22 Feb 2016
Written by Tamar Ghosh
At the end of last month we saw the third submission deadline to win the Longitude Prize. These new entries to the Prize will be considered by the Prize Advisory Panel in early March.
We’re delighted that one of these new entries is a second attempt by one of our registered teams, and this is something that many of our entrants are considering, and that we support.
In total we have 126 teams from 27 countries working on the Prize, and these cover a wide range of target infections, sample methods and scientific approaches. New partnerships have been formed precisely to work on the Prize, including disciplines that are approaching this topic for the first time. At the same time we’ve heard about new research into aspects of AMR as a direct result of us helping to raise awareness of this important issue.
Many of the registered teams have told us they are working on ideas that will be ready for submission at one of the later deadlines that occur every 4 months. These submission deadlines will keep rolling in January, May and September until the last one on the 30th September 2019, unless the Prize has already been won by that point.
We know from speaking to some of the registered teams that they need financial and non-financial support to take their idea through the various stages and submit an application. Over the next month we’ll be asking registered teams about the support they would like and need, so we can develop a Programme to deliver this over the coming year.
As one of the first stages of this we will be designing and developing the Discovery Award programme, a fund of up to £2 million which will help more individuals and teams work on their ideas and hopefully submit an entry to win the Prize. In a few months we will be launching the first call for this Discovery Award, with full details including how to apply.
We hope the Discovery Award programme will:
The Discovery Awards are separate to the £8m that will be awarded to the winner of the Longitude Prize, which is being supported by Innovate UK, as funding partner.
Professor Baron Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, member of the Longitude Committee and Co-chair of the Prize Advisory Panel, encourages the development of the Discovery Award programme, and hopes,
“These awards will be a major incentive for groups that either have not yet been fully engaged in developing their ideas or who need financial support to be able to try out different concepts. A transformative and novel solution is really needed in this area and I hope the program would help encourage more of these kinds of entries.”
We’re working on shaping the Programme and will provide more information in a few weeks.
