HealthTECH Challenge to Advance Helmet Safety

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The NFL has announced HealthTECH Challenge II, a global crowdsourced competition to revolutionize football helmet safety, with a special focus on facemask innovation. Building on the league’s commitment to player safety, the challenge invites inventors, engineers, startups, and academic teams to submit breakthrough ideas that improve how facemasks absorb and reduce the effects of on-field impacts.

While recent advances in helmet shell and padding technology have significantly reduced concussions from shell impact, there is room for improvement in addressing facemask-related concussions, which accounted for 44% of in-game concussions in the 2025 season, up from 29% in 2015.

Winners of HealthTECH Challenge II can receive up to $100,000 in funding and expert development support to bring their innovations from concept to the field.

The competition is conducted in partnership with Football Research, Inc. and Duke Biomedical Engineering, with submissions open until May 28, 2026.

A webinar for interested applicants, where further details on the challenge will be discussed, will be held on March 3. Registration for the webinar can be found here.

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