Brigham and Women’s Hospital will a Shark Tank Awards in October 2020 to fund innovative and high-risk/high-impact projects in the basic, clinical, digital and translational realms through its McGraw Opioid Innovator Awards. This year, in collaboration with the Brigham Research Institute (BRI), the BWH Program in Opioid and Pain Innovation (POPI) and generous support from the McGraw Foundation these awards aim to advance projects that have the potential to make an impact in one or more of the following domains – biomedical research, healthcare delivery, the generation of new companies/products/services, cost savings, care quality and provider burnout. Since 2012, The BRI participated in the distribution of more than $1 million to BWH investigators through these types of awards.

In 2019, The McGraw Foundation participated for its first time in the Shark Tank, contributing $100,000 to investigators at BWH for Opioid Innovation research.

This cycle’s Request for Applications is focused on advancing innovations related to solving the opioid crisis which has resulted in the loss of over 2000 lives in each year for the past three years in Massachusetts alone. Novel ideas that seek to address questions and challenges related to the opioid epidemic including but not limited to research on addiction, adverse effects, alternate pain management strategies, genetic susceptibility to opioid abuse, new tools for opioid research, diagnosis/treatment, management of infectious diseases related to opioid abuse, withdrawal, personalized medicine etc. are welcome. Special focus on COVID-19 related research and racial and ethnic disparities research is also welcome.

Letter of intent requirements:

1. Applicant's Name, Department and Division, BWH and HMS professional appointments, office or laboratory address, telephone number and e-mail address 
2. Title of research project to be supported 
3. Applicants must indicate names of collaborators and the institutions they are affiliated to 
4. PDF of letter of intent with a maximum of 300 words describing the project and clearly specifying the short-term and/or long-term impact (scientific, commercial, patient-care or cost savings) of the project. 
5. Applicants must indicate whether any invention disclosures or patents have been filed in connection with the project submitted 

Eligibility: All members of the BWH research community including BWH professional staff (ex. Nurses and other clinicians) and faculty members with instructor rank and above are invited to apply.

Awards: Up to two non-renewable grants will be awarded on a competitive basis with award denominations of up to $50,000 and $25,000 respectively