The NIH Common Fund’s Stimulating Peripheral Activities to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) Program announced winners of the Neuromod Prize following a finalist showcase at the HLTH 2025 conference. This session featured presentations from four teams who advanced to Phase 3 of the prize competition, followed by a live winner announcement.

The Neuromod Prize is a $9.8 million competition to accelerate the development of targeted neuromodulation therapies, that is therapies delivered through electrical stimulation of nerves. With this competition, the SPARC program is using open innovation to foster approaches that are capable of selectively targeting multiple organs and functions without unintended side effects.

In April 2022, 45 participants submitted concept papers to Phase 1 of the challenge, describing their proposed therapeutic approaches and plans for conducting proof-of-concept studies, rationale for therapeutic use, and potential clinical impact. Eight Phase 1 winners received $100,000 each and advanced to Phase 2, building on their submissions by conducting proof-of-concept studies. Four Phase 2 winners received $1 million each and were invited to Phase 3, where they conducted Investigational Device Exemption (IDE)-enabling studies using diverse approaches to stimulate a range of targets, including the spinal, sacral, pelvic, and vagus nerves. The competition provided finalist teams with technical assistance and additional resources to help teams accelerate and develop their solutions.

• The First Place Prize of $3 million went to University of Pittsburgh Department of Urology for their project titled: A novel multi-channel implantable device for sacral-pudendal neuromodulation to treat bladder, bowel, and sexual disorders. This winning team showed that their device could control bladder storage and emptying functions, and also produced beneficial results to bowel and sexual functions.
• The Second Place Prize of $1.6 million went to Juniper Biomedical for their project titled: Highly precise, micro-implantable neuromodulation to treat stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder and fecal incontinence. This winning team developed a miniaturized battery-powered device, called the NeuroClip, to treat the inability to control urination. The team also showed that the NeuroClip could stimulate a nerve that is often damaged during pregnancy, to activate nearby muscles, allowing control over urination.

Both devices are able to be adjusted for individualized treatment, have limited or no side effects, and are now ready to be considered for approval in clinical use. 

By supporting promising solutions that precisely target the spinal, sacral, pelvic, and vagus nerves, this NIH SPARC competition bridges the gap between early-stage research and clinical use, accelerating the path from bench to bedside.

Learn more about the conference on the HLTH 2025 website. For more information about the Neuromod Prize and the finalist teams, visit NeuromodPrize.com.