Nominations are invited for the Gates Vaccine Innovation Award, which recognizes and honors efforts made to find innovative and effective ways to immunize children in the poorest regions of the world. The winner will receive $250,000 and a personal acknowledgement by Gates Foundation leadership.
Individuals from any discipline can apply for the Gates Vaccine Innovation Award. Individuals working in academic institutions, governments, healthcare facilities, research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit companies are eligible to apply. Nominees may include individuals or a group, who have achieved outstanding results in the prevention, control, or elimination of diseases that can be prevented through immunization.
Innovation in any form or idea that has resulted in effective and beneficial results related to vaccine delivery will be considered for the award.
Three basic criteria that will be employed to judge the nominees are:
- Impact – The results of the nominee’s efforts should clearly demonstrate significant improvements in the prevention, control, or elimination of vaccine-preventable disease.
- Innovation and creativity – Innovative and pioneering ideas and methods should have been used by the nominee to solve the problems faced while immunizing children.
- Scale – The innovation employed by the nominee should be at scale or viable to be implemented at scale within the nominee’s country and around the world.
Individuals who have developed innovations in the fields of science and research, and development are not eligible for the award. The Gates Vaccine Innovation Award is exclusively presented to individuals or a group, who have contributed by developing and implementing programs and policies that have achieved positive health impact through the delivery of vaccines.
In order to be eligible for the award, the nominations must be directly related to vaccine delivery and meet the aforementioned criteria. Nomination forms are to be filled in English. Moreover, the two essay questions have to be answered, keeping in mind the font and word-limit requirements.
A panel of experts in identifying innovations will be reviewing the applications of the nominees. As the reviewers may not be experts in the specific field, ideas should be presented in clear and simple language, devoid of any technical jargon.
The last date to receive the nominations is November 17, 2011. For more information, visit this link.
