CAI Enhances Its Legacy of Impact with the Future of Health Innovation Tournament Challenge

Bethesda, Maryland Oct 23, 2025  – The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) today unveiled the Future of Health Innovation Tournament Challenge (FHITC), a unique competition that is both a tournament and a challenge aimed at advancing human health and performance! Notably, this marks the first CAI initiative to feature a single Grand Champion.

CAI’s latest worldwide contest is set to identify and establish more than 15 high-growth startups over the next twelve months. FHITC will spur innovation by converging solutions at the intersection of biotechnology—including medical technology, genomics, and synthetic biology—with artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing to improve human well-being and capabilities, both terrestrially and extraterrestrially. The program will operate through both virtual and in-person components, with primary hubs in the Washington, D.C. and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas. Applications are accepted on a continuous basis, with global participation welcomed.

What makes this challenge distinctive? Distinguishing itself, it functions as both a tournament and a comprehensive challenge. While more than 15 winners will emerge, only one will attain the title of Grand Champion. Further engaging information will be revealed shortly at .

Participation in FHITC is available through three distinct avenues:

1. Aspiring business founders can establish new ventures or integrate into pre-existing startups

2. Specialists, including scientists, medical professionals, engineers, operational managers, and investors, are invited to recruit, guide, counsel, or evaluate participating teams

3. Internships with CAI offer the opportunity to develop internal startups, leveraging CAI’s proprietary knowledge base

Through FHITC, CAI will connect Entrepreneurs and Interns with select opportunities from over 170,000 U.S. taxpayer-funded technologies, available for licensing from CAI’s network of more than 150 research collaborators. Competitors will acquire specialized entrepreneurial proficiencies and benefit from over 40 leading webinars on the commercial aspects of science, provided by CAI’s acclaimed accelerator curriculum, all while striving to expedite market entry, generate employment, and secure funding via more than three investor forums.

Since 2015, over 460 CAI-supported startups have collectively secured in excess of $2.8 billion in funding over six years, leading to the creation of more than 3,200 direct jobs. Companies emerging victorious from CAI challenges typically attract an average of $10 million in capital, surpassing the performance of comparable biotech and deep-tech accelerators. FHITC participants are poised to leverage this proven track record by employing CAI’s data-driven due diligence, challenge-centric accelerator, and streamlined scale-up framework.

According to Rosemarie Truman, CAI’s Founder and CEO, “Launching FHITC during DC Startup & Tech Week underscores our dedication to bringing together the country’s leading innovators and investors. She added, ‘FHITC aims to merge cutting-edge sciences with sophisticated computing to foster groundbreaking companies and redefine the future of health.'”

Sheri Sobrato, a philanthropist and CAI Advisor, commented on CAI’s lasting influence, stating, “She remarked, ‘These enterprises are constructed incrementally, one brick at a time, one startup at a time. It forms an impactful empire that now rises from what was previously barren ground.'”

Prospective innovators and specialists can register their interest continuously by filling out the brief application form at .

ABOUT CAI
The Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) operates as a global public-private non-profit organization focused on speeding up technology commercialization to stimulate entrepreneurship, bolster economic growth, and fully realize the potential of inventive ideas. Utilizing its acclaimed challenge-driven accelerator, thorough evidence-based due diligence processes, and cost-effective, lean operational frameworks, CAI effectively hyper-accelerates high-potential startups and generates exceptional returns for investors. Further details are available at .