44810 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 185 / Tuesday, September 26, 2017 / Notices 

and to the extent necessary to 

administer the challenge, and to 

publically perform and publically 

display the submission, including, 

without limitation, for advertising and 

promotional purposes relating to the 

challenge. 

• Record Retention and FOIA: All 

materials submitted to HRSA as part of 

a submission become HRSA records and 

cannot be returned. Any confidential 

commercial information contained in a 

submission should be designated at the 

time of submission. Participants will be 

notified of any Freedom of Information 

Act requests for their submissions in 

accordance with 45 CFR 5.65. 

The statutory authority for this 

challenge competition is Section 105 of 

the America COMPETES 

Reauthorization Act of 2010 

(COMPETES Act, Pub. L. 111–358) as 

amended by section 401(b) of the 

American Innovation and 

Competitiveness Act, Public Law 114– 

329. 

Dated: September 19, 2017. 

George Sigounas, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2017–20536 Filed 9–25–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4165–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Health Resources and Services 

Administration 

Challenge Competition: Using 

Technology to Prevent Childhood 

Obesity in Low-Income Families and 

Communities 

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services 

Administration, Department of Health 

and Human Services. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Health Resources and 

Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) 

Maternal and Child Health Bureau 

(MCHB) announces a prize competition 

to support the development of low-cost, 

scalable technology-based innovations 

to promote healthy weight for lowincome children and families in the 

socio-cultural and environmental 

contexts of their communities. 

The statutory authority for this 

challenge competition is Section 105 of 

the America COMPETES 

Reauthorization Act of 2010. 

This challenge, structured in three 

phases, will reach a diverse population 

of innovators and problem solvers, 

including families, coders, public health 

experts, community leaders, individuals 

affiliated with academic institutions, 

research and development communities 

in the private sector, and others. 

All submissions will be evaluated and 

separate prizes will be awarded for each 

of the three phases below. 

Phase 1: Design 

Phase 2: Development and Small Scale 

Testing 

Phase 3: Scaling 

Estimated dates for each phase are as 

follows: 

Phase 1: Effective on January 2, 2018 

Phase 1 Submission Period Ends: 

January 31, 2018, 11:59 p.m. ET 

Phase 1 Judging Period: February 1- 

February 28, 2018 

Phase 1 Winners Announced: March 12, 

2018 

Phase 2 Begins: March 13, 2018 

Phase 2 Submission Period Ends: July 

11, 2018 

Phase 2 Judging Period: July 12-August 

12, 2018 

Phase 2 Winners Announced: August 

20, 2018 

Phase 3 Begins: August 21, 2018 

Phase 3 Submission Period Ends: 

February 21, 2019 

Phase 3 Winner Announced: March 1, 

2019 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Meredith Morrissette, Division of 

Maternal and Child Health Workforce 

Development, MCHB, MMorrissette@

hrsa.gov, (301) 443–6392, or James 

Resnick, Office of the Associate 

Administrator, MCHB, JResnick@

hrsa.gov, (301) 443–3222. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

January 4, 2011, the America 

COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 

was signed into law allowing the use of 

challenges and prize competitions 

increasing agencies’ ability to promote 

and harness innovation. Competitions 

run by the federal government result in 

a number of benefits to the public, 

including the following: 

(a) Increasing the number and 

diversity of the individuals, teams, and 

organizations that are addressing a 

particular problem or challenge of 

national significance; 

(b) Improving the skills of the 

participants in the competition; and 

(c) Directing attention to new market 

opportunities and stimulating private 

sector investment. 

Subject of Challenge Competition 

Secretary Price identified reducing 

childhood obesity as a priority for the 

Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS), acknowledging this is a 

growing epidemic in the United States. 

Since 1980, childhood obesity rates for 

2- to 19-year-olds have tripled, with 

rates of obesity in 6- to 11-year-olds 

more than doubling, and rates of obesity 

in 12- to 19-year-olds quadrupling. 

While improved eating behaviors and 

increased physical activity play a large 

role in obesity prevention, additional 

public health factors such as limited 

access to affordable, healthy food 

options, social and cultural norms, and 

limited availability of safe places to play 

also impact childhood obesity rates. 

While existing apps and tools address 

individual behaviors, such as exercise 

and nutrition, their uptake in 

underserved communities is limited 

because they are not tailored to the 

needs, challenges, and barriers to 

healthy weight in these communities. 

The goal of this challenge is to make 

technology work for the family as a unit 

within the reality of their larger 

community environment. 

Addressing childhood obesity from a 

population-based, public health 

perspective as a complement to the 

individual clinical perspective requires 

innovative, community-based solutions 

and partnerships. A challenge will 

maximize competition and spur 

innovation for communities in a costeffective and accelerated timeframe. It 

will reach a broad stakeholder group 

and allow involvement of nontraditional partners who are 

knowledgeable about the strengths and 

challenges affecting the community, and 

who can bring new ideas towards 

addressing this issue. A challenge will 

provide support for the development of 

several innovative ideas through a payfor-results mechanism, ultimately 

leading to the development of multiple 

novel and scalable interventions. 

Potential areas of focus include, but 

are not limited to: 

• Promoting access to healthy, 

affordable food; 

• Supporting community-owned 

solutions that increase families’ 

knowledge and skills related to healthy 

eating and nutrition; 

• Finding innovative ways that 

increase physical activity, such as 

gamification, while accounting for 

environmental barriers to physical 

activity in underserved communities; 

and 

• Empowering families to achieve 

healthy eating practices, healthy 

lifestyles, and sustainable changes in 

the home environment, while 

accounting for limited access to healthy 

foods in under-resourced communities. 

Key design features of the innovations 

may address one or more of the 

following: 

• Be at low-cost to families and 

scalable; 

Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 185 / Tuesday, September 26, 2017 / Notices 44811 

• Account for social, cultural, and 

environmental barriers to healthy 

weight behaviors; 

• Incorporate a two-generation 

approach in targeting the family unit 

(children and parents/caregivers); 

• Be focused on underserved families 

and communities; 

• Address the supply and demand of 

food (i.e., use innovative means to 

connect families in food deserts or 

families that are food insecure to 

healthy food); 

• Be grounded in behavioral science 

for long-term behavior change around 

nutrition and healthy behaviors; and 

• Address nutrition and physical 

activity. 

Eligibility Rules for Participating in the 

Competition 

To be eligible to win a prize under 

this challenge, an individual or entity— 

(1) Shall have registered to participate 

in the competition under the rules 

promulgated by HRSA and HHS. 

(2) Shall have complied with all the 

requirements under this section. 

(3) 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. 

(4) May not be a federal entity or 

federal employee acting within the 

scope of their employment. 

(5) Shall not be an HHS employee 

working on their applications or 

submissions during assigned duty 

hours. 

(6) May not be employees of HRSA or 

any other company, organization, or 

individual involved with the design, 

production, execution, judging, or 

distribution of the Challenge and their 

immediate family (i.e., spouse, parents 

and step-parents, siblings and stepsiblings, and children and stepchildren) and household members (i.e., 

people who share the same residence at 

least 3 months out of the year). 

(7) In the case of a federal grantee, 

may not use federal funds to develop 

COMPETES Act challenge applications 

unless consistent with the purpose of 

their grant award. 

(8) In the case of a federal contractor, 

may not use federal funds from a 

contract to develop COMPETES Act 

challenge applications or to fund efforts 

in support of a COMPETES Act 

challenge submission. 

(9) Shall not be deemed ineligible 

because the individual or entity used 

federal facilities or consulted with 

federal employees during a competition 

if the facilities and employees are made 

equitably available to all individuals 

and entities participating in the 

competition. 

(10) Must agree to assume any and all 

risks and waive claims against the 

federal government and its related 

entities, except in the case of willful 

misconduct, for any injury, death, 

damage, or loss of property, revenue, or 

profits, whether direct, indirect, or 

consequential, arising from the 

participation in this prize contest, 

whether the injury, death, damage, or 

loss arises through negligence or 

otherwise. 

(11) Must also agree to indemnify the 

federal government against third party 

claims for damages arising from or 

related to competition activities. 

(12) Shall not be currently on the 

Excluded Parties List (https://

www.epls.gov/). 

Submission Requirements 

The Challenge has three phases. 

Phase 1—Design 

The first stage of the prize 

competition aims to attract a large set of 

ideas and innovators. The target product 

of the first stage will be the 

conceptualization of the most promising 

innovations to promote healthy weight 

behaviors in children and families in 

vulnerable populations. The 

submissions should demonstrate that 

the proposed intervention will be 

accessible to traditionally underserved 

populations and easily implemented by 

users. 

The Phase 1 Submission shall 

include: 

1. A comprehensive description of the 

proposed intervention in five pages or 

less, including: 

a. A one-paragraph executive 

summary that clearly states the question 

to be solved; 

b. Background information linking the 

evidence to support the intervention; 

c. A descriptive analysis of how the 

applicant arrived at their idea; 

d. Descriptions of the methods and 

technologies involved in 

implementation of the intervention; and 

e. An assessment describing the 

applicant’s ability to execute the 

proposed solution in Phase 2 and 3. 

Phase 2—Development and Small Scale 

Testing 

The winners of Phase 1 of the prize 

competition will then advance to a 

second stage focused on prototyping the 

intervention and testing the 

effectiveness of the intervention. Using 

support from the Phase 1 prize funding, 

innovation developers will test the 

efficacy of their models to show that the 

proposed innovation demonstrates an 

impact on the outcomes of interest for 

children and families. The applicants 

should demonstrate both the evidence 

base for the innovation and its usability. 

Mentors will be available to help 

participants design appropriate testing 

methodologies and learn more about the 

evidence base. 

Phase 3—Scaling 

The winners of Phase 2 will move to 

the final phase of the incentive prize, 

which will involve testing the most 

promising models at greater scale 

through rollout at the program or 

community level. This will test the 

scalability of the device at low-cost, the 

feasibility of implementation, and the 

impact on the intended outcomes. 

Applicants are encouraged to work 

closely with a community or city to 

facilitate scaling the intervention in 

order to reach more families. 

Registration Process for Participants 

Participants will be able to register 

and submit an entry at the Using 

Technology to Prevent Childhood 

Obesity in Low-Income Families and 

Communities Challenge Web site. 

Participants can find out more 

information at https://

www.challenge.gov/list. 

Prizes 

• Total: $375,000 in Prizes 

Æ Phase 1: 7–10 winners; up to a total 

of $100,000 in prizes 

Æ Phase 2: 3–5 winners; up to a total 

of $125,000 in prizes 

Æ Phase 3: 1 winner; up to a total of 

$150,000 prize 

Payment of the Prizes 

Prize payments will be paid by a 

contractor. Phase 1 winners may be 

expected to use a portion of the prize 

money for travel and lodging to attend 

a 2-day meeting in Washington, DC, to 

demonstrate their innovation to the 

judges. 

Prizes awarded under this 

competition will be paid by electronic 

funds transfer and may be subject to 

federal income taxes. HHS will comply 

with the Internal Revenue Service 

withholding and reporting 

requirements, where applicable. 

Basis for Winner Selection 

A review panel composed of HHS 

employees and experts will judge 

challenge entries in compliance with 

the requirements of the COMPETES Act 

and HHS judging guidelines: http://

www.hhs.gov/idealab/wp-content/ 

uploads/2014/04/HHS-COMPETITIONJUDGING-GUIDELINES.pdf. 

44812 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 185 / Tuesday, September 26, 2017 / Notices 

The review panel will make selections 

based upon the following criteria: 

Phase 1 

Accessibility 

• Is the proposed innovation able to 

be easily utilized by families of diverse 

economic, social, and cultural 

backgrounds? 

Measurability 

• How easily will the proposed 

innovation be evaluated in order to 

determine its efficacy (in both lab 

testing and in the real world)? Is the 

proposed innovation measurable among 

various audiences? 

Sustainability 

• Is the proposed innovation 

‘‘sticky?’’ Does the proposed 

intervention compel users to utilize the 

technology often and/or for long periods 

of time? Does it fit into usual family 

and/or community routines? Is it 

engaging for users? 

Impact 

• Does the applicant present a theory 

or explanation of how the proposed 

innovation would promote healthy 

weight behaviors and/or access to 

healthy food? 

Phase 2 

Impact 

• How did the innovation impact 

target outcomes? What did the data 

show? 

Evidence Base 

• Is the intervention grounded in 

existing science related to healthy 

weight behaviors, childhood obesity, 

behavior change, etc.? 

Sustainability 

• Was the intervention compelling to 

users and did it encourage users to use 

the technology often? Did users want to 

continuously engage with the 

technology? 

Implementation 

• How feasible is the intervention? 

How much support for implementation 

will the intervention require (estimated 

financial and time commitment)? 

Phase 3 

Impact 

• How effective was the intervention 

when implemented at scale? Did the 

impacts from Phase 2 remain 

consistent? 

Implementation 

• How feasible was the intervention 

on a larger scale? How much support for 

implementation did the model require 

(financial and time commitment)? How 

challenging was the actual program 

implementation? 

Scalability 

• How costly was the intervention in 

a real-world setting? How likely are cost 

efficiencies for program delivery at 

greater scale? Can the innovation be 

used in other communities? 

Additional Information 

General Conditions: 

• HRSA reserves the right to cancel, 

suspend, and/or modify the contest, or 

any part of it, for any reason, at HRSA’s 

sole discretion. 

• The interventions submitted across 

all phases should not use the HHS or 

HRSA logos or official seals in the 

submission, and must not claim 

endorsement. 

Intellectual Property 

• Each entrant retains full ownership 

and title in and to their submission. 

Entrants expressly reserve all 

intellectual property rights not 

expressly granted under the challenge 

agreement. 

• By participating in the challenge, 

each entrant hereby irrevocably grants 

to HRSA a limited, non-exclusive, 

royalty-free, worldwide license and 

right to reproduce, publically perform, 

publically display, and use the 

submission for internal HHS business 

and to the extent necessary to 

administer the challenge, and to 

publically perform and publically 

display the submission, including, 

without limitation, for advertising and 

promotional purposes relating to the 

challenge. 

• Record Retention and FOIA: All 

materials submitted to HRSA as part of 

a submission become HRSA records and 

cannot be returned. Any confidential 

commercial information contained in a 

submission should be designated at the 

time of submission. Participants will be 

notified of any Freedom of Information 

Act requests for their submissions in 

accordance with 45 CFR 5.65. 

Dated: September 19, 2017. 

George Sigounas, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2017–20537 Filed 9–25–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4165–15–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Health Resources and Services 

Administration 

COMPETES Reauthorization Act 

Challenge Competition 

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services 

Administration, Department of Health 

and Human Services. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Health Resources and 

Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) 

Maternal and Child Health Bureau 

(MCHB) announces a prize competition 

for the Improving Care for Children and 

Youth—Incentive Prize. MCHB is 

sponsoring the Improving Care for 

Children and Youth challenge to spur 

innovative solutions to overcoming 

barriers to accessing health care and 

high-quality services faced by families. 

This challenge will reward the 

development and testing of scalable 

innovations that improve care for 

children and youth. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jessie Buerlein, Office of Policy and 

Planning, MCHB, JBuerlein@hrsa.gov, 

(301) 443–8931 and James Resnick, 

Office of the Associate Administrator, 

MCHB, JResnick@hrsa.gov, (301) 334– 

3222. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

January 4, 2011, the America 

COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 

was signed into law allowing the use of 

challenges and prize competitions 

increasing agencies’ ability to promote 

and harness innovation. Competitions 

run by the federal government result in 

a number of benefits to the public, 

including the following: 

(a) Increasing the number and 

diversity of the individuals, teams, and 

organizations that are addressing a 

particular problem or challenge of 

national significance; 

(b) Improving the skills of the 

participants in the competition; and 

(c) Directing attention to new market 

opportunities and stimulating private 

sector investment. 

This challenge, which will be 

structured in phases with a narrowing of 

applicants through each phase to result 

in one final winner, will reach a diverse 

population of innovators and problem 

solvers, including families, coders, 

public health experts, community 

leaders, individuals affiliated with 

academic institutions, research and 

development communities in the 

private sector, and others.