Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi opened applications for the Future Health Digital Innovation Challenge 2026, inviting innovators from around the world to harness AI and emerging technology solutions to that can enable people and health systems to better understand health needs earlier and act sooner.
Selected teams will gain access to technical and clinical expertise across Abu Dhabi’s health and innovation ecosystem, alongside structured support to refine their solutions, test assumptions and develop working prototypes, helping them turn promising ideas into real-world impact faster. Selected solutions may also have the opportunity to progress to further validation, incubation, piloting and scale. As part of the programme, three finalists will progress to an awards ceremony at GITEX 2026 and share a total prize pool of USD 105,000. The winning team will receive USD 50,000, and two finalists will receive USD 35,000 and USD 20,000 respectively.
Beyond the competition, selected solutions may also be considered for further validation and potential pathways towards incubation, piloting, and scale, creating opportunities for continued development following the programme.
The Future Health Digital Innovation Challenge reflects Abu Dhabi’s ambition to advance healthcare from responding to illness towards anticipating health needs. By bringing together clinical capabilities, connected health information, and technology expertise, the emirate is creating an environment where innovation can be developed around pressing health needs and moved closer to practical application.
It also brings Future Health’s 2026 theme, ‘To Sense is to Predict’, into action by exploring how innovative solutions can translate health signals from individuals, communities, and health systems into earlier insight, better-informed decisions, and more timely intervention.
The Challenge will apply this thinking across three areas – fertility, population health, and wellbeing – with participating teams invited to develop solutions within one of the Challenge focus areas:
- Fertility: Exploring how technology can support earlier understanding of reproductive health and potential, helping individuals and clinicians make more informed decisions and navigate fertility care.
- Population Health: Exploring how data and technology can help identify emerging health risks, strengthen prevention and screening, and support timely action across communities and populations.
- Wellbeing: Exploring how technology can help people understand changes in their health and wellbeing, sustain healthier behaviours, and access more personalised support over time.
H.E. Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary at the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, said: “Digital innovation is giving us new ways to understand health risks and needs earlier. The opportunity now is to turn that intelligence into action that improves people’s health and supports more proactive and personalised models of care.
“Abu Dhabi is creating an environment where innovators can develop solutions around pressing health needs, supported by strong clinical capabilities, connected health information and advanced technology expertise. Through the Future Health Digital Innovation Challenge 2026, we are inviting global talent to bring forward promising ideas and work with our ecosystem to move them closer to practical action. The solutions developed through this Challenge have the potential to support better health outcomes in Abu Dhabi while generating technologies and knowledge that can contribute to better health systems globally”, she added.
The Future Health Digital Innovation Challenge welcomes startups, researchers, developers, clinicians, students and entrepreneurs, applying individually or as multidisciplinary teams. Applications may include new concepts, early-stage prototypes, or existing solutions that can be adapted to address one of the three Challenge areas.
Selected participants will join a structured development programme and receive technical and clinical guidance from experts across Abu Dhabi’s health and innovation ecosystem. The programme will help teams refine their solutions, test their assumptions, and develop working prototypes or demonstrable technologies.
Co-created with MBZUAI, Inception42 and Microsoft, the Challenge will connect participants with expertise in artificial intelligence, technology development and solution-building, alongside clinical and health-system perspectives from Abu Dhabi’s health ecosystem.
Abu Dhabi provides a strong foundation for this work. A white paper co-authored by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi and the World Economic Forum highlighted the emirate’s development of an integrated, intelligence-driven health system and its potential to serve as a model for more preventive, personalised and data-enabled healthcare.
The Challenge also builds on significant activity already underway across the emirate. The Abu Dhabi Programme for the Future of Reproductive Health brings together more than 2,000 experts across over 250 facilities, while 25 initiatives under the Abu Dhabi Healthy Living Strategy are advancing prevention and healthier living across the community.
Abu Dhabi is also exploring how wearable and longitudinal health information can be combined to generate meaningful insights, support earlier intervention and strengthen health decision-making at both individual and population levels.
Through the Future Health Digital Innovation Challenge, Abu Dhabi is connecting global talent with pathways for promising ideas to move from insights towards implementation and measurable impact.
Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi is a year-round platform for global collaboration and transformative health innovation. Bringing together researchers, policymakers, healthcare specialists, investors and entrepreneurs from across disciplines and geographies, Future Health seeks to enable better health worldwide by connecting expertise with opportunities to advance solutions with measurable impact.
