Events
Research project of the year: What the judges want to see
Submitting your research project for Femtech World Awards recognition can feel daunting.
What makes one project stand out from another?
After reviewing successful submissions from previous years, we’ve identified the key elements that transform good research into award-winning work.
Innovation That Solves Real Problems
Judges aren’t just looking for novelty – they’re looking for innovation that addresses genuine gaps in women’s health.
The best submissions clearly articulate a specific problem and demonstrate how their research offers a fresh approach to solving it.
Ask yourself: Does your research tackle an underserved area? Are you approaching a known problem from a new angle?
The most compelling projects often focus on issues that have been overlooked, understudied or inadequately addressed by existing solutions.
Whether you’re investigating menopause in the workplace, developing better diagnostic tools for endometriosis, or exploring mental health interventions for new mothers, clarity about the problem you’re solving is essential.
Rigorous Methodology
Strong research stands on solid foundations. Judges carefully evaluate your methodology to ensure your findings are credible and reproducible.
This doesn’t mean your research needs to be complete – early-stage projects are welcome – but you should demonstrate thoughtful research design.
Include details about your sample size, data collection methods, controls, and analytical approaches.
If you’re conducting qualitative research, explain how you’re ensuring validity. If you’re building a technological solution, describe your testing protocols.
Transparency about limitations shows intellectual honesty and strengthens rather than weakens your submission.
Measurable Impact Potential
The research projects that win hearts and awards are those with clear pathways to real-world impact.
Judges want to see beyond the research itself to understand how your work will improve women’s lives.
Consider questions like: Who will benefit from this research? How many people could be affected? What would successful implementation look like?
Whether your impact is clinical, social, economic, or policy-related, be specific.
Instead of saying “this will help women,” try “this diagnostic tool could reduce endometriosis diagnosis time from 7-10 years to under 2 years for an estimated 200 million women worldwide.”
Inclusivity and Diversity Considerations
Award-winning FemTech research recognises that women are not a monolith.
Judges increasingly value projects that consider diversity across age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, and geographic location.
Have you thought about how your research applies across different populations? Are you inadvertently excluding certain groups?
The strongest submissions acknowledge these considerations and, where possible, design research to be inclusive or clearly define the specific population being served.
Clear Communication
Even groundbreaking research won’t win if judges can’t understand it. The ability to communicate complex ideas clearly is crucial.
Avoid unnecessary jargon, define technical terms, and structure your submission logically.
Think of your submission as telling a story: Here’s the problem, here’s why it matters, here’s what we did, here’s what we found, and here’s why it matters for the future.
Feasibility and Sustainability
Judges appreciate ambitious research, but they also value realistic plans.
Show that you’ve thought about practical considerations: Do you have the resources to complete this work? Is your timeline reasonable?
For projects seeking commercialisation, is there a viable path to market?
Demonstrating that you’ve considered challenges and have strategies to overcome them shows maturity and increases confidence in your project’s success.
Your Passion Matters
Finally, don’t underestimate the power of genuine passion.
The researchers who win aren’t just technically proficient – they deeply care about their work and its potential to create change.
Let that commitment shine through in your submission.
Ready to submit? Find out more about the awards and enter for free here.
By Women’s Health Week
When the New York Stock Exchange signs on as the Official Exchange Partner of a women’s health event, it’s worth paying attention to.
Women’s Health Week USA, taking place May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, has confirmed the NYSE as its Official Exchange Partner for 2026.
It is one of the most significant institutional endorsements the women’s health sector has seen, and it says something meaningful about where global capital markets are directing their attention.
Find out more about WHW USA 2026 here.
What the Partnership Involves
This is not simply a logo on a lanyard.
The NYSE partnership comes with a set of activations that put women’s health in front of audiences well beyond the event itself.
On the morning of May 13, Women’s Health Week will be featured in the NYSE Market Update, reaching an audience of approximately 200 million viewers across outlets including Yahoo Finance and the Financial Times.
For a sector that has historically struggled for mainstream financial visibility, that kind of reach is significant.
Women’s Health Week will also light up the North Star Billboard in Times Square for a full week around the event, placing the brand at the centre of one of the most commercially visible locations in the world.
NYSE will produce live and taped interviews with WHW leadership and keynote speakers, distributed across NYSE Live, Taking Stock, and partner platforms reaching tens of millions of viewers monthly.
A dedicated NYSE content team will be on the ground at the New York Academy of Medicine capturing the conversations and connections taking place across both days.
The NYSE’s Healthcare & Life Sciences team will also take to the stage at Women’s Health Week USA, sharing their perspective on trends shaping the sector from a capital markets standpoint.
Why It Matters
The partnership is a signal as much as it is a sponsorship.
Women’s health has spent years making the case that it is a commercially serious category.
The NYSE’s involvement makes that case in a language the broader financial world understands.
Women’s Health Week USA 2026 is themed around The Era of Scale, a deliberate framing around the idea that the sector has moved beyond early validation into the harder work of institutionalisation.
Capital is moving. M&A activity is increasing. Generalist investors are entering a space that was once left to specialists. The NYSE partnership fits neatly into that narrative.
With 600+ senior decision makers confirmed across investors, founders, multinationals, payers and policymakers, the event is already one of the most commercially concentrated gatherings in the women’s health calendar.
The NYSE’s reach extends that concentration well beyond the walls of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Find out for yourself why this partnership is so perfect and join Women’s Health Week USA. Secure your ticket here.
The Pitch Sessions
For founders and early-stage companies, Women’s Health Week USA also hosts a mainstage Pitch Session across two categories: Medical Devices & Therapeutics and Consumer & Tech. Fifteen companies will be selected to pitch in front of the full audience.
Applications close April 10.
They are free to submit, and any company working on a condition that affects women exclusively, differently, or disproportionately is eligible.
Events
Women’s HealthX brings together leading pharma innovators advancing the future of women’s healthcare
Women’s HealthX is convening a powerful lineup of pharmaceutical and biotech leaders, uniting global organisations including AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Chiesi, Eli Lilly, Alexion, and Daré Bioscience alongside 750+ senior clinicians, hospital leaders, insurers, and policy makers shaping the future of women’s health.
As the women’s health market continues to evolve, the event provides a unique platform for pharma leaders to share how they are leveraging clinical trial data, real world evidence, and digital innovation to reduce regulatory risk, improve representation in research, and unlock new opportunities for partnership and pipeline growth.
Across seven dedicated stages covering the full lifecycle of care, attendees will gain direct insight into how industry leaders are driving measurable change in outcomes, access, and equity.
Confirmed sessions and trailblazers include:
Maternity & Maternal Care
- Empowering Mothers, Advancing Equity, and Improving Outcomes in Premature Care
Erica Smith, Vice President, Value & Market Access, US, Chiesi
Evidence, Data & Innovation
- Addressing Design Barriers: Paving the Way for Sex Specific Data Clarity
Julieta Jimenez, Executive Director, Program Management Clinical Operations, V&I, AstraZeneca
- Design Trials That Generate Clinically Meaningful Evidence for Women
Luba Soskin, Global Clinical Lead, Women’s Health, Bayer
Chronic Disease Management
- Improving Outcomes in Obesity Through Evidence Based Person Centred Care
Tracy Sims, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Cardiometabolic Health, Eli Lilly
- Tackling Sex Based Health Inequities by Breaking Down Barriers and Bias
Adrian Kielhorn, Senior Director, Global Head HEOR Neurology, Alexion
Sexual Health & Wellness
- The Clinical Impact of Internal Stigma in Sexual Health
Kesha O’Reilly, Director Medical Affairs, HIV Franchise, Gilead
- Explore Innovative Product Manufacturing Pathways Beyond Conventional Regulatory Models
David Friend, Chief Science Officer, Daré Bioscience
We have also just announced Endometriosis Advocate Padma Lakshmi as a keynote speaker, bringing one of the most influential voices in women’s health advocacy to the stage.
See full list of confirmed trailblazers here
Together, these leaders represent the organisations driving innovation across research, development, and commercialisation, offering practical insight into how to bring safer, more effective solutions to women worldwide.
The program moves beyond discussion into delivery, equipping attendees with the latest clinical evidence, regulatory strategies, and innovation frameworks needed to accelerate impact across the healthcare ecosystem.
With senior decision makers from across pharma, biotech, and healthcare in attendance, women’s healthX is where partnerships are formed, strategies are shaped, and the future of women’s health is defined.
The women’s health sector is no longer just building a case for itself.
Capital is moving, consolidation is accelerating, and the companies that understood the opportunity early are now focused on one thing: scale.
The conversations happening at Women’s Health Week USA on May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine reflect exactly that shift.
Three sessions in particular cut to the heart of where the industry is right now, and where it’s going next. Here’s a closer look at what’s on the full programme.
Key Panel Discussions
Who’s Backing the Boom: Inside the Capital Surge in Women’s Health
Capital is flowing into women’s health at record levels.
The question is no longer whether the sector will attract institutional investment, but where that capital is coming from, who it’s going to, and what it takes to unlock the next wave of commercial growth.
This session puts those questions to a panel with direct experience of deploying and raising capital in the sector.
Nicole Mooljee Damani (EY-Parthenon) moderates a conversation between Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Trish Costello (Portfolia), and Ramiz Khan (Wellcome Leap), three investors with distinct mandates and a shared focus on what actually moves the needle.
For founders and operators in the room, this session is a direct window into how the people writing the cheques are thinking.
What they’re backing, what they’re passing on, and what the current capital environment means for the companies building in women’s health right now.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Who’s Buying, Who’s Building, and Why
The M&A landscape in women’s health is heating up. Strategic acquisitions, consolidation plays, and corporate partnerships are reshaping the competitive map, and the decisions being made now will define the structure of the industry for years to come.
This panel examines the logic behind who’s acquiring and who’s holding, from the perspective of people operating at the sharp end of those decisions.
Oriana Papin-Zoghbi (AOA Dx), Monica Cepak (Wisp), Gabrielle de Briey (Hologic), and Johanna Grossman (New York Stock Exchange) bring a combined view that spans diagnostics, digital health, medtech and the capital markets infrastructure that underpins it all.
For anyone building a company with an eye on strategic exits, partnerships or acquisitions, this is the session that maps the terrain.
The Economics of Equity: How Inclusion Equals Growth Strategy
Inclusion isn’t a tickbox. It’s a growth lever. And the data increasingly backs that up.
This session makes the commercial case for equity in women’s health, examining how addressing underserved populations and closing health disparities doesn’t just serve social goals, it creates the biggest commercial opportunities in the sector.
The shift from impact metric to market strategy is already underway. This panel is where that argument gets made in full.
Annie Theriault (Cross Border Impact Ventures) moderates a conversation between Sharon Meers (Midi Health), Lauren Makler (Cofertility), Tanvi Patel (Amazon Pharmacy), and Julia Berenson (World Health Organisation). The breadth of that panel, spanning venture, fertility, pharma and global health policy, is itself a signal of how far the conversation has moved.
These three sessions are part of a broader two-day programme bringing together 700+ senior decision makers across investment, innovation, policy and medtech.
The event is built around curated 1:1 matchmaking, with introductions structured around each attendee’s commercial priorities.
Early Bird Pricing for Women’s Health Week USA is ending Friday April 17, to save up to $600 on your ticket to the Global Stage for Scale, book now!
Secure your place at Women’s Health Week USA
The women’s health sector is no longer just building a case for itself.
Capital is moving, consolidation is accelerating, and the companies that understood the opportunity early are now focused on one thing: scale.
The conversations happening at Women’s Health Week USA on May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine reflect exactly that shift.
Three sessions in particular cut to the heart of where the industry is right now, and where it’s going next. Here’s a closer look at what’s on the full programme.
Key Panel Discussions
Who’s Backing the Boom: Inside the Capital Surge in Women’s Health
Capital is flowing into women’s health at record levels.
The question is no longer whether the sector will attract institutional investment, but where that capital is coming from, who it’s going to, and what it takes to unlock the next wave of commercial growth.
This session puts those questions to a panel with direct experience of deploying and raising capital in the sector.
Nicole Mooljee Damani (EY-Parthenon) moderates a conversation between Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Trish Costello (Portfolia), and Ramiz Khan (Wellcome Leap), three investors with distinct mandates and a shared focus on what actually moves the needle.
For founders and operators in the room, this session is a direct window into how the people writing the cheques are thinking.
What they’re backing, what they’re passing on, and what the current capital environment means for the companies building in women’s health right now.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Who’s Buying, Who’s Building, and Why
The M&A landscape in women’s health is heating up. Strategic acquisitions, consolidation plays, and corporate partnerships are reshaping the competitive map, and the decisions being made now will define the structure of the industry for years to come.
This panel examines the logic behind who’s acquiring and who’s holding, from the perspective of people operating at the sharp end of those decisions.
Oriana Papin-Zoghbi (AOA Dx), Monica Cepak (Wisp), Gabrielle de Briey (Hologic), and Johanna Grossman (New York Stock Exchange) bring a combined view that spans diagnostics, digital health, medtech and the capital markets infrastructure that underpins it all.
For anyone building a company with an eye on strategic exits, partnerships or acquisitions, this is the session that maps the terrain.
The Economics of Equity: How Inclusion Equals Growth Strategy
Inclusion isn’t a tickbox. It’s a growth lever. And the data increasingly backs that up.
This session makes the commercial case for equity in women’s health, examining how addressing underserved populations and closing health disparities doesn’t just serve social goals, it creates the biggest commercial opportunities in the sector.
The shift from impact metric to market strategy is already underway. This panel is where that argument gets made in full.
Annie Theriault (Cross Border Impact Ventures) moderates a conversation between Sharon Meers (Midi Health), Lauren Makler (Cofertility), Tanvi Patel (Amazon Pharmacy), and Julia Berenson (World Health Organisation). The breadth of that panel, spanning venture, fertility, pharma and global health policy, is itself a signal of how far the conversation has moved.
These three sessions are part of a broader two-day programme bringing together 700+ senior decision makers across investment, innovation, policy and medtech.
The event is built around curated 1:1 matchmaking, with introductions structured around each attendee’s commercial priorities.
Early Bird Pricing for Women’s Health Week USA is ending Friday April 17, to save up to $600 on your ticket to the Global Stage for Scale, book now!
Secure your place at Women’s Health Week USA
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