Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) –

Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation and Technology 

to Address Loneliness & social isolation (MENTAL) Health 

Innovation Challenge

(MENTAL Health Challenge)

 Version 1 – July 16, 2020

This document will be updated with responses to any additional questions ACL receives. For more 

information about this Challenge please visit the Challenge.gov website. Additional feedback or 

questions about this challenge can be sent via e-mail to MENTALHealthChallenge@acl.hhs.gov

1. Question: What is a Challenge? 

Response: A challenge (also referred to as "prize challenge," "competition," "prize competition," 

"incentive prize" or any combination thereof) allows the public to solve problems presented by 

federal agencies and receive awards for the best solutions.

2. Question: Where and how can I access additional information and instructions regarding the 

Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation and Technology to Address Loneliness & social isolation 

(MENTAL) Health Innovation Challenge? 

Response: To find the instructions and additional details, click here to get to the announcement 

page on Challenge.gov. 

3. Question: What is the total prize amounts? 

Response: The total prize award available is $750,000. This MENTAL Health challenge entails 

two (2) phases with cash prize awards and a bonus cash award. Phase 1: Total prize funds 

$150,000; up to 3 finalist each winning $50,000. Please note - In the event we choose fewer 

than 3 Finalists, the $150,000 will be split evenly among those teams selected (for example, if 2 

teams are selected as Finalists each will receive $75,000). Phase 2: Total prize funds $550,000: 

winner awarded $450,000; runner up $100,000. Finalists and the winner are eligible for a bonus 

prize if they submit a written assessment detailing their continued work to implement, scale and 

sustain the solution. The bonus prize award is $50,000. The bonus prize submissions will be due 

September 30, 2021 and details will be provided at a later date.

4. Question: Are there any non-monetary awards?

Response: Yes, The top two contenders will present their solution at the CES 2021 in Las Vegas, 

NV (January 6-9, 2021). In addition the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health is planning the Healthy Aging Summit conference for 

2021 and the winner will be asked to present the solution at this conference.

5. Question: Who is eligible for the MENTAL Health Challenge? 

Response: To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge, an individual or entity may 

participate as part of one or more teams. Team formation is strongly encouraged, and teams are 
not limited in the number of members. Each team must designate a captain who must be a U.S. 

citizen or permanent resident who is responsible for all correspondence regarding this 

Challenge. An individual or entity:

 Shall have registered to participate in the competition under the rules promulgated by the 

Administration for Community Living;

 Shall have complied with all the requirements under this section;

 In the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of 

business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, whether participating singly 

or in a group, shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States;

 May not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within the scope of their 

employment (all non-HHS, non-Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or non-Veterans 

Affairs (VA) federal employees must consult with their agency Ethics Official to determine 

whether the federal ethics rules will limit or prohibit the acceptance of a Creating 

Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science

(COMPETES) Act prize);

 Shall not be an HHS, FCC, or VA employee;

 Federal grantees may not use Federal funds to develop submissions unless consistent with 

the purpose of their grant award; and

 Federal contractors may not use Federal funds from a contract to develop COMPETES Act 

challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of a COMPETES Act challenge 

submission.

The Federal government will not select, as a winner, an individual or entity that is on the 

Excluded Parties List.

6. Question: Is local law enforcement eligible for this challenge? Many of the members of service are 

veterans and/or minorities.

Response: Local law enforcement may be eligible for this challenge provided they meet the 

eligibility requirements listed in the MENTAL Health Prize Challenge.

7. Question: Can an individual or entity participate on more than one team? 

Response: Yes, an individual and/or entity can participate on more than one team. Multiple 

entries are permitted. Each solution must be sufficiently novel and unique and not be a minor 

modification of a prior submission.

8. Question: My organization has a system that we have implemented successfully and which can be 

adapted to achieve the goals of the MENTAL Health Challenge project. Can an adaption of an 

existing system be submitted? 

Response: Yes, as long as it is not a minor modification of a prior submission. 

9. Question: How do I register for the MENTAL Health Challenge?

Response: Beginning June 23, 2020 at 7:15 AM EDT, the identified Official Representative 

(individual, team, or legal entity) may register for this Challenge by sending an email 

to MENTALHealthChallenge@acl.hhs.gov with the subject line stating ‘MENTAL Health Challenge 

Registration’. In this email you must identify only one Official Representative for each Challenge 

registration. The Official Representative must provide a name and email address and, by sending 
in the registration, affirms on behalf of the Solver (individual, team, or legal entity), that he or 

she has read and consents to be governed by the Challenge Rules. It is helpful to receive 

registrations for this challenge by July 15, 2020 in order to project the quantity of submissions 

and plan the application receipt and judging process. Registration for this Challenge are due on 

September 8, 2020 by 11:59 pm EDT with the organization or individual’s Phase 1 submission. 

10. Question: Can an individual or entity apply for the MENTAL Health Challenge after September 8, 

2020?

Response: No, submissions for the MENTAL Health Challenge are due September 8, 2020. 

11. Question: Where do I send questions about the MENTAL Health Challenge? 

Response: Questions concerning this Challenge should be sent by email 

to MENTALHealthChallenge@acl.hhs.gov.

12. Question: The Challenge indicates that preference will be given to teams that coordinate with or are 

informed by a state ADRC/No Wrong Door (NWD) System. How can I get connected to my state 

ADRC/NWD System? What are some examples of how teams can “coordinate with or are informed 

by a state ADRC/NWD System”

Response: Contenders and teams have three options to connect with their state or territory 

ADRC/NWD systems. 

 1

st option, is to email MENTALHealthChallenge@acl.hhs.gov with an interest to connect 

to your local ADRC/NWD system; or 

 2

nd option is to visit the NWD website to reach out to the respective state NWD leads.

 3

rd option is to visit the https://acl.gov/MENTAL website and click on the “No Wrong 

Door System State/Territory Leads” under the Resources section on the website.

Response: Some examples of how contenders and teams can include their state or territory

ADRC/NWD include: 

 Letter of support from ADRC/NWD representative as part of submission;

 ADRC/NWD representative could be part of the formal team submitting a concept;

 Contender and/or team reaches out to ADRC/NWD to pilot, seek input and/or provide 

feedback on Challenge concepts and ideas;

 Contender and/or team utilizes ADRC/NWD as part of the deployment strategy of concept 

and ideas; and/or

 Contender and/or team shares a portion of the prize money with their local ADRC/NWD 

partner. 
13. Question: Could you provide an update on the dates, the timeline. 

Response: The registration for the prize challenge and submission for Phase 1 is due September 

8, 2020. The submission for Phase 2 is due December 4, 2020. The top two contenders, present 

their solutions at the CES 2021 January 6 -9, 2021. The winner will be announced at CES 2021. 

The bonus prize submission is due September 30, 2021. Eligibility for the bonus prize is limited 

to the Challenge finalists and winner. 

14. Question: Will the slides be provided after today's session? 

Response: Yes. Slides and other supporting material and documents will be posted to ACL's 

Challenge website at ACL.gov\MENTAL and the Challenge.gov website at 

https://www.challenge.gov/challenge/MENTAL-health-social-isolation-challenge/ 

15. Question: Are all of the resource organizations also eligible to apply?

Response: Yes, resource organizations are eligible to apply, under conditions they meet the 

eligibility requirements and choose to apply.

16. Question: Could you clarify as to whether we are to use existing videos, or produce them ourselves? 

Is there a good place to find such videos for given programs and services? I assume that a minority 

of programs would have such helpful videos?

Response: The State Assistive Technology (AT) programs have videos on certain technologies and 

may be a source. To find your state AT program visit: https://www.at3center.net/stateprogram 

Technology companies that produce technology some times have training videos available for end 

users to understand how to use the technology. But we do know, for example, whether it is Apple 

products or other sort of more mainstream smart technologies, that there are YouTube videos 

available that are - I think having transparency around where some of these training materials 

already reside could be helpful to the solvers, the challenge participants.

Our hope would be to use existing training videos to add to a clearinghouse, given the time frame. 

17. Question: Can states participate?

Response: Eligible applicants include state agencies that are compliant with the terms and 

conditions of the Challenge and with the rules regarding the use of grant funds.

18. Question: Could you clarify this criteria, quoted "Degree to which the proposed solution enables 

real-time query and response with an electronic clearinghouse". Does that just mean, the matching 

of a user's assessment to a given resource happens quickly? Or are you implying a search 

functionality?
Response: It could be perhaps a combination of searching based on the data that is available from 

the assessment process. The goal or outcome is to use the data from the screening and assessment 

process to connect the individual to the social engagement programming and/or technologies that 

meet the individual’s needs, interests and abilities. . It could be a combination of search 

functionality and algorithms that would be able to get you to a spectrum of options. We would 

really rely on the responders, along, with their team that comes together to figure out how that 

could best be achieved. We would, ideally, like to have a real-time process, so that there would not 

be a delay, and that the user would be able to receive the list of social engagement programming 

and/or technologies that meet their needs, interest and abilities and be able to enroll or acquire the 

selected program(s) and/or technologies. The goal is for the individual’s experience, to be real time,

smooth, and seamless. 

19. Question: Seems like the turnaround is pretty quick to get a wide range of content. Are you looking 

more for the design concept versus a complete clearinghouse of what's available? 

Response: Yes, it is really about design. Additional content can be added to the clearinghouse as 

you continue the design process. We plan to make available the information on where - in terms of 

social programs, programs for social connectedness exist. And, some of the organizations that we 

have been working with on a larger, sort of public - private effort to address social isolation. Could 

be potential sources, the members of these organizations could be sources of that content. But we 

will do our best within the time frames to provide and make transparent, the content that we are 

aware of. Because of the very, you know, ambitious timeframe here, because we all operating under 

the notion that we want something relevant during the pandemic to be operational and serving 

people. You know, this phase 1 is going to happen very quickly. So, you may not have all known, you 

know, sources of the clearinghouse available and populated during phase 1. But I think we are 

looking for this to be an iterative process over the next six months. So that we can get to a more 

complete universe of options over time. But, we can talk more about this and encourage folks to ask 

more questions, so, everyone has an understanding of the expectations. 

20. Question: Is the initial focus of the challenge to create a solution at the national level? Or will a 

winning solution be scaled to national level after challenge is over?

Response: Our hope would be that we would have something available that could be accessed 

nationally. It may not be fully built out, but it would be helpful if the clearinghouse included some of 

the nationally available social engagement programming, and that we would work to build it out 

more specifically in local areas across the country as it became more mature. Our goal is to try to get 

to scale as rapidly as possible. But recognize that six months is not a lot of time to get to a fully 

scalable solution. The bonus award is intended to support the continued development and scaling of 

the winner and finalist solutions. Going from, as far as a winner can go in the next six months, and

then, being able to take it to the next level, learning from the experience of the pilot, and really 

trying to scale and figure out how to sustain, a dynamic, clearinghouse that would be updated in 

real time. Another thing we recognize as an important opportunity is to really be able to build in 

feedback components into the clearinghouse so that we can get data on what social engagement 

programming and technology solutions are working well. And over time, we can evaluate what 

solutions are impactful. We’d also like to look at the status of an individual, pre-intervention and 
post intervention. But the main point here is that, we would expect it to be fully scaled after the 

challenge is over.

21. Question: Is the Official Representative designated in the registration email meant to be the same 

person as the captain "captain who must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who is responsible 

for all correspondence regarding this Challenge"

Response: The captain of the team in the official representative should be the same person. And 

should meet the criteria defined in the mental health prize challenge rules. However, there will be 

flexibility to update the Captain when someone is registering when their team might grow and the 

whole team hasn't yet decided on who would be the official captain. An organization might register, 

and then decide they are teaming with another organization. They would be able update the 

registration accordingly. 

22. Question: For the submission are there prior examples of a governance model and concept paper?

Response: No. I would say the answer to that question at this time is no. I think, we will be giving 

more of an update on a plan that we are pursuing to ensure sustainability and scalability after 

January. Which will involve a governance model. We will be sharing more information at the July 30, 

2020 webinar regarding how the clearinghouse could be governed over time and how the 

clearinghouse would be maintained. It is not something that has to be solved for completely in the 

design process. It is going to be an essential role for the success of the solution that is, the final 

winner.