80 FR 63567 - Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the Open Science Prize

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 202 (October 20, 2015)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of the Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS) announces a collaboration with the Wellcome Trust (WT) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to launch the ``Open Science Prize'' (the ``Challenge'') to encourage and support the prototyping and development of services, tools and/or platforms that enable open content--including publications, datasets, code and other research outputs--to be discovered, accessed and re-used in ways that will advance research, spark innovation, and generate new societal benefits. The Challenge is necessary to accelerate the field of ``open'' biomedical research beyond what current funding mechanisms can achieve. For the NIH, this Challenge is being launched under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010.

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 202 (Tuesday, October 20, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63567-63570]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-26392]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the Open 
Science Prize

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719

    Award Approving Official: Philip E. Bourne, Associate Director, NIH 
OD.
SUMMARY: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of the 
Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS) announces a collaboration 
with the Wellcome Trust (WT) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 
(HHMI) to launch the ``Open Science Prize'' (the ``Challenge'') to 
encourage and support the prototyping and development of services, 
tools and/or platforms that enable open content--including 
publications, datasets, code and other research outputs--to be 
discovered, accessed and re-used in ways that will advance research, 
spark innovation, and generate new societal benefits. The Challenge is 
necessary to accelerate the field of ``open'' biomedical research 
beyond what current funding mechanisms can achieve. For the NIH, this 
Challenge is being launched under the America COMPETES Reauthorization 
Act of 2010.

DATES: 
    February 29, 2016: Phase I submissions due
    April 30, 2016: Announce Phase I winners; Phase II begins
    December 1, 2016: Phase II submissions due
    February 28, 2017: Phase II winner announced
    The NIH will announce any changes to the timeline by amending this 
Federal Register notice.

ADDRESSES: To register for this Challenge, Challenge participants may 
access the registration on the Challenge Web site 
(www.openscienceprize.org). Access to this Web site may also be found 
by searching the www.challenge.gov site for the ``Open Science Prize.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Audie A. Atienza, Ph.D. (NIH), 
[email protected]; Vinay Pai, Ph.D. (NIH), [email protected]; David 
Carr (Wellcome Trust), [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Subject of Challenge

    In order to stimulate innovation, the National Institutes of Health 
(NIH) Office of the Associate Director for Data Science (ADDS), in 
conjunction with Challenge Partners, the Wellcome Trust (WT) and the 
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), is launching the ``Open Science 
Prize'' (the ``Challenge''); a prize competition to inspire the 
prototyping and development of services, tools, or platforms that 
enable open content--including publications, datasets, code and other 
research outputs--to be discovered, accessed and re-used in ways that 
will advance research, spark innovation and generate new societal 
benefits. The NIH is using the America Creating Opportunities to 
Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science 
(COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010 to support this Challenge.
    The goal of this Challenge is to stimulate the development of novel 
and ground-breaking tools and platforms to enable the reuse and 
repurposing of open digital research objects (e.g. data, publications, 
other research outputs) relevant to biomedical or health applications. 
The volume of digital objects for research available to researchers and 
the wider public is greater now than ever before, and so, consequently, 
are the opportunities to mine and extract value from existing open 
content and to generate new discoveries and other societal benefits. A 
key obstacle in realizing these benefits is the discoverability of open 
content, and the ability to access and utilize it.
    This Challenge provides a new and innovative avenue for developing 
the best ideas in this arena. Through the Challenge, the NIH, WT, and 
HHMI hope to encourage novel ideas and innovations that seek to unlock 
the vast potential benefits of making biomedical/health content and 
data open and re-useable, to demonstrate the huge potential value of 
open science approaches, and to generate excitement, momentum, and 
further investment. This Challenge also encourages international 
collaborations among technology innovators, health researchers, and 
biomedical informatics entities to address ``Open Science'' 
development. In building partnerships between innovators in the U.S. 
and abroad, unique resources can be combined and leveraged to 
facilitate global health research objectives relevant to the mission of 
the NIH, increase rapid adoption of Open Science research tools across 
the globe, and enhance the generalizability of data sharing among 
researchers and practitioners internationally.
    The NIH, WT, and HHMI are seeking to utilize the developer 
challenge model in the area of ``Open Science'' that is as open, 
flexible, and interactive as possible, so as to encourage the 
development of new collaborations as well as new ideas. Solvers are 
invited to use innovative approaches to develop applications and 
platforms that integrate, repurpose and/or repackage open digital 
resources relevant to health and biomedical research. The Challenge is 
open both to those who have new ideas and require some funding to take 
it to the prototype stage, and those with initial early-stage 
prototypes who wish to develop them further for cross-national or 
international adoption.

[[Page 63568]]

    There will be two (2) phases to this Challenge. For Phase I, 
Solvers will submit written proposals for prototype designs and 
development plans to enable the reuse and repurposing of open digital 
research objects relevant to biomedical or health applications. For 
Phase II, Solvers (i.e., Phase I finalists) will submit their 
prototypes.

Statutory Authority

    Pursuant to Section 402 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 
282(b)(12), the NIH is authorized to reserve funds to provide for 
research on matters that have not received significant funding relative 
to other matters, to respond to new issues and scientific emergencies, 
and to act on research opportunities of high priority. The Open Science 
Prize is designed to incentivize innovation at the intersection of Open 
Science (i.e., making scientific data and research outputs available 
and accessible to all levels of society) and Data Science (i.e., 
developing and utilizing research methods and designs that optimize the 
exploration and analysis of complex and/or large data sets; biomedical 
data in this case). Open Science and Data Science are two emerging 
fields within biomedical research and represent research opportunities 
of high priority within the NIH.

Official Rules

    1. To Participate. This Challenge is open to any ``Solver'' where 
``Solver'' is defined as (a) a group of individuals where at least one 
individual is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, and 
at least one individual is citizen or permanent resident from a country 
other than the United States; or (b) a group of two or more public or 
private entities where at least one entity is incorporated in and 
maintains a primary place of business in the United States, and at 
least one entity is incorporated in and maintains a primary place of 
business in a country other than the United States. Phase II of this 
Challenge is open to Phase I winners only. Individuals participating in 
the Challenge who are younger than 18 years of age, whether as part of 
a team of individuals or a team of entities, must have their parent or 
legal guardian complete the Parental Consent Form found at 
www.openscienceprize.org.
    2. Eligibility Rules for Winning the Challenge. To be eligible to 
win a prize for this Challenge, the Solver and its members, as 
applicable, shall have complied with all the Official Rules.
    3. In addition to satisfying the above eligibility requirements--
    a. The Solver shall have registered to participate in the Challenge 
under the rules promulgated by the sponsoring organizations (NIH, WT, 
HHMI) (as published in this notice);
    b. The Solver shall have complied with all the requirements under 
this section;
    c. The Solver, including each entity member, may not be a U.S. 
federal entity;
    d. The Solver, including each individual member, may not be a U.S. 
federal employee acting within the scope of his or her employment and 
further, in the case of the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services employees may not work on their Entries during assigned duty 
hours. Note: Federal ethical conduct rules may restrict or prohibit 
U.S. federal employees from engaging in certain outside activities, so 
any federal employee not excluded under the prior paragraph seeking to 
participate in this Challenge outside the scope of employment should 
consult his/her agency's ethics official prior to developing an Entry; 
and
    e. The Solver, including each individual member, may not be an 
employee of the NIH, a judge of the Challenge, or any other party 
involved with the design, production, execution, or distribution of the 
Challenge or the immediate family member of such a party (i.e., spouse, 
parent, step-parent, or step-child). Without limiting the generality of 
the foregoing, Expert Science Advisors who will provide comments on the 
entries and the NIH Judges, as well as their students, are not eligible 
to participate in the Challenge.
    f. Note on Awards: Monetary prizes provided by the WT and HHMI for 
the Challenge will be awarded separately from the NIH monetary prizes.
    i. NIH monetary prizes: In the case of individuals participating on 
a team of individuals, only individuals who are citizens or permanent 
residents of the United States are eligible for the NIH monetary 
prizes. Individuals who are not citizens or permanent residents of the 
United States can participate as a member of a team that otherwise 
satisfies the eligibility criteria but will not be eligible to win an 
NIH monetary prize (in whole or in part); however, their participation 
as part of a winning team, if applicable, may be recognized by the NIH 
when results are announced. In the case of private entities 
participating on a team of entities, only entities incorporated in and 
maintaining a primary place of business in the United States are 
eligible for the NIH monetary prizes. Private entities that are not 
incorporated in and do not maintain a primary place of business in the 
United States will not be eligible to win an NIH monetary prize (in 
whole or in part); however, should such an entity collaborate with a 
winning, and otherwise eligible, team such an entity may be recognized 
by the NIH when results are announced.
    ii. WT/HHMI monetary prizes. U.S. citizenship/residency (for 
individuals) or U.S. incorporation/place of business (for entities) is 
not a requirement to be eligible for the monetary prizes awarded by WT/
HHMI.
    4. Federal grantees may not use federal funds (e.g., NIH grants) to 
develop Challenge Entries unless consistent with the purpose of their 
grant award and specifically requested to do so due to the Challenge 
design, and as announced in the Federal Register.
    5. Federal contractors may not use federal funds from a contract 
(e.g., NIH contract) to develop Challenge Entries or to fund efforts in 
support of a Challenge Entry.
    6. Any Solver that is or has a member currently on the Excluded 
Parties List (https://www.sam.gov/sam/transcript/Public_-_Identifying_Excluded_Entities.pdf & http://www.epa.gov/isdc/exclude.htm) will not be selected as a prize winner.
    7. Entries must not infringe upon any copyright or any other rights 
of any third party.
    8. A Solver shall not be deemed ineligible to win because the 
Solver used U.S. federal facilities or consulted with U.S. federal 
employees during the Challenge, provided that such facilities and/or 
employees, as applicable, are made available on an equitable basis to 
all Solvers participating in the Challenge.
    9. Each Solver agrees to follow applicable local, state, and 
federal laws, regulations, and policies.
    10. Each Solver must comply with all terms and conditions of these 
rules, and participation in this Challenge constitutes each such 
Solver's full and unconditional agreement to abide by these rules, 
which may also be found on the Challenge Web site 
(www.openscienceprize.org). Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all 
requirements herein.
    11. The NIH reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (a) 
cancel, suspend, or modify the Challenge, and/or (b) not award prizes 
if no Entries are deemed worthy.
    All questions regarding the Challenge should be directed to Dr. 
Atienza, Dr. Pai, or Mr. Carr identified above, and answers will be 
posted and updated as necessary at (www.openscienceprize.org) under 
Frequently Asked Questions.

[[Page 63569]]

Registration Process for Participants

    To register for this Challenge, Solvers may access the registration 
on the Challenge Web site (www.openscienceprize.org). Access to this 
Web site may also be found by searching the www.challenge.gov site for 
the ``Open Science Prize''. As described above in the eligibility 
section of the Official Rules, Solvers must establish an international 
collaborative team; specifically, either (a) a team of two or more 
individuals where at least one individual is a citizen or permanent 
resident of the United States, and at least one individual is citizen 
or permanent resident from a country other than the United States; or 
(b) a group of two or more public or private entities where at least 
one entity is incorporated in and maintains a primary place of business 
in the United States, and at least one entity is incorporated in and 
maintains a primary place of business in a country other than the 
United States. Additional details about participating as a team are 
provided below:
    1. Each team must have two team leaders; one from the U.S. and one 
from outside of the U.S.
    2. All members of the team need to be listed during registration.
    3. There is no maximum team size.

Challenge Entries

    As used in this notice, ``Entry'' is the information submitted in 
the manner and format specified on the ``Open Science Prize'' Web site 
(www.openscienceprize.org) including without limitation computer 
programs, source code and object code. All Entries must be received by 
the applicable deadline. Entries submitted after a posted Challenge 
deadline will not be considered.
    Entries may be submitted on behalf of a team by any of its members. 
It is up to each team to organize its Entry(ies) and to follow the 
Challenge submission requirements. On submission of an Entry of the 
Challenge, the Solver must include the team name under which the Entry 
is submitted.
    All final Entries must be submitted through the Challenge Web site, 
following Web site instructions and should provide necessary and 
sufficient detail and annotation for reproduction of the submitted 
results.
    Information accompanying each Phase I Entry should include:

1. Title of project.
2. Name of team.
3. Names, field of expertise and residency of the Solver's team 
members.
4. A written proposal describing the solution, no longer than 15,000 
characters (not including spaces). This should include: An executive 
summary of 300 words maximum; identification of open content to be 
used; and a description of if, how, and under what license terms the 
team intends to make any of the computer code that is part of the Entry 
available to the public. Note: Executive summaries for all applications 
will be shared via the prize Web site without exception and licensed 
under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0), so 
applicants should not include proprietary information in their summary 
or any other information they are not prepared to be openly available.
5. Link to a Web presence of the proposed solution.
6. Information about how the Solver learned about the Challenge.

    Information accompanying each Phase II Entry should include:

1. Title of project.
2. Name of team.
3. Names, field of expertise and residency of Solver's team members.
4. Description/specification of the prototype developed and potential 
future impact of the prototype, no longer than 15,000 characters (not 
including spaces).
5. Link to a Web presence of the prototype.
6. Web site URL to access the prototype and relevant instructions (1 
page).

    Only complete Entries, which follow application instructions, will 
be reviewed and eligible to win. The NIH and Challenge Partners reserve 
the right to disqualify any Challenge participants in instances where 
cheating or other misconduct is identified. Details regarding the 
dispute resolution process are provided on the Challenge Web site 
(www.openscienceprize.org).

Warranties

    By submitting an Entry to the Challenge, each Solver represents and 
warrants that all information provided in the Entry and as a result of 
the Challenge registration process is true and complete, that Solver 
has the right and authority to submit such Entry on the Solver's own 
behalf or on behalf of the persons and entities specified within the 
Entry, and that the Entry:

1. Is the Solver's own original work, or is used by permission with 
full and proper credit given within the Entry;
2. Does not contain confidential information or trade secrets (the 
Solver's or anyone else's);
3. Does not violate or infringe upon the patent rights, industrial 
design rights, copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or 
other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity;
4. Does not contain malicious code, such as viruses, timebombs, 
cancelbots, worms, trojan horses or other potentially harmful programs 
or other material or information;
5. Does not and will not violate any applicable law, statute, or 
regulation; and
6. Does not trigger any reporting or royalty obligation to any third 
party.

Amount of the Prize

    During Phase I, up to six (6) winners may be identified. The NIH 
may award up to three (3) winning teams monetary prizes of $80,000 per 
team. The WT/HHMI may award up to three (3) winning teams monetary 
prizes of $80,000 per team.
    During Phase II, one (1) Entry will be awarded a grand prize of up 
to $230,000. The NIH will award $115,000 to the U.S. member(s) of the 
winning team, and the WT/HHMI will award $115,000 to the winning team. 
For the NIH awards, prizes will be awarded by the NIH Contractor, 
Capital Consulting Corporation.
    The top 6 Entries (grand prize winner and the 5 runner-ups) may be 
highlighted on the Challenge and the NIH ADDS Web sites pending 
selection by the NIH.
    The NIH reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify this 
Challenge at any time through amendment to this Federal Register 
notice. In the event the Challenge is modified, Solvers registered in 
the Challenge will be notified by email and provided with a copy of the 
amended Challenge rules and a listing of the changes that were made. 
Any Solver who continues to participate in the Challenge following 
receipt of such a notice of amendment(s), will be deemed to have 
accepted any such amendment(s). If a Solver does not wish to continue 
to participate in the Challenge pursuant to the Official Rules, as 
amended, such Solver may terminate participation in the Challenge by 
not submitting additional Entries. The NIH reserves the right to not 
award prizes if no Entries are deemed worthy.

Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected

    Entries will be scored by the Challenge Judges using the criteria 
listed below.

[[Page 63570]]

     Advancement of Open Science--To what extent does the 
proposal/prototype advance the goals of open science in biomedical/
health research, and fulfill the goals of openness in terms of the 
product and way of working? To what extent would it move the field 
forward?
     Impact--What level of impact and benefit could the 
proposal--if successful--deliver to the research enterprise and health 
research? Does the proposal/prototype address implementation in 
multiple settings in a cross-national manner?
     Innovation--What level of creativity and technological 
innovation does the entrant demonstrate?
     Originality--Is the technology or service genuinely novel 
and targeting an unmet need? Has the applicant evaluated other existing 
or alternative approaches, or delineated their approach in comparison 
to existing approaches (if applicable)?
     Technological viability--Is the approach proposed viable? 
Can the proposed technology deliver?
     Resource feasibility--Does the team have the required 
skills and resources?
    Judges will rate each entry on five-point scale from Not-fundable 
(1) to Outstanding (5). The NIH and WT will hold separate judging 
panels, and then will discuss priorities for selection of the 
respective winners (in Phase I), and the final winner (in Phase II).
    For Phase II, public voting will select the top 3 prototypes of the 
6 Phase I finalist, followed by a review of the prototypes for 
feasibility and technical merit by external advisors with expertise in 
Open Science. Prototypes will then be scored by Judges using the 
initial Phase I criteria.

Intellectual Property

    By submitting an Entry, each Solver warrants that he or she is the 
sole author and owner of any copyrightable works that the Entry 
comprises (or has obtained sufficient rights in any copyrightable works 
owned by third parties to satisfy its obligations set forth herein), 
that the works are wholly original with the Solver (or is an improved 
version of an existing work that the Solver has sufficient rights to 
use and improve), and that the Entry does not infringe any copyright or 
any other rights of any third party of which Solver is aware.
    To receive an award, Solvers will not be required to transfer their 
intellectual property rights to the NIH or the Challenge Partners. Each 
Solver retains title to their Entry, including object and source code, 
and expressly reserves all intellectual property rights (e.g., 
copyrights and rights to inventions and patents that cover them) in 
their Entry, unless the Solver chooses an open license for the Entry. 
By participating in the Challenge each Solver grants to the U.S. 
government a nonexclusive, non-transferrable, irrevocable, paid-up 
license to practice or have practiced for or on behalf of the United 
States any invention throughout the world owned or controlled by the 
Solver that covers the Entry, and grants to the U.S. government and 
others acting on behalf of the U.S. government, a royalty-free, 
irrevocable, non-exclusive worldwide license to use, reproduce, and 
display publicly all parts of the Entry for the purposes of the 
Challenge. This license includes without limitation posting or linking 
to the Entry on the official Challenge Web site and, except for object 
code or source code, making the Entry available for research use by the 
public. Notwithstanding the above and consistent with the principal 
objective of the challenge to make results widely available to the 
public, the NIH encourages the Solver to distribute any computer code 
(object code and preferably also source code) that is part of the Entry 
to the public under a liberal open source license that permits the 
public to benefit from and improve upon the Entry (see the licenses 
available at http://opensource.org/licenses/). The Solver should 
include in its submission a description of how and under what license 
terms it intends to make any computer code that is part of the Entry 
available to the public.
    Solvers are free to discuss their Entry and the ideas or 
technologies that it contains with other parties, encouraged to share 
ideas/technologies publicly, and are free to contract with any third 
parties, as long as they do not sign any agreement or undertake any 
obligation that conflicts with the Challenge rules set forth herein. 
For the purpose of clarity, Solvers acknowledge that the intent of the 
Challenge is to encourage people to collaborate and share ideas and 
innovations.

Liability and Indemnification

    By participating in this Challenge, each Solver agrees to assume 
any and all risks and waive claims against the U.S. federal government 
and its related entities (as defined in the COMPETES Act), including 
Capital Consulting Corporation, the Challenge Expert Science Advisors 
and Judges, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, 
death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether 
direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from participation in this 
Challenge, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through 
negligence or otherwise. By participating in this Challenge, each 
Solver agrees to indemnify the federal government and the Capital 
Consulting Corporation against third party claims for damages arising 
from or related to Challenge activities.

Insurance

    Based on the subject matter of the Challenge, the type of work that 
it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood of 
any claims for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss 
potentially resulting from competition participation, Solvers are not 
required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial 
responsibility in order to participate in this Challenge.

    Dated: September 28, 2015.
Lawrence A. Tabak,
Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 2015-26392 Filed 10-19-15; 8:45 am]
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