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Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)

Purpose

The Office of Autoimmune Disease Research is pleased to announce an upcoming Prize Competition to solicit entries for the Nutrition for OUR Immune System Health (NOURISH): Autoimmunity Challenge. The objective of this crowdsourcing competition is to generate a cadre of innovative ideas on how to best integrate diet and nutrition studies into autoimmune disease research with a focus on identifying dietary interventions that are feasible, testable, scalable, and will have broad impact across the broad autoimmune disease portfolio. With up to $150,000 in total prizes, the NIH is seeking ideas for new ways of studying diet and nutrition in autoimmune disease research, including the role diet plays in the autoimmune prodrome and autoimmune disease inception, how diet and nutrition contribute to autoimmune disease progression and flares, and the role that diet may play in symptom management.

The anticipated Challenge Announcement/Launch Date is September 2025. 

Background:

Autoimmune diseases affect more than 8% of the United States (U.S.) population, and the prevalence of chronic autoimmunity is rising faster than can be explained by genetics alone. Between 23.5 and 50.0 million Americans are estimated to be living with autoimmune diseases, making autoimmune diseases one of the most common chronic disease entities in the U.S.

There are more than 140 different autoimmune diseases that affect both adults and children and are recognized as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in women and young people in the U.S. Men with autoimmune diseases generally demonstrate more severe disease course and higher risk of mortality, emphasizing the importance of understanding sex as a biologic variable in autoimmune diseases. The economic impact of autoimmune diseases in the U.S. is also substantial. Data from 2012 estimated costs at over $100 billion per year, even without accounting for associated costs, such as lost productivity, and impact on dependents and society.

Autoimmune diseases can affect almost every organ in the body and can occur at any point across the lifespan. Despite their high prevalence and morbidity, many autoimmune diseases are understudied, and treatment options are limited.

Findings of the 2022 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report titled Enhancing NIH Research on Autoimmune Disease identified several opportunities to facilitate autoimmune disease research, and to accelerate progress in this area. In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328) the U.S. Congress directed NIH to establish the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research to accelerate progress in this area. The NOURISH: Autoimmunity Challenge is aligned with the mission of OADR and with the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Autoimmune Disease Research FY2026-2030 to coordinate and advance efforts to support rigorous, high-priority, innovative and collaborative autoimmune disease research.

In August 2024, and in response to language in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill of 2024, NIH convened a scientific workshop focused on better understanding the impact of food and diet on the development of mucosal immunity with reference to celiac disease, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis as well as other digestive and autoimmune or immune-mediated diseases. The Office of Nutrition Research (ONR), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute on Aging (NIA), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), and NIH Office of Autoimmune Disease Research (OADR) cosponsored this NIH-wide workshop. This broad engagement reflects a strategic refocusing on the importance of nutrition in the development and function of intestinal mucosal immunity and its relevance to the work of virtually every component of NIH. The workshop brought together NIH staff, research scientists, clinicians, people living with digestive diseases, and advocacy groups, with the goals of identifying knowledge gaps.

One of the identified gaps was the need to build an ecosystem of collaborative teams partnering to conduct state of the art research into the role of diet and nutrition in autoimmune diseases using clear and validated methods with the goal of clinical translation. It was noted that research to date has not sufficiently focused on key outcomes that matter to patients living with autoimmune disease.

Prize Competition Details:

The NOURISH: Autoimmunity Challenge is open to eligible individuals, teams, and entities and is designed to incentivize a crowdsourced team approach to a complex and understudied problem in autoimmune disease. Research is not shaped by scientists alone; science belongs to everyone. The target audience and solver community for this challenge will include people living with autoimmune disease, autoimmune advocacy groups, caregivers, dieticians, nutritionists, lifestyle medicine experts, physicians and scientists. The overarching goal of this approach is to use the wisdom and power of the autoimmune disease community to ideate on how to best identify the most critical studies needed to advance our understanding of how dietary factors and nutrition impact autoimmune disease development, progression and recurrence.

Successful submissions will likely involve engagement and collaboration among people living with autoimmune disease, patient advocacy groups, caregivers, and scientists, driven by a common mission to better understand how dietary factors and nutrition impact autoimmune disease development, progression and recurrence.

Through this initial single-phase ideation challenge the NIH Office of Autoimmune Disease Research is seeking ideas for novel approaches to the study of diet and nutrition in autoimmune disease research, including:

• The role diet plays in the autoimmune prodrome and autoimmune disease inception
• How diet and nutrition contribute to autoimmune disease progression and flares
• The role that diet may play in autoimmune disease symptom management.

Partners:

This challenge is being led by the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research, Office of Research on Women’s Health within the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives of the NIH Office of the Director. This Challenge is cosponsored by the NIH Office of Nutrition Research and the Office of Dietary Supplements.

Dates:

• Challenge Launch: September 1, 2025
• Submission Start/End: October 30, 2025 /December 4, 2025
• Judging Start/End: January 1, 2026/ February 5, 2026
• Winner Announced:  March 2026

Statutory Authority to Conduct the Challenge:

The NIH Office of Autoimmune Disease Research is conducting this Challenge under the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010, as amended [15 U.S.C. § 3719]. The mission of the Office of Autoimmune Disease Research is to support high priority autoimmune disease research, identify emerging areas of innovation and foster collaboration across NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices. This Challenge will advance this mission by fostering collaborative research, and engaging people living with autoimmune diseases, patient advocacy groups, and caregivers in research.

Prize:

The total prize purse for this Challenge is up to $150,000. It is anticipated that up to 15 prizes of up to $10,000 each will be awarded at the discretion of the judging panel. NIH reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (a) cancel, suspend, or modify the Challenge, or any part of it, for any reason, and/or (b) not award any prizes if no submissions are deemed worthy.

The challenge announcement will be posted on www.Challenge.gov.

Evaluation and Judging:

All submissions that are responsive and meet the Eligibility Rules and Submission Requirements will be evaluated and scored by qualified expert employees of the federal government using a predefined scoring rubric.

Submissions will be submitted to the Award Approving Official for a final decision. NIH will not make participants’ evaluation or judging results available to participants or the public.

Submitting a Response:

Please format submissions using the application instructions on www.challenge.gov

For full details about eligibility requirements, competition rules, and instructions for submissions, please consult www.challenge.gov where the full challenge announcement will be published in early September 2025. 

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Please direct all inquiries to:

Dr. Xinrui Li and Dr. Carmen Ufret-Vincenty

Office of Autoimmune Disease Research
Email: [email protected]