The Office of the Vice President for Research invites you to submit a proposal for the High Tech West pitch competition to be held on February 25th & 26th, 2026!

Formerly known as the Remote & Austere Conditions (RAC) Grand Challenge, High Tech West is an expanded, multi-day pitch event that unites leading research experts, industry partners, and legislative representatives to explore groundbreaking technologies, innovative ideas, and holistic solutions to tackle pressing challenges our country faces.

High Tech West is broken into two exciting days of presentations, and we are looking for pitch proposals that align with these distinct focus areas:

• Focus Area 1 – February 25th: Aerospace and National Security
• Focus Area 2 – February 26th: Biotech and Medicine Supporting Austere Operations

The competition to be held over these dates is designed to highlight innovation and catalyze interdisciplinary collaboration across campus, between industry and academia, and between institutions.

High Tech West will be an in-person pitch event. Interested teams will be asked to submit a proposal following instructions and format provided within this RFP for review by a review panel by October 26^th, 2025, and teams selected to advance will have access to pitch coaching resources before final presentations in February of 2026.

A distinguished panel of experts from relevant scientific fields, industry, and funding agencies will judge the High Tech West pitch competition and teams. Winning teams will be funded for the 2026 academic school year, and we anticipate that 2-3 awards per focus area will be funded through available funding. Awards will be made up to $250,000 and are to be used to cover only direct costs (indirect costs will not be provided).

Note: funded teams are expected to seek extramural funding support from an aligned interest / sponsor within one year of project completion.

High Tech West preparation timeline:

1. RFP available: September 8^th, 2025.
2. Virtual Information Sessions: Tuesday, September 30th, 1pm-2pm MT & Wednesday, October 8^th 12pm-1pm MT, via Teams
   • Virtual information sessions are designed to describe the HTW pitch competition, answer questions from potential participants, and help facilitate pitch team building/proposal preparation.
3. Team Building + Proposal Development:
   • Interested applicants begin to build teams, prepare internal pitch proposals, etc. HTW Leadership team are available to assist in team building, finding collaborators, and other proposal development needs.
4. Pitch Proposals Submitted to VPR Office: 2025 HTW Deadline is 11:59 pm on Sunday, October 26^th, 2025
   • Applicants must submit their internal pitch proposals to the VPR Office for review. At this time, all pitch team members must be registered for the event via the online link.
5. Pitch Proposals Reviewed:
   • All proposals received will be reviewed by an intramural team of subject matter experts to select the top teams. Proposals will be reviewed on their innovation, scientific merit, potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with the HTW’s theme/goals.
6. Pitch Finalists Selected: Friday, November 21^st, 2025
   • The VPR Office will notify pitch teams selected to compete in HTW and provide logistical details for the 2026 pitch competition.
7. Pitch Coaching and Preparation: Once pitch finalists are selected, they will be required to submit their Pitch Deck to the VPR Office.
   • Initial pitch decks will be due to the VPR Office for review NLT Monday, December 8^th, 2025.
   • Final Pitch decks will be due to the VPR Office NLT Wednesday, February 11^th, 2026. Teams that do not meet these deadlines will be removed from the competition.
8. High Tech West: Selected pitch teams will present to a panel of judges at HTW. The 2026 HTW will take place February 25^th-26^th, 2026, at 303 Chipeta Way in Research Park.

By design, HTW is designed for two days’ worth of competition supporting independent research themes that at times may include overlapping interest areas and themes. In keeping with the University of Utah’s emphasis on developing technologies and solutions for people living under rural, remote, and austere conditions, one day will be devoted to biotech and medical innovations helping to solve a critical health issue in rural, remote, and austere locations, and a second day will be dedicated to evaluating engineering innovations helping to solve real national security challenges, particularly those focused on aerospace.

Note, while the pitches will now be organized into separate days, inter-college teams are highly encouraged (such as space medicine topics), and HTW organizers reserve the right to assign teams to specific topic days at their discretion.

The following interest areas are designed to stimulate catalytic translational research topics worthy of consideration during the 2026 HTW pitch competition. While not exhaustive in nature, these interest areas are pertinent to National Security, Aerospace, Biotech, and Medicine. Of course, no preference will be granted to these categories, or topics, in review.

National Security:

• Supply chain resiliency.
• FutureG wireless technology, Communication technology
• Power generation, advanced energy systems
• Critical infrastructure protection
• Resilient positioning, navigation, and timing
• Cognitive electronic warfare and AI-enabled signal intelligence

Aerospace:

• Advanced air mobility, vehicles, and transportation systems
• Hypersonics and advanced propulsion
• Counter unmanned aerial systems.
• Adaptive and reconfigurable capabilities in space
• Advanced materials and manufacturing
• Mobile or remote energy solutions
• Human health in space, advanced sensing, and diagnostics

Medicine:

• Medical diagnostic tools
• Healthcare optimization across the lifespan
• Medical engineering
• Management of critically ill patients in austere conditions
• Telehealth/remote health/digital health
• Life-cycle management of toxic chemicals
• Human performance and cognitive augmentation

Biotech:

• Emerging pathogen detection
• Rapid scale for biologic production
• AI and ML for antibody/peptide design
• Synthetic biology for biomanufacturing
• Detection and defense against bio manufactured threats.
• Biologic integrated sensors
• Human genomic and epigenetic risk profiling

HTW organizers will conduct two virtual informational sessions to help HTW pitch teams prepare their applications for consideration:

• Tuesday, September 30th from 1pm-2pm MT |RSVP HERE
• Wednesday, October 8^th from 12pm-1pm MT | RSVP HERE

These information sessions will provide a brief overview of the HTW process, with optional questions to be submitted by interested participants following these sessions.

HTW organizers are also interested in helping assemble pitch teams, and any interested participants who need assistance identifying collaborators are urged to contact HTW Organizers at jim.mcdonough@utah.edu.

• Faculty members at the University of Utah with at least a 0.5 FTE.
• Postdoctoral students, graduate students, and undergraduate students are encouraged to work within a faculty-led team.
• All teams are encouraged to be composed of at least three faculty or research scientists from at least two colleges on campus.
• Must be available for the HTW event on February 25^th-26^th, 2026.

1. Applicant Information/Cover Page: To be collected by InfoReady directly.
2. Problem Statement (500 words MAX): Please provide a brief problem statement that identifies the problem you are attempting to solve.
3. Research Narrative (500 words MAX): Please provide the “solution” to your problem statement via a research narrative. The research narrative must provide a succinct overview of the proposed project/solution. Please address the feasibility of this project with the resources currently available at the University of Utah and how this project aligns with HTW focus areas of interest.
4. Impact and Innovation Statement (500 words MAX): Please briefly outline the impact of your solution. For example, this can focus on the number of people affected by the solution, the cost savings compared to alternative solutions, or the potential market for a device that would be sold. Describe how the proposed solution is innovative, or novel compared to current best practices. This could include a competitive analysis briefly demonstrating what alternative solutions exist and how this solution is better than those alternatives.
5. Timeline (500 words MAX): Please provide a succinct timeline for your proposed project with defined quarterly milestones that can be clearly measured. If funded, these milestones will be the basis for the quarterly reports required during the funding period.
6. Team (500 words MAX): Please highlight the unique qualifications of the team that make you ideally suited to conduct this work. Every member of the team does not need to be mentioned, but a description of how key personnel will contribute to the project is important.
7. Budget: Please briefly outline your anticipated budget for this project/solution. Budget outlines do not need to be formal and should not exceed $250,000 in total.
8. References: This section is for references that were included in the problem statement or research narrative. There is no word limit for this section.

Internal pitch proposals will be reviewed based on the proposal’s innovation, scientific merit, potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with HTW’s theme/goals.

• RFP Release Date: September 8th, 2025
• Information Sessions:
  • Tuesday, September 30th from 1pm-2pm MT |RSVP HERE
  • Wednesday, October 8^th from 12pm-1pm MT | RSVP HERE
• Full Application Due: Sunday, October 26th (by 11:59pm MST)
• Hight Tech West: February 25^th-26^th, 2026

Proposal submissions are due on Sunday, October 26th (by 11:59pm MST), and must be submitted using InfoReady.

APPLY HERE

For more information or questions regarding the High Tech West, please contact jim.mcdonough@utah.edu.

For questions about using InfoReady, please contact laura.king@utah.edu.