HHS Announces Winners of the 2026 KidneyX EMPOWER: Living Link Prize Challenge to Advance Living Kidney Donation and Patient-Centered Innovation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 27, 2026 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the nine winners of the 2026 KidneyX EMPOWER: Living Link Prize Challenge, a $4 million national competition to accelerate innovation supporting living kidney donors and patients who depend on them. The challenge was run through the Kidney Innovation Accelerator (KidneyX), a public-private partnership between HHS and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN).

"Every American waiting for a kidney deserves the best chance at a longer, healthier life," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "Living kidney donation saves lives, yet too many willing donors face barriers that should not exist. We are removing those barriers and backing innovators with practical solutions that support donors, strengthen transplant care, and give more Americans a chance to live."

Addressing Critical Gaps in Living Donation

More than a dozen Americans die each day while waiting for a kidney, and nearly 100,000 Americans are currently waitlisted for a kidney transplant. Living kidney donation is one of the most effective treatment options for kidney failure, yet the number of living kidney donors has remained virtually flat for approximately two decades at fewer than 7,000 per year. Significant financial, logistical, educational, and social barriers often limit the number of people able to donate or receive a transplant.

2026 EMPOWER Prize Challenge Winners

The challenge, launched by the Trump Administration in April, generated significant enthusiasm across the kidney care community, with more than 85 unique submissions proposing innovations in living kidney donation. The 2026 EMPOWER Prize Challenge emphasized living donation as a critical pathway to improving outcomes and saving lives, ensuring that living donors are supported before, during, and after donation as they helped more Americans receive life-saving transplants. By combining real-world experience with technical innovation, the winners will create solutions that save lives and reach more people.

A total of nine winning teams were recognized for their bold, practical solutions that improve public awareness and mentorship; donor interventions; donor readiness and eligibility; donor-centered outcomes; and donation center practices.

"Advancing trusted, interoperable data infrastructure is critical to building a more connected, patient-centered, and innovative kidney care ecosystem," said National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Thomas Keane, MD, MBA. "Solutions developed through initiatives like the KidneyX EMPOWER Prize Challenge will help us meet donors and patients where they are and help clinicians access the right information at the right time."

To encourage further progress, eight awardees will each receive $375,000, while one distinguished grand prize winner will receive a $1 million award recognizing their exceptional contributions toward enhancing support for donors, patients, and the broader healthcare community.

• Grand Prize Winner: Richard Horsely, LivingLink: A full-stack, open-source platform built on HL7 FHIR R4 that integrates natively into commonly used electronic health records (EHR) systems.
• Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian, DonorForward: Turning unused donor readiness into non-directed kidney transplants. A structured identification and decision aid system to expand the living donor pool.
• Dartmouth Transplant, A Rural Living Donor Tele-Navigation Hub: A telehealth-enabled care model shifting testing and care coordination closer to home to reduce travel barriers for rural donors.
• Kidney Connective, Best-fit routing for donors and their pairs: A donor and pair-facing best-fit routing experience that helps a donor and their recipient find the transplant center where they're both eligible.
• MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute, Expanding Living Kidney Donation in Adults 65 and Older: Replaces fixed criteria with an individualized, age-adjusted, and risk-stratified evaluation framework.
• National Kidney Donation Organization, The NKDO Living Link Network: A national model connecting prospective donors and patients with trained living donor mentors and moderated peer discussions.
• NYU Langone Health Transplant Institute, CADENCE: A virtual program employing trained lay navigators to deliver the "Live Donor Champion" program, equipping families to act as advocates.
• Regenstrief Institute, LIVINGkidney: A standalone mobile app and website providing structured guidance and AI knowledge assistance.
• Virginia Commonwealth University, The KHCP Living Link Pathway: An EHR-enabled care model that uses rule-based chronic kidney disease identification and predictive risk equations to activate donors early.

Learn more about the winners here.

Advancing Living Kidney Donation

The winning solutions demonstrate how lived experience, technical innovation, clinical approaches, and community-based support can help address barriers across the living donation journey. By advancing innovations in these areas, the 2026 EMPOWER Prize Challenge emphasizes living donation as a critical pathway to improving outcomes and saving lives while ensuring that living donors are supported before, during and after donation.

"A kidney transplant from a living donor is the optimal form of treatment for most people with kidney failure, yet a variety of barriers have prevented many Americans from becoming living donors," said ASN President Samir M. Parikh, MD, FASN. "Today, I am inspired by the nine KidneyX Living Link EMPOWER prize challenge winners, whose winning solutions will help many people overcome these barriers and save the lives of their fellow Americans through living donation."

The award-winning teams will be honored during the KidneyX EMPOWER Winners Showcase on September 10, 2026. Winners will present their innovative strategies and solutions aimed at expanding living kidney donation.

About KidneyX

The Kidney Innovation Accelerator, or KidneyX, is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology. KidneyX accelerates innovation in kidney care by funding prize competitions and fostering collaboration across the kidney community to improve outcomes for people with kidney diseases.

Since its launch, KidneyX has catalyzed innovation across the kidney care ecosystem through a network of innovators dedicated to transforming prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, including transplantation.