Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Vaccine Innovation Award

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Wants Innovators in Vaccine Delivery

Hundreds of thousands of lives each year could be saved by improved access to vaccines. Vaccines are cost-effective, safe, and proven to protect children from disease.

Continued innovation is essential to overcoming persistent challenges in reaching more children with vaccines.

The Gates Vaccine Innovation Award will celebrate revolutionary ways children in the poorest parts of the world are immunized. The winning innovation will be recognized with a US $250,000 prize.

Submit a nomination now.

The Gates Vaccine Innovation Award is open to individuals from any discipline. Candidates from academic institutions, governments, health care facilities, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies may be nominated.

Criteria

We recognize that innovation in the delivery of vaccines can take many shapes. We are looking for ideas big or small that have resulted in tangible improvements in immunization coverage in developing country communities.  

Nominees will be assessed on three broad criteria:

• Developing country impact – The nominee should have contributed to the prevention, control, or elimination of vaccine-preventable disease through significant improvements in immunization quality and coverage among mothers and children in developing countries. 
• Innovation and creativity – The nominee should have applied imaginative and pioneering approaches to overcome difficult challenges to immunizing children and achieving impact. Innovation is not the same as invention. Even simple ideas applied in creative ways to overcome real-world challenges can be considered innovative.
• Scale – The nominee’s innovation should be at scale or suitable to be implemented at scale within the nominee’s country and around the world.

Submit a nomination now.

If you are unable to complete the online nomination form, please send an email to vaccine-innovation-award@gatesfoundation.org to request a Word version of the nomination form. Please submit these nominations via email to vaccine-innovation-award@gatesfoundation.org, or via fax to +1-206-494-7042.
 

Nominations will be accepted through 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on July 31, 2013.

Qualifications

In order to qualify for consideration:

• Nominations must be related to vaccine delivery and meet the criteria above
• Nomination forms must be completed in English 
• The three essay questions should be answered within the font and word-limit requirements

Please note that nominations focused on innovation in research & development are not eligible for consideration. This award is focused only on achieving impact through innovative systems, processes, tools, and technologies leading to better immunization.

To get started, read the Rules and Guidelines document (PDF). It contains detailed information on all aspects of the Gates Vaccine Innovation Award. You may need to download Adobe Reader to view PDF documents. Please also read the Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy. Any information submitted by you or on your behalf with respect to the Gates Vaccine Innovation Award (including your nomination, contact information and any related documentation and communications) will be subject to and handled in accordance with the provisions outlined in these three documents.

Tips for Nominators

 

Following are some tips for those wishing to submit nominations:

• Nominations must represent an innovative approach to vaccine delivery work that has demonstrated impact. Note: There are other avenues of funding for equally important research. See current Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant opportunities here.
• Nominations will be reviewed by a panel with broad expertise and a track record in identifying innovations. These reviewers may not be deep experts in your field. Ideas should be described in clear language without the use of technical jargon unique to a particular field.
• Documentation of the innovation does not need to be sent with the initial nomination form. However, credible evidence supporting the validity of a project or sufficient proof of innovation may be requested at a later date. We will need to contact the nominee prior to the prize being issued.
• Nominators should review the policies, guidelines, terms, and conditions associated with this award.

Submit a nomination now.

Please contact: vaccine-innovation-award@gatesfoundation.org for additional information.