U.S. Expert Applications to the KidneyX Empower Challenge

OVERVIEW

The KidneyX Empower: Living Link Prize Challenge is a dual track competition with a $4,000,000 USD prize purse, designed to accelerate solutions that increase living kidney donation across the United States. The Challenge focuses on addressing key “friction points” that prevent potential donors from starting or completing the donation process, including informational gaps, financial barriers, and care coordination challenges.

Innocentive is supporting this initiative by inviting members of our Solver community and beyond to participate in the official KidneyX Challenge if you meet the U.S. eligibility requirements.

The KidneyX Empower Challenge includes a total prize pool of $4,000,000 USD, with multiple awards of min. $375,000 available for validated solutions and prototypes, as well as a potential $1,000,000 grand prize for the solution demonstrating the greatest impact and long-term effects.

This Challenge is a connection opportunity. Clicking 'Join the Living Link Prize on KidneyX' will open a window where you can submit full proposals directly to the KidneyX Empower Challenge platform!

Please review the Participation Guidance section below before submitting your application proposal.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by June 15, 2026.

Click 'Join the Living Link Prize on KidneyX' to begin your application!

ABOUT THE SEEKER & ELIGIBILITY

KidneyX is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), focused on accelerating innovation in kidney care.

This Challenge is only open to U.S.-based participants, including:

• U.S. citizens or permanent residents (individuals)
• Organizations incorporated and primarily operating in the United States or its territories

Participants must meet all eligibility criteria outlined by KidneyX to ultimately compete.

Have any questions about the Challenge? Join KidneyX's second webinar and informational session on May 12th by registering below:

THE CHALLENGE

Kidney failure remains a major public health issue in the United States, with demand for kidney transplants far exceeding supply. While living donor transplantation offers the best outcomes, participation rates have remained largely unchanged for decades.

The KidneyX Empower Challenge seeks innovative solutions that can meaningfully improve the living donor experience and increase donor participation. Focus areas include:

• Public Awareness & Mentorship
• Donor Readiness & Eligibility
• Donor Interventions
• Center Practices & Decision Support
• Donor-Centered Outcomes

To be competitive in the official KidneyX Empower Challenge, Solvers will ultimately be expected to develop functional solutions and implementation plans aligned to one or more key focus areas.

Through this Innocentive posting, we are seeking experts, teams, and organizations - that meet the eligibility requirements - with relevant capabilities to submit solutions to the official Challenge.

Applicants should demonstrate:

• Relevant domain expertise or technical capability
• A clear, high-level approach to addressing one or more barriers in living kidney donation
• The ability to develop practical, scalable solutions

When you join the Challenge on the KidneyX platform, you'll be asked to submit to one of two tracks: Solutions in Practice (Track A), concerning interventions already piloted or active; or Scalable Prototypes (Track B), for high-fidelity digital tools or care models ready for pilot testing.

For the official Challenge, solutions are expected to go beyond concept stage and demonstrate a clear pathway to implementation, scalability, and measurable impact on living donor participation.

YOUR SUBMISSION

Please click 'Join the Living Link Prize on KidneyX' to redirect to the official Challenge platform and begin creating your solution!

PARTICIPATION GUIDANCE

1. Submission Close Date: Applications to the Challenge must be received before the 15th June, 2026, to allow time to connect you to the official KidneyX Empower Challenge portal.
2. Late submissions: Late submissions will not be considered.
3. Use of AI: While Wazoku encourages the use by Solvers of AI approaches to help develop their submissions to Challenges, this specific opportunity is about you, your skills, and your experience. Any submissions to this Challenge produced with generative AI are not of interest.
4. Learn more: Find out more about participation in Innocentive Challenges.