Inventors, innovators and academics are being asked to help shape the criteria of the Longitude Prize for antibiotics.

The consultation opens today and invites people to submit comments which will contribute towards the final design of the prize when it opens for entry in autumn this year.

At the end of June the British public voted for antibiotics to be the focus of the Longitude Prize 2014, choosing from six of the greatest challenges of our time as outlined by the Longitude Committee. The challenge areas were: flying without damaging the environment; ensuring everyone has nutritious, sustainable food; preventing the rise of resistance to antibiotics; restoring movement to those with paralysis; ensuring everyone can have access to safe and clean water; and helping people with dementia to live independently for longer.

With antibiotics now the focus of the £10 million prize fund, the challenge is now set to find a way to help prevent the rise of resistance to antibiotics within five years.

Antibiotics underpin much of modern medicine. The development of antibiotics has added an average of 20 years to our life¹, yet the rise of antimicrobial resistance is threatening to make them ineffective. This poses a significant future risk as common infections become untreatable. Antimicrobial resistance is accelerating due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics.

The Longitude Prize for antibiotics will encourage a wide variety of point of care diagnostics to be developed without limiting the scope to a particular type of infection or clinical context. Competitors who enter the challenge can choose what type of diagnostic they develop and what type of bacterial infection(s) they target.

The Longitude Committee and Nesta have developed initial prize criteria which will be reviewed following the consultation which closes 10 August 2014.

The criteria being considered as part of the consultation include the cost per diagnostic test, healthcare resources and time needed to test the patient and the ability to collect and pool data. Once the consultation is complete and the criteria for the prize are set, it will open for entry in the autumn 2014. There will be up to five years to find, develop and submit solutions.

Longitude Prize has been developed and is run by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation.  It was launched by the Prime Minister at G8 last year and is being supported by the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, as launch funding partner.

Access the consultation paper and open review questions.

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Notes to editors

For media inquiries and requests please contact Christine Crowther at Nesta: [email protected]/0796 957 4626.

¹ Source: World Health Organisation

About Longitude Prize 2014

Longitude Prize 2014 has been developed and run by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation.  It was launched by the Prime Minister at G8 last year and is being supported by the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency, as launch funding partner.

Longitude Prize 2014 is a £10 million prize fund to help solve one of the greatest issues of our time and launched in May 2014 with a special show on Horizon, the BBC’s flagship science programme. The Longitude Committee shortlisted six major issues facing the world and the public voted for the one they wanted to be the focus of the Prize. Those six challenges were: flying without damaging the environment; ensuring everyone has nutritious, sustainable food; preventing the rise of resistance to antibiotics; restoring movement to those with paralysis; ensuring everyone can have access to safe and clean water; and helping people with dementia to live independently for longer.

At the end of June 2014 the British public voted for antibiotics to be the focus of the Longitude Prize 2014. Full prize criteria will be available from autumn 2014, when people can submit their ideas.

The Prize commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act where in 1714 the British government threw down the gauntlet to solve one of the great scientific challenges of that century: how to pinpoint a ship’s location at sea by knowing its longitude. The challenge was solved by watchmaker and carpenter John Harrison who designed the chronometer, the first seafaring clock that allowed accurate navigation. The solution not only led to safer sea travel but opened up global trade.

Keep informed by following Longitude Prize 2014 on Twitter @Longitude_prize and using the hashtag #LongitudePrize, liking Facebook/longitudeprize and signing up to the newsletter at www.longitudeprize.org.