Challenge Competition from ODP and CDC: Submissions Open Until February 28, 2025

The National Institutes of Health Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are excited to announce the launch of the Quit & Thrive Challenge: Community-Derived Solutions to Reduce Menthol Cigarette Smoking.

The problem: Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. The addition of menthol to cigarettes makes it easier for people to become addicted and can make it harder for them to quit. Despite this, few evidence-based smoking cessation interventions focus on people who smoke menthol cigarettes.

The goal: ODP and CDC are partnering on this challenge to showcase promising and innovative community-derived solutions to reduce menthol cigarette smoking among groups with disproportionately high rates of menthol cigarette use.

The competition: Organizations are invited to submit entries showing what has worked in their communities to effectively:

•        Decrease menthol cigarette sales or consumption; and/or

•        Increase the use of smoking cessation resources or attempts to quit smoking.

Submissions open November 1, 2024, and all entries are due by February 28, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Awardees will be announced in July 2025.

The award: Up to nine prizes of $100,000 each will be awarded to organizations with the most successful or innovative community-led strategies.

Eligibility requirements, competition rules, and submission instructions are available at Challenge.gov and the ODP website.

Contact ODP at ODP-QuitThriveChallenge@nih.gov with any questions. Read the full Challenge details here.