Calling all Innovators in Health - GSK and Save the Children launch $1 million award
GSK and Save the Children have launched a $1 million Healthcare Innovation Award to identify and reward innovations in healthcare which have proven successful in reducing child deaths in developing countries. From the 27th June – 26th August, organisations from develping countries can nominate examples of innovative healthcare approaches they have discovered or implemented. These approaches must have resulted in tangible improvements to under-5 child survival rates, be sustainable and have the potential to be scaled-up and replicated.
Co-chaired by Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, and Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children, the Judging Panel, made up of experts from the fields of public health, science and academia, will award $250,000 to the best healthcare innovation to further progress their work. An additional $750,000 will be made available for runners-up awards.
The GSK and Save the Children Healthcare Innovation Award aims to discover and encourage replication of the best and most innovative examples of healthcare to have the biggest impact for vulnerable children. The impact of simple, low-cost innovations can be illustrated through the example of Kangaroo Mother Care which has been shown to reduce the number of babies dying in developing countries. Originally developed by Colombian paediatrician Edgar Rey, Kangaroo Mother Care is a simple technique which promotes early skin-to-skin contact between mothers and their premature and new-born babies. Mothers act as human incubators, keeping their babies warm and regulating their heartbeats. It is now used widely by Save the Children and many other organisations around the world.
The Healthcare Innovation Award is the first joint initiative to be announced following the launch of GSK and Save the Children’s ambitious new partnership in May this year, aiming to save the lives of 1 million children over the next five years.
Recognising that innovation can take many shapes and forms, the criteria for entry are broad and can include approaches that focus on any aspect of healthcare, including science, nutrition, research, education or partnership working. Further details on the judging process and criteria can be found online at http://www.innocentive.com. Entries close on August 26th at 11:59pm (GMT). Winners will be announced in November 2013.
Nominations must:
1) Be from a country classified as ‘low’, ‘lower-middle’, or ‘upper-middle’ income by the World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/country), and not be from the European Union (http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm). Countries classified as ‘high income’ by the World Bank or that are in the European Union are not eligible
2) Come from an organisation based in an eligible country, with an innovation used for the benefit of the people in an eligible country