16 August 2024
The Novo Nordisk Foundation partners with the Trinity Challenge to support innovator’s winning solutions on antibiotic resistance
The Trinity Challenge, a charity supporting the creation of data-driven solutions to help protect against global health threats, has welcomed a generous contribution from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, designed to allow for the ongoing support of the teams who will deliver innovative projects to help mitigate antibiotic resistance in low- and middle-income countries.
The Trinity Challenge has already awarded £2.7 million in funding to four projects in Vietnam, India, and South Africa, however to ensure the best possible impact – as with the inaugural Trinity Challenge – the winning teams will now also have support in the form of ongoing mentoring, monitoring and evaluation, network building, and other opportunities to learn and accelerate progress.
Professor Dame Sally Davis, Chair, the Trinity Challenge, said: “I am delighted to welcome the Novo Nordisk Foundation on board as a member of the Trinity Challenge on Antimicrobial Resistance. Their support will allow us to continue to nurture the success and growth of our winning projects.
“Our winners plan to gather crucial data to fill the gaps in our understanding of antibiotic resistance in their particular industries and communities. Their strong ideas also have the potential for far-reaching impact. This ongoing support is essential to maximise the difference we can make by supporting these innovators through implementation and into future sustainability.”
Professor Marc Mendelson, Director, the Trinity Challenge, said: “For our Challenge to be a success it has been crucial to attract innovators, facilitate the independent judging of submissions, and to award funding, but just as important is the ongoing post-award innovation support for our winners.
“This is what will allow their ideas to come to fruition as they realise their goals. It will also provide a structure for collaboration and learning, which is very much in the spirit of the multidisciplinary approach we know is needed to meet the threat of antibiotic resistance.”
Marianne Holm, Scientific Director, Infectious Diseases at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, said: “The Trinity Challenge does fantastic work to stimulate innovation and advances in data technologies to help tackle global health threats. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest crises we face, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation is committed to addressing it. We’re therefore pleased to be able to support the further development of promising solutions that are rooted in the communities where action on this issue is most urgently needed.”
For more details or further comment contact Head of Communications and Engagement, Charlie Alderwick: [email protected] +447580 094013
For more information on the Trinity Challenge, please visit https://thetrinitychallenge.org/
About Antimicrobial Resistance
Antimicrobials are drugs used to combat bacteria (antibiotics), fungi (antifungals), viruses (antivirals) and parasites (antiparasitics).
Antimicrobial resistance happens when the microbes that cause infections evolve, stopping the medicines designed to kill them from working. This leads to treatments becoming ineffective and allowing infections to become increasingly difficult, or in some cases, impossible to treat. In the case of bacteria, this process is called antibiotic resistance, and this is the focus of the Trinity Challenge on Antimicrobial Resistance.
The speed at which antibiotic resistance is growing is a direct response to misuse and overuse of antibiotics across our healthcare systems and the food industry. The situation with respect to antibiotic resistance in bacteria has developed to the point that it now threatens our health, food, environment and global security. A 2019 global study on the impact of antimicrobial resistance concluded that 1.27 million deaths per year worldwide were a direct result of the bacteria causing the infection being resistant to antibiotics[1].
About The Trinity Challenge
The Trinity Challenge (TTC) is a charity supporting the creation of data-driven solutions to help protect against global health threats.
The Trinity Challenge on Antimicrobial resistance received applications from 285 teams in 57 countries and distributed a prize fund of £2.7 million across four winning initiatives.
We believe data and analytics hold the key to building effective, affordable, and scalable solutions to current and future pandemics and health emergencies, and we are committed to working with governments, individuals and organisations across the world, to help improve our resilience against current and future threats to global health.
About the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation’s mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.
www.novonordiskfonden.dk/en
[1] https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/gram/research/global-burden-of-bacterial-antimicrobial-resistance
