In a move to further advance innovation and protective equipment on the gridiron, the NFL and Football Research Inc. launched the HeadHealthTECH Challenge, an opportunity for entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to receive grant money to develop their products and ideas around the sport of football.
The HeadHealthTECH Challenge is one aspect of a $60-million program funded by the NFL and managed on behalf of FRI by Duke University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. The Play Smart. Play Safe. Engineering Roadmap, as the plan is being called, comes on the heels of a four-year collaboration between the NFL and GE also designed to improve treatment for traumatic brain injury.
Last month, the league announced two winners from HeadHealthTECH Challenge I in VyaTek Sports and Guardian Innovations. The former received $190,000 in grants for developing and testing its technology that includes energy-absorbing modules added to a helmet and can be removed and replaced after a significant hit. Additionally, Guardian Innovations received $20,000 for biomechanical testing of its soft helmet cover (Guardian Cap) that reduces the severity of impacts.
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“Both of the companies had a very clear vision for how they could bring their products to the game of football. Both of them in this case happen to be add-on to helmets,” said Dr. Barry Myers, Director of Innovation Duke CTSI, Coulter Program Director and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University and a consultant to the NFLPA. “We aren’t looking specifically for that, but with a number of folks thinking that putting something on the outside of a helmet is a good idea, funding these folks made a lot of sense because it will allow us to generate the kind of evidence to show whether these are good ideas or not good ideas. A short answer, we’ll look to advance these products to the marketplace and in doing so, learn a lot about the role of things put on the outside of a helmet. There’s sort of a double bank for your buck.”
According to Jeff Miller, NFL Executive Vice President of Health and Safety Initiatives, “investing in good ideas” is at the core of the Challenges, with the second installment’s application period now open until June 14. Miller added that companies who receive grants will be aided in mentorship as they develop their ideas and products into more robust technologies and ultimately, help “make sport safer.”
Over the five-year Play Smart. Play Safe. Engineering Roadmap, FRI will award upwards of $1 million a year around improvements in innovative equipment padding, turf systems and other football-related technological concepts. Even if a proposal is initially denied a grant, participants can reapply upon refining their product or idea.
“If you’ve spent time in innovation, you’ve seen gaps, whether its capital or more commonly in expertise. … Part of what this program accomplishes specifically is to close those gaps and provide seed capital, to provide mentorship and networking,” Myers said. “For example, if you’re a materials person, your next step after having made a great material is to try development. But that first involves prototypes and many of the people in universities or the private sector really don’t have those networks. Part of what the Roadmap and the Challenge does it to create those networks and leverage them so that we get people able to advance over these valleys and gaps in the marketplace.”