Birth Day Prize

The Birth Day Prize is a joint initiative between the EC, the Gates Foundation and MSD for Mothers programme. Cash prizes will be awarded to up to three innovators for identifying and implementing the most effective solutions to prevent death and complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Proposed solutions can be of a clinical, technological or managerial nature and need to be novel, safe and scalable. For this prize, the European Commission will commit €1 million under the EU's research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. In addition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged another €1 million, while the Merck Sharp & Dohme Corporation will donate €500,000.  

Why this Prize?

Around the world, particularly in the developing world, hundreds of thousands of women and babies die on the day of birth, and millions more are left with serious illnesses.

Thanks to global efforts, since 1990 maternal deaths have dropped worldwide by 45% and the child mortality rate by 51%.

However deaths or serious health effects for both mothers and their new babies are still unacceptably high, especially in the developing world.  More needs to be done and analysis shows that for example up to two thirds of new-born deaths could be prevented by skilled health workers providing quality care at birth and during the first week of life.

Credit: Jithin Radhakrishnan via Creative Commons

Some figures:

• Approximately 300 000 women died in 2013 from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth
• Millions of new-borns died the same year
• Every day more than 7200 babies are stillborn. These deaths are disproportionately concentrated in the developing world
  • 99% of maternal deaths occur  in developing countries, of which three-quarters are due to preventable or treatable conditions such as haemorrhage, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and sepsis
  • 98% of the stillbirths occur in low- and middle-income countries
  • For every woman who dies of pregnancy-related causes, 20 or 30 others experience acute or chronic illness, often with permanent effects that undermine their normal lives

Schedule

• Deadline for submission of applications: 6 September 2017 at 17:00 CET
• Award of the prize: fourth quarter of 2017

Further reading

• Rules of the contest
• Birth Day Prize website