Our Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics
The Trinity Challenge is a call to action for the best and brightest minds to contribute ideas and innovations, with a chance to win both funding and mentoring from world-renowned organisations.
What is the Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics?
The Trinity Challenge on Community Access to Effective Antibiotics is now live!
This latest Challenge is our call for low-cost tech and data-driven solutions to improve access to effective antibiotics in community settings in low- and middle-income countries.
We are calling for innovators to answer the question: How can data and technology improve stock control and/or reduce the use of substandard and falsified oral antibiotics for community use in low-and middle-income countries?
Antibiotic resistance (often referred to as antimicrobial resistance or AMR) is a One Health crisis, and an increasing threat to our health, food, and environmental security.
It is estimated that antibiotic resistance will cause 39 million deaths in the next 25 years. Without action, the majority of deaths will occur within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Challenge is particularly interested in the following two drivers of antibiotic resistance:
Stock control
There is a lack of stock control at the sub-national/local level in community settings.
Interruptions may occur anywhere along the continuum from manufacture to dispensing of antibiotics. This can lead to a situation where there is no available supply of a specific antibiotic within the community (a stockout), which may in turn increase the likelihood of substandard antibiotics entering the market.
Substandard and falsified antibiotics
Substandard and falsified antibiotics are estimated to make up 10% of antimicrobials used by humans in LMICs and 6.5% of veterinary medicines.
Substandard antibiotics are authorised medicines that fail to meet either their quality standards, their specifications, or both. Falsified antibiotics deliberately or fraudulently misrepresent their identity, composition, or source.
Eligibility
The Challenge in inviting solutions that can be submitted over two years, and which include the following elements:
LMICs
Focus on low- and middle-income communities, led by LMIC orgs or with bona fide in-country partnerships.
Community
Use or generate community-level data – i.e. outside of formal healthcare and industry settings.
Innovation
Use new or adapted data or technology, application of data or digital tools/analytics.
One Health
Focus on human health, animal health, environmental health, or any combination therein.
Impact
Provide a public benefit that would be globally accessible under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms
Scalability
Demonstrate the potential to scale to positively affect the lives of LMIC populations
The Trinity Challenge Judges
An independent panel of specialist judges representing a diverse set of expertise is responsible for reviewing applications and selecting Finalists and Winners.
Chair
Dr DIVLEEN JEJI
India Lead, Google Health, Google
Prof Diane Ashiru-Oredope
Lead Pharmacist, AMR and Co-Lead AMR PROGRESS Team, UK Health Security Agency
Prof Christopher Butler
Professor of Primary Care, Clinical Director, University of Oxford Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit
Dr Céline Caillet
Deputy Head, Medicine Quality Research Group, University of Oxford
Prof Otto Cars
Professor, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala Universitet
Dr Anna Farra
Coordinator of the Middle East Medical Unit, Antimicrobial Stewardship Referent, Médecins Sans Frontières OCB
Prof Ana Gales
Professor, Infectious Diseases, Universidade Federal de São Paulo
Amit Khurana
Director, Sustainable Food Systems, Centre for Science and Environment
Prof Patricia Kingori
Professor and Wellcome Senior Investigator, Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities
Dr Toby Leslie
Global Technical Lead, Fleming Fund / Mott MacDonald
Dr Jane Lwoyero
Technical Officer, AMR and Food Safety, World Organisation for Animal Health
Winnie Nambatya
Lecturer of Clinical Pharmacy, Makerere University
Dr Megan Neary
Senior Research Manager for Therapeutics, Wellcome Trust
Prof Natalie Schellack
Professor of Pharmacology, University of Pretoria
Prof H. Rogier van Doorn
Director, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit – Hanoi, University of Oxford
Erick Venant
Founder, Roll Back Antimicrobial Resistance Initiative
Dr Evelyn Wesangula
Senior Antimicrobial Resistance Control Specialist, East Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA- HC)
Dr Simone Weyand
Independent Scientist, University of Cambridge
Our Challenge Funding Members
Some of the world’s preeminent institutions are Members of The Trinity Challenge, including leaders across academe, social and private sectors. To see all our Members, including who have supported previous Challenges, visit our Members page.