The Trinity Challenge finalists are confirmed; winners of £6million in prizes to be announced June 25th

June is a busy month for The Trinity Challenge. Challenge Finalists have just been announced, and the Awards Ceremony takes place June 25th, 2021. The ceremony is being hosted virtually and is open for everyone to attend.

I’ve posted before about our support for The Trinity Challenge, an initiative designed to better prevent future global health pandemics. Now, after a huge effort from the founders, members and participants, we are getting to the exciting part.

A total of 340 applicants from 61 different countries submitted their ideas to The Trinity Challenge, of which 16 finalists have been selected. To cut that long list of 340 down to just 16, an independent panel of expert judges from global health, business, academia and the social sector evaluated every innovative solution proposed, each entry taking a different approach to using data and analytics to achieve better pandemic preparedness and response.

Innovations to better protect against future pandemics

Just scanning through the finalists confirms the basic premise of the Challenge – to spark innovative solutions through open collaboration – is already working.

Solutions making the final shortlist include a network that empowers farmers to become disease detectives, giving them the tools to document reports of sick animals; a surveillance system that uses AI to detect infectious disease outbreaks in the 3.6 billion blood tests that are already taken each year; a real-time literature review tool that will aid in preventing the spread of misinformation; and a system that uses blockchain technology to better track vaccines across supply chains to prevent wastage.

£6million in prizes to be awarded

On June 25, 2021, the £6million prize fund will be awarded to aid development of the winning solutions. The awards will be livestreamed between 2-3:30pm BST and give attendees the opportunity to network with winners.

The Trinity Challenge was launched in response to COVID-19 in 2020. The Challenge called upon applicants to use data and analytics to better identify, respond to and recover from health emergencies. Chaired by Dame Sally Davies, The Trinity Challenge is supported by leading businesses, charities and academic institutions including Facebook, Google, GSK, Tencent, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Northeastern University, the University of Cambridge and The University of Hong Kong Medical Faculty.

You can register to attend the Awards Ceremony and learn more about the solutions which aim to help us better identify, respond to and recover from disease outbreaks in the future here.