Launch Minnesota and the Office of Small Business Development are thrilled to collaborate with Mayo Clinic to help them seek solutions to improve health, enhance health care delivery and promote greater health equity through a social innovation grant opportunity. 

Successful grant proposals will impact mental health, substance use and access to care, the three most critical needs identified in the area's 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment. Launch Minnesota will help connect innovators, nonprofits and small businesses to this new opportunity and help Mayo Clinic address these important issues.

"The Social Innovation Grant request for proposals is a new approach to addressing health equity. Our goal with this grant is to build something sustainable and potentially scalable throughout our community," said Vijay Shah, M.D., chair of Mayo Clinic's Department of Medicine in Rochester. "We want to connect our commitment to caring for our community with our business development expertise through this opportunity." 

We are pleased Mayo Clinic is leveraging our state's innovation ecosystem. The Launch Minnesota Network, a hub and spoke model, brings together public and private organizations to help start and scale new ventures. I am confident that there are innovators and small businesses in Minnesota that will be able to help Mayo with solutions to decrease health disparities.

The collaboration between Mayo Clinic and Launch Minnesota shows how our institutions can work together to improve cities, counties and Minnesota as a whole.

Mayo Clinic has been the number one hospital in the U.S. for the past seven years and is the largest employer in Minnesota with more than 48,200 workers. Small businesses and startups are essential contributors to Minnesota's economy, and Launch Minnesota is dedicated to supporting the startups that aim to make their community a better and more equitable place.

To learn more about this grant opportunity and other ways Mayo Clinic is engaged in our startup ecosystem, Launch Minnesota is hosting a Friday Forum on June 23 at 9:00 a.m.

Please see Mayo Clinic's press release from their website for details.