Frequently Asked Questions

The term “The Trinity Challenge” refers to two connected entities:

1. A public challenge, inviting the best work to promote the public good by the means of data & analytics and granting significant support and awards to the best contributions around pandemic preparedness and response for the inaugural round running from autumn 2020 to spring 2021.
2. A coalition of globally leading institutions from the private and public sector (“Founding members” and Members”) that has formed around the core idea of said challenge. The coalition is united by the common aim of using data and advanced analytics to develop insights and actions to contribute to a world better protected from health emergencies. The additional activities of this network beyond the public challenge are outlined on our website and in our publications.

We are learning lessons now to manage the next one better and, even more so, to try to avoid another one. This is the best time and opportunity to create global insights and shared learning. We expect some efforts to provide insights of value for the current COVID-19 crisis. However, if we do not widen our horizon beyond the current pandemic, we are bound to repeat the cycle of panic and neglect that has been detrimental to the sustainable improvement of our collective ability to identify, respond to and recover from health emergencies. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations, institutions and the public have more global health data (and data beyond health) than ever at their disposal. But actually deriving meaningful insights from that data—and converting knowledge into action—is easier said than done. At The Trinity Challenge, we aim to promote integration of data, steering clear of incomplete and siloed information, and encourage novel analytics technology to derive evidence-based knowledge. Through better system-level preparedness agnostic of pathogens, with more rapid access to complete information and resilient analytics systems, we believe the world would more resiliently face future health emergencies. 

Your work for the public good might benefit in three key areas from joining The Trinity Challenge:

• Public recognition In line with our aspiration to further the public good through data & analytics. We will promote any relevant contribution to The Trinity Challenge - potentially including you and your work – with an ongoing and extensive outreach through our own communication channels as well as our Members’ public and social media.
• Unparalleled support by global leaders from the private, academics and public sectors. Core asset and distinguishing factor of The Trinity Challenge is the commitment of our Members, leading institutions in their respective fields, to support promising applications for The Trinity Challenge with the resources required to make a positive and lasting impact for the public good.
• Significant awards. We will award the best contributions to the first round of The Trinity Challenge with prizes from a pool of up to £10M. Selection of winners and distribution of prizes from that pool will happen at the discretion of an independent panel of judges representing various disciplines and backgrounds, through a quality-controlled, fair and transparent process.

For our first round of awards in 2021, we are looking for any potential contribution which makes use of data and advanced analytics to help improve our ability to identify, respond to and recover from health emergencies related to infectious disease. This might come e.g.

• In the form of a proof-of-concept, with some level of evidence, be developed into an insight providing an objective and credible answer to broad or even very specific questions like “What are the zoonotic diseases with the highest potential to cause the next pandemic in 5-10 years from now?”
• As an application/tool/solution that is currently in conceptualization or prototype status and has the potential to be developed/piloted/scaled as an asset for the global public good
• As a replicable intervention that is informed and guided by analysis of objective criteria through data & analytics to significantly and sustainably improve our ability to predict, prevent, limit and mitigate emerging infectious diseases and/or their dire consequences for lives and livelihoods, globally

To apply for participation within the challenge you need to provide any proof-of-concept, prototype, pilot or other project that has the potential to be developed into one of the above – if required, with support from our Founding Members and Members.

The inaugural Challenge was launched in October 2020.

Requests for collaboration with Members of The Trinity Challenge (October 2020 - January 2021)

Requests for collaboration have closed for the inaugural round of October 2020 - June 2021. We will welcome new applications for collaboration for our second challenge round in Autumn 2021.

Submission of results to be considered for awards (February - April 2021)

Solutions insights and results of collaborative or independent development can be submitted for the first round of The Trinity Challenge from 24 February until 15 April 2021. Solutions may be submitted even if they were not part of the original request for collaboration (October 2020 - January 2021)

Announcement of awards and awards event (June 2021)

We expect to announce the winners of the first round of The Trinity Challenge at an online event in June, 2021.

At this stage, requests for collaboration with Members of The Trinity Challenge have closed.

If you have submitted a request for collaboration prior to January 15, The Trinity Challenge has worked to match your application with our network of Members. Please note that some of our Members are still reviewing applications.

If a Member expressed interest in exploring a collaboration with an applicant, The Trinity Challenge Secretariat will have reached out to you to set up a discussion. 

Please note that if you have not been contacted for collaboration with a Member, this does not disqualify your application. You are still able to submit your solution to our Challenge as an Individual submission. 

In your application, you will be able to specify whether you are collaborating with one or multiple Members of The Trinity Challenge. You can also specify additional Members you would like to collaborate with if you are selected as a winner of The Trinity Challenge.

If you have submitted a request for collaboration prior to January 15th, your application has already been shared with Members of The Trinity Challenge. As soon as a Member expresses interest to connect with an applicant, The Trinity Challenge Secretariat will facilitate an introductory meeting to discuss potential support from the Member.

If you have not heard from The Trinity Challenge with respect to your request for collaboration, then we have unfortunately not received interest from a Member to support your application. You are still eligible to apply for consideration for the prize, by submitting an Individual application.

The Trinity Challenge will only contact applicants in case a Member has expressed interest in collaborating.

Although The Trinity Challenge will not proactively promote connections between Challenge applicants for this inaugural round, we aim to make visible all the potential solutions on our platform. Please reach out to The Trinity Challenge Secretariat if you are interested in being connected.

A Solution Team is any individual or group of individuals who submits an idea or insight to the Challenge. Whilst we hope that Solution Teams can be formed as collaborations between applicants and Founding Members or Members of The Trinity Challenge coalition, any group or individual may wish to submit independently of completing a request for support (see below). The same guidelines, rules and review criteria apply to collaborative and independent Solution Teams.

The Founding Members of The Trinity Challenge include (in alphabetical order): Aviva, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Brunswick Group, Discovery Group, Facebook, GlaxoSmithKline, Global Virome Project, Google, HKUMed, Internews, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, Institute of Health Metrics Evaluation, Legal & General, London School of Economics, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, Northeastern University, Optum, Patrick McGovern Foundation, Reckitt Benckiser, Tencent and University of Cambridge.

Founding Members design and deliver The Trinity Challenge; support Solution Teams by providing a mix of “privileged access” to data, analytical and technical support, and other resources; and engage in collaborations with other Founding Members and Members.

Any intellectual property that existed prior to the creation of any solution (“Background IPR”) remains the property of its respective owners, and Solution Teams are responsible for ensuring that they have the right to incorporate any such property into their solution.

Any new intellectual property created during the course of building a solution (“Foreground IPR”) will be owned by the Solution Team. If a Solution Team consists of more than one organisation, the Team is responsible for allocating these ownership rights amongst itself.

Solutions must create a public benefit that would be globally accessible under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. As a minimum, Solution Teams therefore may need to release enough Foreground IPR into the public domain to allow this.

Submitted solutions will be posted publicly on the Challenge webpage; this will include answers to questions that aim to provide an overview of the problem, a summary of the solution, and the team. However any question in the application that is marked with either “For Judge Use Only” or “For Solve Use Only” will be kept confidential.

The terms of any collaboration are discussed, decided upon and contracted between the potential future collaborators (Founding Members, Members and Solution Teams) individually. These terms need to respect the guardrails of The Trinity Challenge, which include:

• Adhering to the principles of respect, integrity and transparency in relation to TTC and the Challenges
• Promoting the values of open collaboration, open data (to the extent possible) and making the benefits of The Trinity Challenge global and accessible
• Respecting and abiding by the information governance arrangements and procedures of partners and collaborators

Solution Teams can define their working mode and norms. However, all collaborative development will have to follow The Trinity Challenge guardrails outlined above. It will be assumed that any Member sharing data within TTC does so in accordance with relevant and  applicable legal and regulatory standards and obligations including, but not limited to, confidentiality, data protection and intellectual property. Members will collaborate with the Solution Teams, and in some circumstances, provide access to data under their own data governance arrangements. Solution Teams must adhere to these policies and processes. Adherence to any legal requirements remains sole responsibility of the Solution Teams/collaborators.

The Trinity Challenge welcomes submissions from anyone, anywhere in the world. In addition to offering prize funding, The Trinity Challenge will aim to support winning solutions by enabling collaborations with its Members.

While submissions are welcome from anyone, the following eligibility criteria must be met in order to receive prize funding.

Prize funding is available to any of the following entities:

• Individuals or groups of individuals, provided that they will create or appoint a legally registered organisation in its home jurisdiction with a bank account to receive prize funding. No funds will be paid directly to individuals.
• Organisations, in any form, that are legally registered in their home jurisdiction with a bank account registered to that organisation. 
• A consortium of the above, provided that a lead organisation or individual is identified.

The Trinity Challenge may require that a solution appoints a fiscal sponsor to receive and administer any award funds on their behalf.

Within their submission, applicants must outline how their solution provides a public benefit that would be globally accessible under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Prize funding will not be awarded to any of the following:

• Corporate Founding Members or Members of The Trinity Challenge that have made a contribution into the prize fund
• Any applicant that fails The Trinity Challenge Due Diligence checks 
• Any applicant that does not agree to The Trinity Challenge Award Agreement
• For-profit companies that fulfil (or are controlled by a for-profit group that fulfils) any two of the following conditions:
• Annual revenue/turnover in excess of £50M per year
• Balance sheet net assets in excess of £20M
• Average monthly FTE employees in excess of 250

Kindly refer to the Submit a Solution section on the MIT Solve website. 

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You will be requested to submit high level 1 year and 3 year budgets what is needed to fully develop and scale your solution. If you are selected as a finalist, you may be required to provide further details on your expenses and timing requirements. 

All submissions will be reviewed by an independent panel of experts from across the globe including low- and middle-income countries. Projects submitted will be judged according to their alignment with the mission of The Trinity Challenge, potential for impact, feasibility, innovative approach, and partnership potential. Below is an overview of our judging criteria:

• Alignment: Solution uses data, digital tools and/or analytics to identify, respond to, or recover from health emergencies.
• Potential for Impact: Solution has a reasonable and measurable plan to prevent, mitigate, or promote recovery from a health emergency, particularly for vulnerable populations. The solution also provides a public good.
• Feasibility: Solution implementation is feasible, and the team has a reasonable plan for operational sustainability and measurable results that can be proven to work. 
• Innovative Approach: Solution includes a new technology or a new application of technology; a business/policy model, process, or cross-sectorial approach that relies on technology to be successful.
• Scalability: Solution can be equitably scaled to improve the lives of more people, across geographical, sociocultural, or sectorial borders.

Yes, they are invited to make submissions, however corporate Members that have contributed into the prize fund are ineligible to win funding from The Trinity Challenge. The panel of judges is independent of the Founding Members and Members.

Challenge participants are free to use and build on existing open source software and projects. Adherence to any legal requirements remains sole responsibility of the Challenge participants/collaborators.

Challenge participants are free to use existing code and content, and build on their existing and on-going work to submit the best insights possible. Adherence to any legal requirements remains sole responsibility of the Challenge participants/collaborators.

The Challenge’s inaugural round will comprise a total Prize Fund of up to £10M.

Across the Challenge Areas (Identify, Respond, Recover), we seek to identify a transformative solution to win a grand prize award of up to £2M. The remaining funds will be allocated to further winning submissions, for up to £1M per solution. We expect at least one award per Challenge Area. 

We expect that one or more Members will offer support and mentorship to the winning solutions.

Other awards may be made at the discretion of the Judges (e.g., honorable mentions for solutions outstandingly meeting some criteria).

The exact amount of the award for each winner will depend on the solution’s needs for development, deployment and scaling over the next three years. Challenge finalists will be asked to provide more detailed plans to inform award funding decisions. 

Prize funding awards will be contractually binding between applicants and The Trinity Challenge and must be used to develop the solutions and further The Trinity Challenge objectives.

If you have submitted a request for collaboration prior to January 15th, your application has already been shared with Members of The Trinity Challenge. As soon as a Member expresses interest to connect with an applicant, The Trinity Challenge Secretariat will facilitate an introductory meeting to discuss potential support from the Member.

If you have not heard from The Trinity Challenge with respect to your request for collaboration, then we have unfortunately not (yet) received interest from a Member to support your application. You are still eligible to apply for consideration for the prize, by submitting an Individual application.

The Trinity Challenge will only contact applicants in case a Member has expressed interest in collaborating.

If you are selected as a winner of The Trinity Challenge, you may only use the award funding to further your solution as specified in your application. This can materialize in a variety of ways: hiring resources to support development or deployment of your solution, purchasing software licenses or computing credits to support your application, purchasing equipment necessary for the deployment of your solution, etc. 

You may not use The Trinity Challenge award for personal expenses, and you will need to maintain records of your expenditures.

Yes, to a reasonable level. Indirect costs and Overheads have different definitions in different organisations. For clarity, here is how we define them.

We draw a distinction between real indirect costs and true overheads. We refer to real indirect costs as those that are related to supporting a group of projects, of which your application may be one. Those costs would be avoided if that group of projects did not happen. Examples of this would include a project finance manager, shared project IT software, MEAL analysts, etc. These costs would generally be apportioned across the relevant projects.

Then, true overheads would refer to the organizational maintenance costs, which would be incurred even if no projects were being run. Examples would be HR departmental costs, accounting software, board governance costs, building/maintenance expenses, etc, that are more general.

Our guideline is that real indirect costs can be included in full up to the amount apportioned to the project in the application. Overheads should come in at most at around 10-12%.