Nine longevity experts from around the world have been named by Challenge Works as judges of the groundbreaking Longitude Prize on Dementia.
Innovation prize specialists Challenge Works has announced details of the judging panel for the Longitude Prize on Dementia, naming nine judges including representatives from The Alan Turing Institute and University of Cambridge.
The Longitude Prize on Dementia is a £4.34 million prize to drive the creation of personalised, technology-based tools that are co-created with people living with the early stages of dementia, helping them live independent, more fulfilled lives and being able to do the things they enjoy.
The challenge prize aims to incentivise the creation of AI and machine-learning based technologies that provide personalised solutions to help people with dementia to live longer, higher quality lives at home, learning from a person’s data about what they do, who they know and what’s most important to them as an individual.
Once the judging panel has assessed the candidates 23 teams will be selected to receive £80,000 Discovery Awards and expert capacity-building support to develop their solutions.
Five will receive an additional £300,000 in 2024 to develop a validated prototype or product with one going on to win the £1 million first prize in 2026.
Judging the entries and guiding the selection of the 23 teams making it through to the Discovery Award stage of the prize are:
- John T O’Brien, Department of Psychiatry, Dementia Researcher at The University of Cambridge, UK
- Dawn Brooker, Emeritus Professor and former Director of the University of Worcester Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, UK
- Mary Furlong, President and CEO of Mary Furlong Associates, a global leader in consultancy for entrepreneurs and innovators in the longevity ecosystem, USA
- Dawne Garrett, Consultant Nurse, previously Lead for Older People & Dementia Care, Royal College of Nursing, UK
- Eric Kihlstrom, Chair of Open Age and Aging2.0 Ambassador, UK
- Prof. Mugendi K. M’Rithaa, Industrial Designer, Educator and Researcher at Machakos University, Kenya
- Nic Palmarini, Director at National Innovation Centre Ageing, UK
- Simon Reeve, Director of Innovation at The Alan Turing Institute, UK
- Prof. Cathy Treadaway, Professor of Creative Practice at Cardiff School of Art and Design, UK
Eric Kihlstrom, Longitude Prize on Dementia Judge and Ambassador for Aging 2.0, commented: “After the initial effects of the pandemic lockdowns, ageing has become a ‘white hot’ area for innovation, and Alzheimer’s falls into that category. This prize is focused on improving the quality of life for people living with dementia and their carers. If we can do that, we can keep people living with dementia out of institutional care, and we can help people live the lives they want to.
“If you’re an innovator with an inspirational idea, you sometimes don’t know where to go and don’t know what’s already been done. If we, as judges, can make that journey faster and help innovators to focus on the critical questions – it can make a big difference.”
People with lived experience of dementia (people living with dementia, carers and former carers) will be involved at every judging stage of the Longitude Prize on Dementia.
The Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) will be made up of international representatives and will review designs, ideas and give insights into how technologies could support and enable independent living for a person with a diagnosis of dementia.
Dawne Garrett, former Lead for Older People & Dementia Care, Royal College of Nursing, added: “The outcome of this prize has potential to make a tangible and lasting change to how people living with early-stage dementia approach this disease. There is no doubt that the kind of technology we hope to see will uproot lazy assumptions about what people living with dementia can and can’t do, and ensure that people can live in a dignified and fulfilling way.”
Applications to the prize remain open until 26 January 2023.
For more information on the Longitude Prize on Dementia visit dementia.longitudeprize.org