BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — More than one-third of U.S. counties are considered maternity care deserts, meaning they have no hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers. To help strengthen community-led solutions in these areas, the National Institutes of Health launched the Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge 2.0 (CCMH 2.0): Research Capacity Building in Maternity Care Deserts. The challenge is facilitated by HeroX, the leading platform and open marketplace for crowdsourced solutions.

The challenge supports community-based organizations in building effective research infrastructure and capacity, with particular relevance for those serving maternity care deserts, rural communities, tribal communities, and medically underserved areas.

NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is administering the challenge with co-funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research, the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, and the Office of Research on Women’s Health. It is part of the IMPROVE initiative (Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone) and builds on the first Connecting the Community for Maternal Health Challenge, launched in 2022. The initiative supports research to reduce preventable causes of maternal deaths and improve health for women before, during, and after pregnancy, with an emphasis on populations disproportionately affected by these outcomes.

“Improving maternal health starts with empowering the communities most affected,” said Jamie Elliott, vice president of customer success at HeroX. “By providing training, mentoring, proposal development support and milestone-based funding, NIH is helping ensure community organizations have a pathway to turn local knowledge into meaningful maternal health research.”

The challenge is open to eligible non-academic, 501(c)(3) organizations based in the U.S., including community-based, advocacy, faith-based and tribal-serving organizations working with pregnant and postpartum women and the fathers and families who care for them. State or federally recognized tribes are also eligible to participate.

Four phases guide organizations from concept development to research implementation:

• Phase 1: Recruitment
  Interested organizations submit an entry application introducing their organization and maternal health research idea.

• Phase 2: Training
  Organizations participate in customized training designed to strengthen their research capacity. Up to 20 organizations receive $10,000 and advance to Phase 3.

• Phase 3: Proposal Development
  Organizations receive customized support to develop a comprehensive research proposal. Up to 10 organizations receive $150,000 and advance to Phase 4.

• Phase 4: Research Implementation
  Organizations will launch an approved research project and receive continued mentorship during implementation. Up to 10 organizations may receive tiered final awards: a $350,000 first-place prize, a $250,000 second-place prize and up to eight $100,000 third-place prizes.

Participants must register at www.herox.com/CommunityMaternalHealth2.0 and submit their entry application by the Phase 1 deadline of September 23 at 5 PM EDT.

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