Phase 0 Deadline Extension to Dec. 12th:


The Neuro Startup Challenge has moved the deadline for teams to enter to December 12th.  However, keep in mind that 
Phase 1 will begin on schedule: December 1st


Please Click Here for Steps to Enter

Looking for a Team or Additional Members? Click Here
Phase 0: Enter the Challenge
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Phase 0 Timeline
The Challenge will begin officially on August 15th, 2014 with the letter of intent phase.  Acceptable LOIs will be approved as they are received. LOIs will no longer be accepted when the Challenge Team has received approximately 30 acceptable LOIs.  The final due date for LOI submission is December 12th, 2014 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time.  Initial communication to prospective participants will be performed by December 1st, 2014.  Final Communication to all teams will be performed on December 13th, 2014

KEY DATES:
  • LOI Submissions Start Being Accepted: August 1st, 2014 12:00am
  • Official Launch of Neuro Challenge: August 15th, 2014
  • LOI Submissions No Longer Accepted: December 12th, 2014 11:59 pm
Phase 0 Overview and Submission Requirements
  • Letter of Intent (LOI) Overview: 
    • Teams MUST choose an invention from the inventions list
    • Challenge Teams provide information regarding the members of their Team, indicate how Challenge Team members meet eligibility requirements and outline details regarding how they intend to participate in the Challenge.  Challenge Teams will provide a Stakeholder Engagement Analysis AND Collaborators list (optional).  Steps to complete the LOI are provided below
    • Important note: Approximately 30 teams per invention will be accepted into the Challenge.  When LOIs have been accepted, we will indicate this via a "ticker" on the Inventions tab so that you will know how many additional LOIs have already been accepted
    • Please DO NOT contact Inventors directly.  All contact to inventors should be made through the CAI team
  • What Constitutes a Complete Submission:
    • Online Submission: The Challenge uses an online system.  All Challenge materials and attachments must be submitted electronically
    • Choose an Invention: The model of this challenge encompasses highly-commerciable inventions from the NIH agencies.  Teams MUST choose an invention from the inventions list
    • LOI Submission Forms: The LOI forms require the following information: the invention selected, Challenge Team members and their capabilities, and an agreement to comply with confidentiality terms.  Challenge Team leaders need to populate an LOI for the whole team; you can find it here. NOTE: For security purposes in order to return to your survey, you should access it from the same computer and browser as you first filled out your survey.  Contact [email protected] if you cannot access your LOI Form
    • CDA Forms: All challenge Team members (team leaders, core team members, mentors and advisors) need to populate a different CDA form; you can find it here. To return to an existing CDA you've started and saved, simply use the same link.  NOTE: This only works if your network saves your IP and cookies for your computer.  If you cannot access your LOI form due to technical problems, email [email protected] for a direct link.
    • Resumes and Optional Documents: Upload these documents via the submission link here
      • Challenge Team member resumes (Resume's are limited to two (2) pages per team member. Please include a header on the top of each resume indicating what their role is on the team (e.g. Core Team Member, Mentor, Advisor, etc.)) 
      • OPTIONAL: Stakeholder Engagement Tool
      • OPTIONAL: One file that contains Collaborator information
  • Important Notes on Submissions:
    • File Naming Convention: In order for reviewers to easily identify attachments, please use the following naming convention for files to be uploaded to this attachment.  'University' must be the university of the Team Leader:  'university' - 'invention #'.'group letter' deliverable type.format (e.g. UCLA - 3.A Resume.pdf)
    • If there are multiple groups within the same university with the same invention you may coordinate within your University or the CAI team will assign you a letter at the end of your group name
    • Only one file should be uploaded for each attachment category (Resumes, Stakeholder Engagement Form, Collaborator Form).  For example, if you are uploading resumes for each member of your Challenge Team, please combine all resumes into one file and upload that one file to the resume category
    • Each attachment should try to be no more than 2MB in file size
    • Image files and executable files will not be accepted (e.g.  jpg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .exe)
Mandatory Team Disciplines
Nearly every successful Challenge Team requires several disciplines to be successful.  In the life sciences industry, it is even more important to have a cross-functional team given the complexities in launching a new product. As a result, we are requiring that each Challenge Team have the following disciplines:
  • Business: can be pursuing an MBA or come from the business community
  • Medical/Scientific: can be in medical school, a post-doc, in residency or, alternatively, a medical doctor, graduate with a scientific degree, or someone in the medical/scientific profession working in the Life Sciences industry
  • Seasoned Entrepreneur: A person who has founded a Life Sciences, biomedical and/or health IT company; raised dilutive and non-dilutive capital for that company and have exited.  We prefer entrepreneurs that have tenure of at least five years (a minimum of three years) in a start-up and also have had corporate experience  
NOTES ON MANDATORY DISCIPLINES: Graduate students do not need to have the mandatory disciplines; these disciplines can come from the seasoned entrepreneur, mentors, advisors, or collaborators. One team member may be on multiple teams
Team Member Roles
When entering information about your team, you will need to indicate their role; please find below team roles:
  • A Core Team Member: is defined as a person who is accountable for deliverables; there must be two graduate student core team members
  • Team Leader: is defined as the student Core Team Member single point of contact
  • A Mentor: is defined as a person who has domain experience who will actively work with the team on a daily basis as the team needs
  • An Advisor: is defined as a person who has domain expertise and the team uses for Q&A sessions only
  • A Collaborator: is defined as an entity that can improve your probability of success in this challenge; it could include seed funders, services firms, e.g., Clinical Research Outsourcers, law firms, etc. 
  • NOTES ON ROLES: The seasoned entrepreneur can have any of the roles described above. For example, it is possible for the seasoned entrepreneur to have founded a Clinical Research Outsourcing or Pharmacovigilance company, so the seasoned entrepreneur could be a collaborator. Mentors, Advisors and Collaborators can be on multiple teams
Steps for Challenge Teams to Enter
  1. Read all information on this page, the Challenge overview, eligibility and rules section of this website and the FAQs before preparing your LOI
  2. Select an invention around which you'd like to form a Challenge Team; you can find the inventions here
  3. Please note the "ticker" on the Inventions Tab.  If the ticker has reached 30 accepted submissions, no additional submissions will be accepted for this invention
  4. Create your team. We realize that some teams will be formed across Universities and disparate geographic regions.  If you are looking for additional members to augment your team or are looking for a team to join please go to the Find a Team / Member page
  5. Find a seasoned entrepreneur to be on your team. There are several ways you can find an entrepreneur
  6. Fill out your LOI form. The LOI form is available now.  Team leaders need to populate an LOI for the whole team; you can find it here
  7. ALL Team members (team leader, core team members, mentors and advisors) need to populate a CDA form; you can find it here
  8. Pull together all your team member resumes to be submitted in one file. Resume's are limited to two (2) pages per team member. Please include a header on the top of each resume indicating what their role is on the team (e.g. Core Team Member, Mentor, Advisor, etc.). Load your team resumes here

OPTIONAL
  1. Please consider populating the optional stakeholder engagement form; you can find it here.  Upload this form with your resumes here
  2. Please also consider creating a document that contains all your collaborators (put all the collaborators information in one document with headers to separate different collaborators).  Upload this form with your resumes here
Evaluation Process
  1. LoIs will be accepted on a rolling basis starting on August 1st, 2014
  2. We will evaluate your submission as it is entered into our system based on the criteria outlined below
  3. We will either reject or accept your submission and will communicate this to you within three days of your submission. Your submission will be rejected if the mandatory team disciplines outlined above are not represented. If your submission is accepted, you may start working on your deliverables in Phase 1: Elevator Speech

We will no longer accept LOIs for a specific invention if the "ticker" on the Inventions Tab is 30 or we reach December 12th, 2014
Criteria, Guidelines, and Scoring
Overall Criteria: Adhere to the Eligibility requirements and Official Rules 

Mandatory Documents: Provide all mandatory documents outlined above in the "Phase 0 Overview and Submission Requirements;" as indicated, you will find a sample of all the documents here

Scoring Criteria: Please find below criteria and guidelines that will assist you in entering and winning the Challenge

DIMENSION 1 -  ABILITY TO EXECUTE

Criteria I: Team Capabilities
  • Core team members have invention relevant experience
  • Team contains members with R&D, marketing/business development, manufacturing and other operational experience in the biomedical industry

Criteria II: Entrepreneurs Background
  • Founded a biomedical company
  • Has been with company 3 or more years
  • Successfully exited a company, e.g., sold company, IPO, M&A, etc.
  • Raised dilutive and non-dilutive funding
  • Licensed inventions from the Federal government or a University

Criteria III: University Collaboration
  • Demonstrated cross-university collaboration to gain invention-relevant skills / experience

DIMENSION 2 - SUSTAINABILITY

Criteria I: Industry Collaboration
  • Comprehensive Stakeholder Assessment
  • Identified collaborators to improve probability of success, e.g. R&D, CROs, etc.

Criteria II: Funding
  • Both dilutive and non-dilutive funders have been strategically identified
  • Potential funders are collaborators, mentors and/or advisors to the team