Gates Foundation Calls for Greater Innovation in Vaccine Delivery

StephenW

Dear Colleagues:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting nominations for the Gates Vaccine Innovation Award to recognize, celebrate, and spur transformative ideas for achieving impact through the delivery of vaccines.

The award winner will be recognized with $250,000 (U.S.), featured on our website, and personally acknowledged by Gates Foundation leadership.

It is open to individuals from any discipline who work on delivery of vaccines. Candidates from academic institutions, governments, health care facilities, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies may be nominated.

We recognize that innovation in the delivery of vaccines can take many shapes.  Rather than limit what innovation can mean, we welcome a diverse array of ideas. As long as the innovation has resulted in tangible health impact related to vaccine delivery, it is eligible for consideration.

Nominees will be assessed on three broad criteria:

• Impact — the nominee should have achieved significant improvements in the prevention, control, or elimination of vaccine preventable disease.
• Innovation and creativity — the nominee should have applied imaginative and pioneering approaches to overcome difficult challenges to immunizing children and achieving impact.
• 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.
  

Please note that nominations focused on innovation in the areas of science and research & development are not eligible for consideration. This award is focused only on programs and policies associated with achieving impact through the delivery of vaccines.

Nominations are being accepted online until November 17, 2011. More information is available at: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/gates-vaccine-innovation-award.

We invite you to nominate individuals or a group of individuals who have achieved significant improvements in the prevention, control, or elimination of vaccine preventable diseases through immunization. If you know someone else who may be interested in nominating, please forward this message.

Thank you for your commitment to solving the world's greatest health challenges.