Outreach

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PROJECT SUMMARY OUTREACH CORE The Outreach Core (OC) will be a multi-faceted arm of NeuroTech Harbor (NTH) to seek out high-risk, high- reward technology ideas in the neurotechnology fields. Building on the Equitech mission and vision of NTH, we will foster an inclusive environment where the brightest, most responsive neurotechnology ideas from anywhere or anyone in the US will be guided towards clinical and commercial success. NTH is committed to diversity and inclusion during early-stage translation as a major critical step towards creating long-term clinical and social impact. To execute our outreach plan, we present the following aims: (Aim 1) To perform rigorous needs assessments on an annual basis, driven by both primary and secondary research, to inform solicitations. (Aim 2) To drive broad awareness with targeted marketing of solicitations and generate high quality responses. (Aim 3) To form an NTH Institute for education and innovator leadership to increase success of innovators and as a pipeline for founding teams with women and URM inclusivity. For each solicitation cycle, we will work with our Steering Committee and Governing Board to (i) identify technology gaps in diagnostics and therapeutics for disorders of the nervous system, mental health and aging, (ii) identify needs for solutions in specific areas from a clinical perspective, and (iii) understand the needs of underserved patients, families, and advocacy group partners. We plan to synthesize and create solicitations that balance each stakeholder's perspective and needs. An initial needs assessment and solicitation are complete. Building on our prior experience with outreach for incubators and accelerator programs at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Howard University (HU), we will broadly communicate our solicitation launch with a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy. We will make coordinated efforts to ensure prospective applicants meet the criteria of solicitations by providing high customer service with “Pitch Days” for directed feedback and with educational assistance on proposal writing. Our goal is to continuously improve our responsive rate. Given the challenges when embarking on early-stage translation, we are ready to serve and prepare Innovators for the journey, with a focus on the inclusion of women, Black, LatinX, and communities of color. To do so, we will create an NTH Institute to educate, train, and level the playing field for Innovators from low- resource environments. The Institute will curate all learning elements (e.g., workshops, boot camps), tackling topics including translation readiness, commercialization, professional development, and project management. It will also launch a “Spark” program targeted to all STEM students across the HBCUs and minority serving institutions (MSIs) to introduce the neurotech field and the opportunities it unveils. To further enhance the diversity of Innovator teams and meet our goals for inclusion, we will facilitate team building by working closely with the Evaluation Core to create a closed feedback loop with solicited proposal Innovator teams. Finally, we will invite the BP consortium and their communities to participate and gain from the NTH Institute. .