A Celebration Of Great Ideas
On 25th June 2021, The Trinity Challenge (TTC) held a live-streamed, virtual Awards Ceremony hosted by Dame Sally Davies, Executive Chair of TTC.
The ceremony unveiled eight winning solutions, each of which represents ground-breaking ideas around pandemic preparedness & surveillance, responses to future health threats, and strategies to support recovery.
In front of a global audience of nearly 400 people, the winning teams showcased their innovative use of data, analytics and artificial intelligence, to help us identify, respond to, and recover from pandemics.
The vision behind the solutions highlighted the benefits of collaborative endeavours and creative thinking. In a demonstration of its global reach, The Trinity Challenge received 340 applications from 61 countries. These were distilled down to 16 finalists, and then 8 winners.
Tsitsi Masiyiwa, Founder and Co-Chair of Higherlife Foundation, and co-chair of the judging panel said: “It was an exceptional opportunity to be exposed to this cohort of scientists and global health experts who are embedded in communities. I was very impressed by all applicants, particularly the 16 finalists, and it was really difficult to pick out the winners. These are people who are dedicated – their proposals and the manner in which they responded to the questions from the judging panel highlighted their authenticity and passion.”
The winning teams will receive a share of the pledged prize fund of £5.7m, in addition to which, they will benefit from support and mentoring from The Trinity Challenge’s coalition of members.
In lively breakout sessions after the ceremony, attendees had the opportunity to interact with the winners, as well as with Members who acted as session facilitators. There were active discussions around establishing further collaborations and networks.
Talking about the potential arising from ongoing interaction with The Trinity Challenge, Steve Davis, Trustee of The Trinity Challenge, and Co-Chair, WHO Digital Health Technology Advisory Group said: “This is such a great group, and they’re progressing in such a fast-paced environment. We want to do everything we can to ensure that they are successful. In the months ahead, these winners will have the opportunity to build relationships with members of The Trinity Challenge, and our broader network. We will continue to support our winners as well as the finalists, in making the necessary connections to succeed. We’ve all seen the power of collaboration that results from bringing for-profit, non-profit and social and academic partners together. And we will also continue to encourage and support innovation in data and technology to enable pandemic preparedness”.
Agenda
Award Ceremony
- Finalist introductions and announcement of awards
- Remarks from Dame Sally Davies, Hala Audi, and the Judging Co-Chairs, Mark Dybul and Tsitsi Masiyiwa
- Keynote by Steve Davis (Chair, WHO Digital Health Technical Advisory Group)
Networking
Meet Winners of The Trinity Challenge, Members, and other participants in interactive breakouts. Discuss solutions, establish connections and dream-up collaborations.
Our Convenor
DAME SALLY DAVIES
Dame Sally Davies is the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Trinity Challenge. Before this, she was Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK government from March 2011 to September 2019, having held the post on an interim basis since June 2010.
Dame Sally was the Co-Convenor of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). She has spoken on AMR at numerous global events, including the World Health Assembly side events, the G8 science ministers’ meeting (2015), the Global Health Security Initiative (2015), and the UN General Assembly side event (2016). For three years, she was the Chair of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on AMR. Dame Sally was a member of the World Health Organisation Executive Board 2014 to 2016 and has led delegations to a range of WHO summits and forums since 2004.
STEVE DAVIS
Steve Davis is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business as well as Senior Strategy Advisor and Interim China Country Office Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also serves as co-chair of the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group, is a Distinguished Fellow with the World Economic Forum, and a member of numerous boards and advisory committees. He is the former president and CEO of PATH, a leading global health innovation organization; former Director of Social Innovation at McKinsey & Company, a global consultancy; and former CEO of Corbis, a digital media pioneer. With degrees from Princeton University, University of Washington and Columbia Law School, he speaks and writes regularly about the intersection of innovation, technology and social impact. He is the author of the forthcoming book Undercurrents: Channelling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism. Steve lives with his family in Seattle, Washington.
HALA AUDI
Hala leads the Trinity Challenge as its first CEO. Hala brings to the Challenge her passion and expertise to improve health outcomes by looking for social, business and economic innovation to solve some of the most complex global health issues.
She led the Review on AMR chaired by Jim O’Neill and commissioned by the UK Prime Minister and the Wellcome Trust in 2014. The Review helped transform global awareness of the problem of drug resistance, increase fivefold the level of public and private investment for scientific research in the field, and produced micro and macro-economic modelling and policy proposals that are now being implemented nationally and discussed by key decision makers in the G7, the G20 and the UN.
Hala’s twenty year career spans the law (Skadden, Arps) and government (HM Treasury in the UK), with expertise in international law, infrastructure, and complex programmes delivery. Hala is French and Lebanese. She was born in Beirut where she goes back regularly, and grew up in Paris. She lives in London with her family.
MARK DYBUL
The Honorable Mark Dybul, MD, is the Co-Director of the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact and Professor in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Dr. Dybul has worked on HIV and public health for more than 25 years as a clinician, scientist, teacher, and administrator. He served as the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2013-2017) and the US Global Coordinator and Ambassador leading the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
TSITSI MASIYIWA
Tsitsi Masiyiwa is an Afrian philanthropist and social entrepreneur. She is Executive Chair and Co-Founder of Higherlife Foundation, whose primary goal is to invest in human capital development to build thriving individuals, communities and sustainable livelihoods.
As a result of her work and experience establishing and growing Higherlife Foundation over the last twenty years, Tsitsi has become an advisor and thought partner to universities, national leaders, and social entrepreneurs on issues of education, leadership development and youth empowerment.
In 2017, Tsitsi established Delta Philanthropies, as a vehicle for impact investing and grant making. Delta Philanthropies seeks to unlock and catalyse innovative solutions to the elimination of poverty by convening strategic partnerships and incubating new development models.
