Youth Voice

The Trinity Challenge Youth Summit and Competition 2025

The Trinity Challenge is proud to announce the successful completion of the second Youth Summit on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The big question we were discussing:

“How can we ensure effective use of antibiotics in the food chain?”

The summit gathered young leaders and youth-led organisations to discuss AMR with a focus on animal health and the food chain. The event provided space for learning and idea sharing in order to co-design a global awareness campaign to be delivered in the coming months. More details can be found below.

Youth Competition

Applications to our Youth Competition are open now and close on Wednesday 29 January at 17:00 GMT. The application form can be found here.

Youth-led teams of 3 or more people can apply for up to £7,500 in seed funding to develop an animal health antimicrobial resistance awareness campaign in their location on the subject:

Promoting biosecurity including vaccination best practice: how can we promote the use of prevention methods (biosecurity) including vaccination, nutrition, and good animal care to replace the need for antibiotics?

Our aim is to support youth voices globally by selecting winners in each region, as defined by the World Bank. This will be subject to applications and review by the independent Judging Panel.

To be eligible, the majority of team members must be 18 – 35 years old and the team must be part of, or supported by, a legally registered organisation, who will receive the grant and be liable for the agreement. The campaign must be delivered within 6 months. Full eligibility criteria can be found below.

The winning campaigns will be announced in the spring. Winners will be invited to attend an online winners event to share their campaign plan, speak with experts and access additional support to deliver the campaign.

We will be hosting an Application Q&A webinar on Thursday 23 January at 14:30 GMT. If you have questions about the application process, judging or any other part of the competition, sign up here.

Here is the competition outline recorded at the Youth Summit 2025.

You may also ask questions by email using [email protected]

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for seed funding, applicants must:

Complete the online application form by 17:00 GMT on 23 January 2025
Be part of a team of 3 or more, of whom the majority must be aged 18 – 35
Have a designated team lead who is 18 – 35 years old
Be supported by an organisation*, who –
- Are legally registered in their home jurisdiction
- Has a bank account registered to that organisation
- Agrees to be liable for the Grant Agreement with the Trinity Challenge
- Agrees to manage funds on behalf of the team
- Will have a demonstrable commitment to raising awareness of antimicrobial resistance

* Team members are not required to be employees of the organisation, but will be required to have a formal arrangement with the organisation in order to deliver the campaign. Winners will be required to provide a formal letter of support from the organisation. The organisation must adhere to the criteria set out below.

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

Any donor that has made a financial contribution to the Youth Summit
Any applicant that fails the Trinity Challenge due diligence checks
Any applicant that does not agree to the Trinity Challenge Grant Agreement
A submission from an organisation or team operating in a sanctioned country
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 £50 million per year
- Balance sheet net assets in excess £20 million
- Average monthly FTE employees in excess of 250

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be reviewed by the Judging Panel, according to the following criteria. We encourage you to consider this criteria whilst writing your application.

Innovation: Creativity and originality of the campaign delivery

Impact: Reach, potential to raise awareness and effectively mitigate AMR

Feasibility: Practicality and sustainability of the campaign

Collaboration: Level of co-design between experts and young people

Presentation: Clarity, persuasiveness, and professionalism of the pitch

During winner selection, additional consideration will be given to:

Global Representation: Where possible, winners will represent different regions and/or countries in order to highlight a diversity of youth voices and perspectives. We use the World Bank definition of regions.

FAQs

Does our campaign need to focus on ‘Promoting biosecurity including vaccination best practice’?

Yes, the campaign proposal must be based on the topic ‘Promoting biosecurity including vaccination best practice’, however the content of your campaign can approach this topic in any number of ways. Funds will be awarded to the campaign ideas that tackle the topic in the most innovative and impactful way, as per the Evaluation Criteria.

Where does our campaign have to be delivered?

Your campaign should serve the audience that you have identified and the location of your activity will reflect this. It may be local, national, regional or global. However, all plans must be feasible as per the Evaluation Criteria and so we encourage you to set ambitious, but realistic goals when it comes to reach.

Do team members have to be part of the named organisation?

The ‘Contracting Organisation’ named in the team’s application will be liable for the Trinity Challenge’s grant agreement and therefore will ultimately be responsible for the delivery of the campaign and managing the funding. Whilst team members can be independent of the organisation (either fully or in part), a formal arrangement will be required between these two parties for the campaign to be delivered. The form of this agreement is at the discretion of the Contracting Organisation. A formal letter of support from the organisation will need to be provided by winners during due diligence to evidence their arrangement.

What sizes should teams be?

Teams can have a minimum of 3 people and there is no maximum. The majority of the team must be aged 18-35 years old – e.g. in a team of 3, at least 2 members must be 18-35. Each team will have a designated ‘Team Lead’, who must be 18-35 years old. Team members named in your application should be those that have a direct, demonstrable role in delivering the campaign – e.g. campaign manager, marketing, outreach, etc. You are not required to name or count those that provide supplementary services to the core team – e.g. HR, finance, etc.

Can winners of the Trinity Challenge Youth Competition 2024 apply?

Winning teams from the Youth Competition 2024 are not eligible to win the 2025 Competition. Individual team members from 2024’s winners may be part of a new team, but the new team’s composition must be significantly different to that in 2024 and may not have the same team lead. Contracting organisations may be the same as those associated with 2024’s winners, but with a new team delivering the campaign.

Do teams have to have attended the Youth Summit to apply?

No. However, the Youth Summit provided context for developing campaigns and we recommend viewing the recordings if you were unable to attend.

When does the campaign have to be delivered?

Campaign activity can commence once the Trinity Challenge grant agreement has been signed – which is estimated to be by May 2025. Contractually, winners will have 6 months from the Grant Agreement being signed to develop, deliver and report on their campaign. In practice, the duration of each winner’s campaign will differ according to its specific activity – as set out in the application form.

What can funds be spent on?

Seed funds can be spent on costs directly relating to the delivery of the campaign, such as personnel, materials, events, marketing, and other expenses. Budgets may not include organisational overheads. You may include up to 2% contingency. All costs must be presented in £ GBP for the purposes of the application. All funding must be spent within 6 months of the Grant Agreement being signed as per your application, with any unspent balance returned to the Trinity Challenge.

What are the reporting requirements?

Winners will be asked to stay in regular communication with the Trinity Challenge throughout the grant period, with their campaigns being amplified by the Trinity Challenge team. Each team will be required to provide a final campaign report, including impact measurement, and a reconciled budget at the end of the grant period (6 months from the point of signature).

Youth Summit 2025

The Youth Summit 2025 took place on 14th January 2025.

Highlights of the summit included:

Interactive workshops: Facilitated dialogue and knowledge exchange among participants, co-organised with our partners BlackSands and expertly facilitated by young people working in activism, AMR and other youth led organisations

Keynote speeches: Introduction speech from our Founder and Chair, Dame Sally Davies plus insights from our Director, Professor Marc Mendelson

Global campaign:Co-designed by youth and expert campaigners to raise awareness of the antibiotic emergency.

This year’s big question was:

How can we ensure effective use of antibiotics in the food chain?

The two topics discussed at the event, following engagement from key stakeholders and event registrants to prioritise the list were:

Antibiotic stewardship in agriculture: how can we find AMR champions within the farming community to encourage peer learning on ending antibiotic use for growth promotion in farm animals?
Promoting biosecurity including vaccination best practice: how can we promote the use of prevention methods (biosecurity) including vaccination, nutrition, and good animal care to replace the need for antibiotics?

The winning campaign, voted for by participants, will focus on promoting biosecurity including vaccination best practice.

Contact

For more information on the summit outcomes, resources, or to share your AMR projects, contact Jennie Smith at [email protected].