College Students in Bangalore can win up to 1 Lakh rupees to Develop Snakebite Solutions!

The Nagathon innovation competition is a joint project with the Global Snakebite Initiative and the Evolutionary Venomics Lab at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Open to undergraduate and graduate students in any major, teams of up to 4 participants can apply to one of three categories: Snakebite Integration, Improving Clinical Outcomes, and Advocacy and Outreach. Proposals should be grounded in the Indian snakebite context or have clear relevance to global snakebite challenges, rather than focusing exclusively on African, Latin American, or other non-Indian settings.

Competition Category Definitions:

• Snakebite Integration: In a global health landscape marked by increasingly limited funding and resources, efforts to prevent snakebite deaths must be sustainably integrated into existing systems. Submissions should answer one of the two following questions: 

1. 1. 1. How can snakebite initiatives work with other groups to execute programs and prevent snakebite deaths and disabilities? 
      2. How can education, treatment, and research on snakebite be incorporated into institutional structures for long-term impact?

• Improving Clinical Outcomes: Snakebites occur in rural villages and tribal communities. Patients must often pay out of pocket for treatment, and many die on the way to hospitals. Submissions should answer one of the four following questions: 

1. 1. 1. What low-cost technologies or clinical techniques could improve snakebite outcomes in low-resource clinical centers?
      2. How can we improve antivenom availability and access in a timely manner?
      3. How can we decrease patient time to treatment?
      4. How can we improve long-term outcomes for snakebite patients?

• Advocacy and Outreach: Despite its significant impact, snakebite is underrecognized and underfunded. As a disease of the rural poor, patients do not have a strong platform to advocate for solutions and improved care. Many policymakers and charitable funders are unaware of SBE’s significant toll on populations. Submissions to this category should answer one of the two following questions:

1. 1. How can we engage potential decision makers, stakeholders, and funders to change the current status quo?
   2. How can we raise awareness about snakebite prevention and first-aid among high-risk populations?

Eligibility:

• All participants must be currently enrolled at a Bangalore-based university, or must have graduated within the past 3 months.
• Non-students are not eligible to be listed as participants or to receive prize money.
• Teams may include up to 4 members
• Postdoctoral trainees are not eligible to participate in Nagathon

Rules:

• Faculty, professors, clinicians, and other experts may be consulted for advice or mentorship, but they may not be listed as team members or co-applicants unless they independently meet the student eligibility requirements above.
• All idea generation, proposal design, and proposal writing must be led and completed by student participants.
• Individuals who are not eligible students may not receive, claim, or be allocated any portion of the prize.
• Consulting professors and experts is encouraged, but submitted work must be the original work of the student team. Any suspected plagiarism, misrepresentation of team membership, or submission of work primarily developed by non-students may result in disqualification.

Tips for success:

• Think about how you can apply your own experience and expertise to the snakebite issue. 
• Interventions don’t have to be overly technical! We care about practicality. Think deeply and consult experts about the context where many snakebites occur. 
• If you can acquire and demonstrate stakeholder “buy-in” (such as a willingness to support or participate in an initiative), this will boost your application competitiveness.
• We discourage (but accept) proposals that include novel therapeutics or mobile applications for general public use. See FAQs for more information.

FAQs

• Do teams retain intellectual property rights to their ideas?
  • Yes. Teams retain intellectual property rights to their ideas. Nagathon staff can offer general guidance and mentorship after the event on protecting intellectual property. Our hope, however, is that strong ideas will move beyond the competition and toward implementation. If your team decides to patent an idea, we encourage you to actively pursue its development and real-world application.
• Can I apply if I am a part-time student?
  • Yes, as long as you are actively registered for classes
• Why does Nagathon discourage proposals that focus on novel therapeutics?
  • In the past 10 years, a number of new therapeutics for snakebite treatment have entered the development phase. Many of these therapeutics have shown positive results in the lab. However, given that SBE is a disease of the poor, funding for clinical trials is incredibly scarce. If you propose a novel therapeutic, specify your plan for financing this project until it reaches patients.
• Why does Nagathon discourage proposals that focus on mobile applications for general public use? 
  • While applications are relatively common “hackathon” outputs, it is difficult for mobile applications to reach target audiences without large investments into marketing and training. Especially in rural areas, most people will not think to download an app “just in case” an unexpected event occurs. If you develop a mobile application, be sure to specify the user base and their incentives for using the app.