GSK and Save the Children have launched their fourth annual $1 million Healthcare Innovation Award (HIA). The award rewards innovations in healthcare that help to reduce child deaths in developing countries and have the potential to reach even more children. Eligible innovations must have resulted in tangible improvements to under-5 child survival, be sustainable and have the scope to be scaled-up and replicated. Bangladesh-based BRAC won part of the prize fund in 2013.
The Award is one of a number of initiatives from GSK and Save the Children’s five-year partnership, which combines the two organisations’ expertise and skills with the aim to help 
save one million children’s lives.
Erum Shakir, General Manager for GSK in Bangladesh, said: “Our Award recognises that some of the best solutions to development challenges come from people living with them. Tough conditions can stimulate innovation, generating solutions that are relevant and adaptable.”
Ali Forder, Director of Programme, Policy and Quality at Save the Children, added: “More than five million children still die each year and millions of children are being left behind because of their gender, poverty, or ethnic identity;”
Entries close on 7 September 2016 at 11:59pm (GMT). Winners are expected to be announced in December.
About the Healthcare Innovation Award:
The Healthcare Innovation Award was announced following the launch of GSK and Save the Children’s innovative partnership in May 2013, which is tackling the ambitious goal of helping save the lives of one million children in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. One of the unique aspects of this shared value partnership is the focus on working together to maximise innovations to tackle under-5 child mortality. For example, Save the Children has a seat on a paediatric R&D board, which includes representation from other independent experts as well as GSK. The board provides insight and research on child health that shapes GSK’s R&D efforts through the partnership.
While good progress has been made in recent years, in 2015, more than 5 million children died before their fifth birthday1. Often these children are in the most remote and marginalised communities. The GSK and Save the Children Healthcare Innovation Award aims to discover and encourage replication of the best and most innovative examples of healthcare to have the biggest impact for vulnerable children.
