 22, 2026. To learn more visit the webpage, here.

The NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Competition is inviting  U.S.-based undergraduate and graduate student teams to design innovative aerospace system concepts, analogs, and technology prototypes in response to one of four 2026 themes: Mars surface communications and navigation, lunar power architectures, lunar sample return, and lunar technology demonstrations.

Up to 14 finalist teams will be selected to compete at the RASC-AL Competition Forum in Cocoa Beach, Florida, each receiving a $7,000 stipend for participation. The top 2 teams will receive additional stipends and an invitation to present at a major aerospace conference in 2026.

Teams must include at least one U.S.-based faculty advisor and two student members, with students completing the bulk of the work and presenting at the Forum. The proposal submission deadline is February 23, 2026. To learn more about this opportunity, visit the challenge webpage here.

CSL, a leading global biotech company dedicated to developing innovative biotherapies for life-threatening medical conditions, is now accepting applications for their 2026 Research Acceleration Initiative. This initiative aims to fast-track the discovery of breakthrough treatments through strategic partnerships with global research organizations.

Selected applicants will receive up to $400,000 USD in funding over two years to support research projects that align with CSL’s Therapeutic Areas (including cardiovascular and renal diseases, hematology, transplant and immunology, vaccines, plasma protein research, and gene editing) and incorporate CSL’s advanced platform technologies.

Contact Anita Rao (arao@ufl.edu) to express interest and receive online application instructions. Submission deadline for the 300-word non-confidential abstract is due CSL by February 24, 2026. To learn more about the initiative, click here.

You can also learn more by attending an information webinar:
Thursday, 29 January 11:00AM EST – Click to join
Thursday, 5 February 1:00PM EST – Click to join

The NIH Oligonucleotide Toxicity (OligoTox) Open Data Challenge is a two-phase prize competition hosted by NCATS/NIH to incentivize the creation of high-quality, publicly accessible datasets that improve predictive models for toxicity of oligonucleotide therapeutics.

The competition is open to participants who can develop, generate, or contribute data to these datasets, with the first phase (Ideation Phase) focused on proposing such datasets and the second phase on data generation and public release.

The submission deadline for Phase 1 ideation is February 28, 2026. To begin your application, visit the challenge announcement page here.

The Genomics in Context Awards support collaborative, transdisciplinary research at the intersection of genomics, humanities, social sciences, and bioethics. It is open to researchers leading teams from eligible administering organizations, which can include higher education institutions, research institutes, non-academic healthcare organizations, and not-for-profit or non-governmental organizations based anywhere in the world except mainland China.

Coapplicants and collaborators can also include commercial organizations. The awards provide up to £500,000 per project for a duration of 12–24 months, and the application deadline is December 16, 2025. Click here to learn more.