Department of Homeland Security launches competition for detection of emerging biothreats

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) launched Tuesday the Hidden Signals Challenge, a competition that seeks ideas for novel uses of existing data to discover emerging biothreats.

The competition offers a $300,000 prize.

“This Challenge is one of the many ways S&T is working to keep our communities safe,” DHS Acting Under Secretary for Science and Technology William N. Bryan said. “The technologies and data sources available today present an unprecedented opportunity. By harnessing new streams of information, we may ultimately identify and resolve an emerging threat faster.”

Concepts should use connections between multiple existing data sources to uncover real-time insights that would enable cities to respond to emerging biothreats more quickly and effectively. Ideally, the uses will identify signals that emerge zero to ten days from the first instances of exposure using data that becomes available less than 36 hours after inputs are received.

The work conducted for the project is intended to be a first step in the development of a local and/or national system that city-level operators could use to make both critical and proactive decisions based on the most relevant and actionable insights.

The challenge focuses on large metropolitan areas as the basis for a proof of concept but is open to solutions that address all geographic locations.

Concepts must by submitted by 4:59 PM ET on Dec. 4, 2017. Judges will evaluate the submissions and choose up to five finalists to advance to stage two. Finalists will receive $20,000 in seed money in stage one to further develop their concepts into detailed system designs in stage two.