ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- The prize was announced by Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn at the third Innovation in Healthcare conference in Brussels.
It is the first time the European Commission has offered a so-called inducement prize to stimulate research and innovation in the European Union.
Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn said: "Many people in tropical and developing countries cannot benefit from life-saving vaccines as these vaccines are damaged before they can reach them. The goal of this prize is to galvanise scientists into producing innovations which can solve this global health problem".
Most Europeans are protected from infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and measles thanks to widespread use of vaccination, but many people in tropical and developing countries cannot benefit from these great achievements of medicine.
Vaccines are often rendered ineffective by temperature variations in these regions during transport and storage, long before they can be administered.
The WHO estimates that half of all supplied vaccine doses are wasted, mostly due to an inadequate "cold chain" to protect them before use.
The use of prizes as a mechanism to induce innovation has a long history. Things we now take for granted such as transatlantic flights, tinned food and navigation at sea were all encouraged by competitions to win prizes.
The use of prizes to encourage scientific breakthroughs could be expanded under Horizon 2020, the EU's funding programme for research and innovation after 2014.
Applications for the vaccine technology prize can be submitted over the next year from competitors established as legal entities in the EU and associated countries. The competition is therefore open to the very widest possible selection of potential participants.
(picture: European Commission, Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn)
Applicants can find the rules for the competition and can register their interest to participate via the website: http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/index_en.html
