The Innovations Pitch Competition is a TED Talk style, rapid-pitch session held in front of a live audience at the Annual Meeting. Five finalists will be selected to pitch their innovative ideas for a monetary prize at the 2022 Annual Meeting, October 30 - November 3, 2022 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA, USA.
Applications will open in June.
This year's Competition will focus on global health and equity.
The innovations proposed should be marketable, scalable and rooted in scientific rigor. Innovations may address, but are not limited to:
- Equitable sharing systems so that more can access vaccines, diagnostics and therapies
- Delivering better risk decision tools for measuring and predicting global health action
- Science hesitancy and societal benefits of sound medical countermeasures
- Demonstrated impact of reducing carbon and harmful environmental footprints in products and tools
QUESTIONS? Please reach out to Miranda Rogliano, Project Manager, at [email protected].
4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition
2021: The 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition focused highlighted tools and methods to improve two of the most consequential threats to a healthy and sustainable world: resilience in the face of a pandemic and reducing the deleterious impact of climate change.
The innovations proposed were judged on being marketable, scalable and rooted in scientific rigor. They could address, but were not limited to:
- Pandemic solutions including (but not limited to) vaccine acceptance, tracking of vaccine effectiveness, virus variant tracking, quality diagnostics, innovative approaches to prevention of disease spread, and predictive forecasting of emerging threats.
- Identifying and mitigating the direct and indirect effects of climate change and its consequences of vector-competency, and human and animal health.
Grand Prize Winner: Farhana Sultana, icddr,b, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Developing a machine to produce jute cellulose-based sanitary pads for sustainable menstrual health
2nd Place: Vivek Jason Vayaraj, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur City, Malaysia
International Pandemic Preparedness Centre (IPPC): Unified Infectious Disease Surveillance System
3rd - 5th Place (listed alphabetically):
- Sachini Fernando, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka: Repellicide
- Hiruni Harichandra, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka: RaBCO - Rapid, breath detector for COVID-19
- Deus Kamya, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda: Phage-based capsules for V. cholerae decontamination in pit latrines and other reservoirs in Uganda
Audience Favorite: Deus Kamya
Thank you to our judges for their participation in our 4th Annual Competition.
- Koya Allen, ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain
- Dan Bausch, FIND, Geneva, Switzerland
- Margaret Glancey, VecTech, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Thomas M. Lendvay, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA, United States
- Mathias Strobl, Roche Diagnostics, Penzberg, Germany