Nucleate Announces Expansion of Eli Lilly and Company Grand Challenge to include Women’s Health
BOSTON, MA– 4/2/2025 — Nucleate today announced the expansion of the Eli Lilly and Company Grand Challenge, now in its third year, to include a dedicated focus on women’s health. This initiative, launched in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), continues to accelerate early-stage biotech innovation by providing non-dilutive funding and direct access to Lilly’s scientific and business expertise — bridging the gap between academic breakthroughs and real-world impact.
This year, the Grand Challenge expands its focus to women’s health, an area that has long been underfunded in research and development. The competition will now include two major tracks — Women’s Health and Genetic Medicine — each featuring three key focus areas designed to accelerate breakthrough solutions.
“The technologies we saw in last year’s Grand Challenge, particularly in neuroscience, were nothing short of extraordinary — demonstrating the power of early-stage biotech to push the boundaries of medicine,” said Christalyn Rhodes, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Genetic Medicine, External Partnerships and Academic Collaborations at Lilly. “This year, by expanding our focus to women’s health, we are tackling some of the most pressing and historically overlooked challenges in medicine. We are excited to see the next wave of transformative solutions emerge from this competition.”
The 2025 Grand Challenge will take place on September 4th at Lilly’s global headquarters in Indianapolis, bringing together 10 of the most promising early-stage biotech companies to present their groundbreaking ideas to Lilly executives, scientists, and investors. Selected finalists will have the opportunity to compete for a $100,000 non-dilutive grant while gaining direct mentorship from Lilly’s innovation ecosystem.
This year’s Grand Challenge will welcome applications across two tracks:
Women’s Health: Addressing autoimmune diseases, cardiometabolic health, and reproductive health
Genetic Medicine: Advancing breakthroughs in neuroscience, delivery technologies, and regenerative medicine
“Lilly’s continued collaboration is a testament to our shared mission of fostering biotech innovation to improve outcomes for patients living with serious diseases,” said Maisam Jafri, VP of Partnerships at Nucleate. “By prioritizing women’s health, we’re providing a platform for life-changing technologies that could redefine how we approach medicine and healthcare equity.”
This expansion reflects Lilly’s commitment to advancing therapies in areas of high unmet need, particularly those that disproportionately impact women, such as autoimmune, cardiometabolic, and reproductive diseases. Selected participants will also gain access to Lilly’s vast network of scientific and business expertise to help accelerate the translation of their discoveries into real-world impact.
“Breakthrough science requires more than just vision — founders needs infrastructure, mentorship, and funding to translate their ideas into impact,” added Oliver Dodd, COO of Nucleate, “By expanding into women’s health, the Grand Challenge is tackling one of the most critical unmet needs in medicine, and through our partnership with Lilly, we are providing biotech founders with the tools to make a lasting difference.”
Early-stage biotech founders and researchers interested in applying for the Grand Challenge can submit their proposals at lilly.nucleate.org. The deadline for submissions is June 27th, 2025. Affiliation with Nucleate is not required, and international teams are encouraged to apply.
About Nucleate:
Nucleate is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the next generation of biotech leaders. With chapters spanning 30 geographic regions and participation from over 400 academic institutions, Nucleate sparks new intellectual communities and embeds emerging talent within a global biotech ecosystem. Through open-access educational programming, Nucleate helps democratize biotech innovation — removing barriers and helping founders concentrate on building transformational technologies. Visit www.nucleate.org for more information, and email contact@nucleate.org to get involved.
