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The Challenge provides non-dilutive grant funding to the successful recipients. The funding supports commercially orientated projects with high-impact potential to reduce the impact of diabetes on people, health systems, and society. 

Successful applicants will benefit from support from the â¹ûÖ±²¥ network and from Industry Partner , a MTAA initiative.  

Built for early-stage medical device, biotech, and digital health companies, MedTech Compass provides targeted, post-accelerator support where it’s needed most, across regulation, reimbursement, investment, and market access. 

Through expert networks with government, industry, and the private and non-profit sectors, proven toolkits, and strategic mentorship, including access to MedTech Compass will provide founders the clarity and confidence to grow. And as they scale, they’re welcomed into MTAA’s wider industry community, amplifying their impact and influence to improve the lives of people living with and at risk of diabetes. 

• Startups, entrepreneurs, private sector, researchers and research teams, healthcare providers, and technology developers.
• Innovations must target diabetes prevention, monitoring, treatment, complications management, or cure. 
• Applicant must have an ABN 
• Product innovation must be at Technology Readiness Level 5-7

Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is a standardised framework used to assess how mature an innovation is, from initial concept to full-scale deployment. In MedTech (medical technology), TRLs help innovators, investors, and regulators understand how close a new device, diagnostic, or digital health tool, therapy or pharma technology is to being used in real-world healthcare settings.

Applications will be submitted online using the â¹ûÖ±²¥ Smarty Grants platform

Stage 1 Expression Of Interest: Submit an EOI.

Stage 2 Full Application: Upon receiving an invitation to proceed, you will be invited to submit a full written application + video submission (maximum 5 minutes).

Applicants must submit a proposal that addresses:   

• The specific problem faced by people living with diabetes and the target population.  
• Person-centered design and how lived experience has informed the solution.  
• Technical approach, differentiation from existing solutions, and anticipated impact on health outcomes, people, health systems, and/or society.
• Business model and competitive analysis.
• A plan for collecting and validating patient-reported and clinical outcomes at 6-month and 12-month intervals for the first year, post-award.  

Stage 1:   

• EOI applications open – 9:00am (AEDT), 2 December 2025   
• EOI submission deadline – 11:59pm (AEDT), Tuesday 31 March 2026  
• EOI applicants will be advised on or before Thursday 30 April 2026  

Stage 2:   

• Full submission application + 5 min video deadline – 11:59pm (AEST), Sunday 31 May 2026 
• Finalists notified on or before 3 July 2026  

Stage 3: 

• Live Pitch, Judging and Winners announced: August 2026 in Melbourne, Victoria. Specific location to be determined

All applications commence with an Expression of Interest (EOI) application.   

The application platform contains supporting information to guide your submission. Late applications will not be considered. Applications for the Challenge funding follow a three-stage process:   

1. Expression of Interest (EOI): Interested parties with eligible projects submit an online EOI for review by the Technical Review Committee. EOIs should articulate the opportunity, the problem/target market, the competitive advantage, technology and stage of development, intellectual property position and/or opportunity, business case, and proposed plan and budget.  

 2. Full Application: Shortlisted applicants will be requested to prepare a full application and a 5-minute video presentation that will be reviewed by the Innovation Prize Judging Panel. Applicants will need to provide a full outline of the project specifics and address the Challenge Technical Review Committee’s feedback. The full application will expand on the information provided in the EOI to provide a full outline of the project. Details and template documents will be provided to the shortlisted applicants.  

3. Finalist: If shortlisted as a Finalist, the Challenge team will work with the applicant to complete corporate due diligence, IP review, project planning, timing, budgets, and milestones. Finalists who successfully complete due diligence will be invited to a live pitch at the Challenge Grand Final in Melbourne in August 2026.

Travel and accommodation for interstate applicants will be provided for one representative to each Finalist team.  

Download the funding agreement and terms and conditions – to be released.

Consideration will be given to:  

• Uniqueness – the Challenge will select novel, outstanding, maturing projects that address a significant unmet need and are competitively differentiated from existing standards of care and emerging products.  
• Extent to which the product/solution delivers value through improved diagnosis, prevention, treatment, management and/or cure of diabetes to reduce the impact of diabetes on people, health systems and society.  
• Clinical and commercial differentiation, IP position, market opportunity, maturity, and development stage with the aim that the Challenge funding will progress the opportunity to a clear de-risking value inflection point.
• Innovative science – what does the science/evidence-based data behind the project enable?  
• Highly differentiated – how is this approach distinguished from existing solutions?  
• Clear achievable project plan – a credible plan towards generating commercial outcomes including partnerships, commercial licensing, revenue, as appropriate.  
• Strong team â€“ diverse team with ability to deliver on the project. 

The Challenge will initially run one round between December 2025 to August 2026. 

â¹ûÖ±²¥, through the Challenge, provides commercial grant funding (equity free) to projects. This funding is best considered as non-dilutive capital rather than a research grant. 

The Challenge will fund clinical and commercial studies where desired endpoints are considered to be highly relevant to the successful commercialisation of a company’s technology. 

The EOI and Full Application process is open to any Australian SME, or researcher at an Australian university or research institute with an ABN.  

Successful applicants may be a private or public, listed or unlisted (Pty Ltd. or Ltd.) Australian SME. An Australian SME is defined as a business that employs less than 200 people, is based in Australia and is a registered Australian corporate entity (i.e., registered with ASIC).  

Only one application may be submitted by the same business entity.

All application information is treated commercial in confidence. All members of selection and advisory panels and committees operate under confidentiality agreements. If confidential information is provided, please preface this with [Confidential]. It is not expected that you will disclose confidential information in the application to submit a successful EOI application. However, it is imperative that you can share enough technical information to demonstrate differentiation and novelty in the EOI, but it may not be necessary to disclose confidential information in order to do so.  

Applications will be reviewed by the Judging Committee, consisting of clinicians (e.g., endocrinologists, diabetes educators, or primary care physicians), technologists (e.g., Medtech engineers, digital health experts), people living with diabetes (to ensure patient voice and lived experience) and investors or commercialisation experts.

Unsuccessful EOI applications will be advised as soon as possible during the review process. However, owing to the volume of applications we receive, applicants are not expected to receive further feedback at the EOI stage. 

If you have any further questions after reviewing the funding guidelines, we encourage you to book a meeting with the Challenge team. To request a meeting with the team, email: [email protected] 

Please note discussions will be centred around helping applicants position their proposal towards commercially orientated outcomes or to seek additional clarity related to funding requirements. The Challenge team will not be able to give project specific advice and all advice will be general in nature. We recommend you review the application form before your meeting.  

The full application will expand on the information provided in the EOI to provide a full outline of the project with an accompanying video submission. Details and template documents will be provided via the Smarty Grants platform upon the opening of the full application period.  

Although we strive to offer a great application experience, sometimes these things happen. Please get in touch by emailing the â¹ûÖ±²¥ Research Team at [email protected] with specific details of the issue you are facing.