RISE UP for Breast Cancer – “Ideas to Implementation" Award (I2I Award)  

Key Dates:  

Proposal Submission Deadline – September 1, 2024 

Notification of finalists (for preparation of pitch deck) – September 20, 2024 

Notification of finalists for presentation acceptance – October 15, 2024 

Request for Proposals

Ideas to Implementation Submissions are now CLOSED!

Solution Submission downloadable as PDF 

1. Introduction: 

Important strides have been made in understanding the biology of breast cancer, and treatments have improved significantly by understanding that breast cancer is not one disease. Targeted therapeutics (specific to tumor subtype) have proliferated and are decreasing mortality and expanding options and time for those with metastatic disease. However, for the last 60 years at least, the incidence of breast cancer has continued to rise. In the United States alone, over 240,000 women develop, and 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year.  There is yet an untapped opportunity to reverse this rise. It requires an out of the box approach to merging and transforming knowledge across specialties. We can leverage advances in breast cancer treatments and risk prediction and put these in the context of the common hormonal interventions across a woman’s lifetime to generate a new approach to breast cancer prevention. Contraceptive products have fortunately been associated with a decrease in ovarian and colon cancer but are not associated with a decrease in breast cancer. We need a paradigm shift to rethink how we approach and reformulate products widely in use for women and consider this as an opportunity to reimagine prevention research and strategies for implementation. This is the goal of the RISE UP (Revolutionizing Investigations to StEp Up Prevention) for Breast Cancer interdisciplinary meeting. We can re-imagine better, more holistic approaches for breast cancer prevention. 

An important part of RISE UP is an innovative “Ideas to Implementation” session which will be held at the end of the meeting. This session aims to inspire and engage the innovator, investor, researcher, pharmaceutical, and patient advocate communities to spur idea generation and investment in reimagining how we can best integrate breast cancer risk reduction and prevention into health care products used during a woman’s life course. 

Two types of awards will be given: a “SPARK” award to foster early-stage ideas and collaborations, and an “IMPLEMENTATION” award to later stage development ideas. Interested parties should submit a proposal that outlines their idea, addresses how it is innovative and considers a holistic approach to breast cancer prevention. The most promising proposals will be selected to prepare a more detailed pitch deck, and finalists will be invited to present their ideas live in front of an outstanding panel of judges at the RISE UP for Breast Cancer meeting to be held in San Francisco, CA from November 1-3rd, 2024. 

2. Award Description: SPARK and IMPLEMENTATION  

SPARK awards will focus on transformative early-stage research efforts and/or collaborations to create a new program and approach. Selected awardees will receive an award of up to $50k. 

IMPLEMENTATION awards will be given to accelerate later stage innovations to provide the impetus for venture and industry partners to develop and test solutions. This will help lower the barrier to successful commercial implementation and help align incentives to better prioritize prevention in these spaces. Selected awardees will receive an award of up to $100k.  

3. Topic: Holistic Approach to Breast Cancer Prevention  

Breast cancer risk starts early, as early age of menarche is a known risk factor. Exercise and diet influences timing of menarche. Women consider taking medications for cycle control, birth control, in vitro fertilization, postpartum weaning and symptoms of menopause.  There is an incredible opportunity to think about strategies for breast cancer prevention that can be incorporated into our approach for optimizing women’s health. 

We would like teams to think creatively, practically, and innovatively about strategies for breast cancer prevention that can be incorporated into the current standard of care of hormonal and weight control and management in women and in women’s health writ large. For example, pharmaceutical products are often designed to achieve one desired purpose. However, we have not thought enough about how to create products that serve more than one purpose (e.g. birth control and breast cancer risk reduction). Serendipitously, oral contraceptive pills are risk reducing for ovarian and colon cancer, but they increase the risk of cervical cancer whereas the impact on breast cancer is unknown.  Most birth control formulations were designed long before we understood much about breast cancer. By being more intentional in our approach and making breast cancer prevention an explicit goal, we could dramatically improve the possible benefits of pharmaceuticals that nearly 65% of women ages 15-49 already use.  This competition is explicitly designed to make sure we take advantage of the potential opportunity to dramatically decrease breast cancer risk.  

This type of innovative thinking could drive down the rate of breast cancer and will engage all types of women’s health providers, researchers, policy makers, and drug developers in our overarching goal of reducing the incidence of and morbidity and mortality from breast cancer. 

4. Evaluation:  

A subset of submissions will be invited to the in-person 'Shark Tank'-style pitch session. This session will be held at the end of the RISE UP for Breast Cancer Conference on November 3rd, 2024. The selected pitches will be presented to an esteemed panel of judges, including investors, FDA leaders, scientists, advocates, and community leaders. This panel will judge ideas for feasibility and potential for prevention and adoption. Winners will be asked to come back in subsequent years to present their progress. All finalists will prepare their idea as a poster proposal at the meeting. 

5. Submission Requirements 

• Submission Questions 
  • Required questions include:  
    • Clinical Need (200 words max)
    • Proposed solution (200 words max)
    • Target customers, users, stakeholders (200 words max)
    • Value proposition (200 words max)
    • Anticipated impact of solution (200 words max) 
    • Business Plan (200 words max)
    • Market and competition (200 words max)
    • List any publications of your technology or product to date (if any) 
    • Does your product fall under an existing US reimbursement code? If yes, please list the existing codes 
• Select your timeline (1-5 years, 5-10 years) & whether you are applying for the SPARK or IMPLEMENTATION Award 
  • For IMPLEMENTATION only: How does your proposed solution show promise of commercial viability? 
    • ** To note, selected teams will be asked to create a pitch deck.** 
• Budget: please indicate generally how you plan to spend the funds (skeleton budget only) 
• Eligibility: Competition is open to anyone with a great idea from any place in the world. Investigators can be involved on more than one proposal, and we encourage early-stage investigators and individuals from all background to apply.  

Evaluation criteria:  

1. Technical Merit/feasibility 

2. Team  

3. Accessibility 

4. Transformative potential & impact on women’s health 

5. Community engagement   

6. Select timeline: (1-5, 5-10 years)  

The number of awards will depend on the funds we raise at the Saturday luncheon on November 2 (https://riseup.ucsf.edu/luncheon)  

Presentation at RISE UP – November 3rd, 2024 

Judges: