Penta Brighter Future Award 2023 – Rules 

The Penta Brighter Future Award 2023 (the “BFA 2023”) Rules (the “Rules) lay down the conditions for participation, the award criteria, the amount of the prize and the arrangements for the payment of the prize to the winners after their award. 

Art. 1 Objective and scope 

Fondazione Penta ETS, with registered office in Corso Stati Uniti, Padova, Italy (“Penta”) intends to award seven prestigious international prizes to recognise and celebrate champions going the extra mile to improve the health outcomes of children and pregnant people living with infectious diseases globally.  

The three broader goals of the BFA 2023 are the following:  

• Provides opportunities for scientists to connect with and learn from local communities that are at the forefront of maternal and child health;    
• Supports initiatives designed to improve maternal and child health, especially in old and new infectious diseases; 
• Helps scientists work towards solutions that have a real-world impact on public health by closing the gaps between data and human stories.  

Seven winners will be selected by a jury appointed by Penta and evaluated by the Penta ID Network members for their achievement in the field of maternal and child health.  

For BFA 2023 the total amount available is EUR 35,000.00 (35 thousand Euros). 

Art. 2 Award categories  

There are two categories in the BFA 2023: 

1. Penta’s Brighter Future Award: 6 (six) awards will be given, one for each of the following 6 (six) regions: 

• North America: This region includes the US, Bermuda, St. Pierre, Miquelon, Canada, and Greenland. 
• Central and South America: This region includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 
• Europe: This region includes the countries of the continent of Europe, including Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and many others. 
• Africa: This region includes the countries on the continent of Africa, including Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Tanzania, and many others. 
• Asia: This region includes the countries of Asia, including China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and many others. 
• Oceania: This region includes the countries and islands of the Pacific Ocean, including Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and many others. 

2. Penta’s Brighter Future Young Researcher Award: this will be given to a young researcher in the maternal and child health field. 

Please see art.5 for our definition of a “Young Researcher”. 

Art. 3 Prize amount 

Each of the seven winners will receive a total cash prize of EUR 5,000.00 (5 thousand Euros). Penta is not responsible for any tax implications that may arise from winning the award.  

The prizes will be awarded at a prize-giving ceremony at the Penta ID Network Meeting (“PIM”) event, that will be hosted in Italy in April 2024. The cost of travel and accommodation for the prize-giving ceremony for all the seven winners will be covered by Penta. 

Penta reserves the right not to award one or both of the two BFA 2023 awards (i.e. Penta Brighter Future Award and/or the Penta’s Brighter Future Young Researcher Award), if applications presented do not comply with the requirements detailed below. 

Art.4 Deadline and admissibility 

Opening of the nominations: 15 June 2023 at 10:00:00 CEST. 

Closing date for the nomination: 15 September 2023 at 17:00:00 CEST. 

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. 

Penta reserves the right to reject any application that does not comply with the requirements provided herewith. 

Art.5 Award recipients  

The BFA 2023 is open to individuals or organizations significantly contributing to maternal and child health, particularly infectious diseases affecting children. The BFA 2023 winners will include:   

• established leaders,  
• emerging researchers, 
• and professionals who have contributed considerably to the field of maternal and child health, specifically in infectious disease.  

Young Researchers are defined as individuals undertaking or holding a Ph.D. or equivalent professional training ready to develop their research identity. More specifically, we consider a Young Researcher to be an individual who is: 

• Pre-doctoral or doctoral student, or 
• Post-doc within the first four years of employment after having received their Ph.D., or 
• Resident (MDs in training within the first five years after becoming MD). 

Please note that pro-rata applies in each case if there’s a career break, e.g., due to parental leave. 

Group nominations are admitted. In this case, only one of the group members will officially travel to Italy, in 2024 for the BFA 2023 award ceremony.  

Art. 6 Exclusion criteria 

Participants will be excluded if: (they or one of them): 

• The nominator is younger than 16 at the time of the nomination 
• The nominee is younger than 16 at the time of the award ceremony 
• Self-nomination is not permitted 
• Nominations contain sensitive information such as: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, health-related data, data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation, trade union membership, or genetic data. Nominations containing sensitive information will be rejected. 
• Essential elements are missing from the nomination (name, surname, email address, reason why the nominator is nominated for the award) 
• The nominee does not accept the nomination 

• The nominee does not agree to provide their video story and their consent to publish it on the Penta website and in any other communication channels that Penta intends to use for the BFA 2023 (e.g. social media). 

Art. 7 How to apply 

Participation in the BFA 2023 is by nomination only. Anyone over the age of 16 can submit a nomination to the BFA 2023.  

Only persons nominated through the form can be selected for the award. The nominee must be 16 or older at the time of the award ceremony. 

Nominations must be submitted via the nomination form available on the Penta ID website www.penta-id.org/bfa/  

The nomination is not blinded, and the nominee will be informed of the identity of the nominator. 

Please refer to the exclusion criteria Art. 6. 

Nominations must be in English.  

Incomplete applications may be considered inadmissible if essential elements are missing.  

Art. 8 Participation fee 

There is no participation fee for the BFA 2023. 

Art. 9 Documents 

The mandatory supporting documents are set out in the application form.  

Penta will request specific documents from the winners under each category of the BFA 2023, in order to proceed with the payment of the prize. The deadline for the winners to submit the requested documents is the end of April/May 2024. Upon reception of the correct and original documents, the payment of the prize will normally take place within 60 days. 

Art. 10 Selection procedure 

The BFA 2023 jury will assess each nomination for the category Penta Brighter Future Award against the award criteria and score them as follows (half marks are possible decimals are not): 

The BFA  2023 jury will evaluate each nomination for the category Penta Brighter Future Young Researcher Award against the award criteria and score them as follows (half marks are possible decimals are not): 

Penta may request additional information from the nominee to manage the participation in the BFA 2023.  

The name, surname and place of work of the 21 (twenty-one) short-listed and best-ranked applicants selected by the jury will be published on the BFA 2023 webpage, together with their video story, for the Penta ID Network evaluation based on the criteria indicated above. The evaluation is planned to take place between September and November 2023. 

The 7 (seven) winners will be informed of the outcome of their application in the fourth quarter of 2023 via e-mail. 

If within 15 days the winner does not communicate their acceptance or refusal of the prize, they forfeit the right to claim the prize and the all-expenses paid trip to attend the award ceremony. The forfeited prize will be assigned to the next person on the shortlist. 

The jury’s and the Penta ID Network members’ decisions on the merit of these initiatives are final and irrevocable. 

The 7 (seven) winners will be invited for the prize-giving ceremony at the Penta ID Network Meeting (“PIM”) event hosted in Italy, in April 2024. 

Art. 11 Jury  

The jury is appointed by Penta and is composed by 7 (seven) members of the Penta ID Network, .  

The Penta ID Network is made of over 500 healthcare professionals, researchers and community advocates in more than 110 centres across 31 countries around the world.  

Art. 12 Publicity 

Penta reserves the right to use information about the initiatives (including photographs and illustrations) entered in the competition in publicity materials, Penta website and social media. This information could also be distributed to the media and used for the promotion of Penta and the Brighter Future Award in any form. 

Subject to prior consent, the nominations shortlisted will be published on the Penta website and Penta Brighter Future Award web page, and on any other suitable Penta online and offline document. They will also be shared on social media and newsletters. 

Art. 13 Privacy 

Penta guarantees that the processing of personal data of nominators and nominees in the context of participation in the BFA 2023 is carried out in compliance with current legislation and Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the “GDPR”), as per the privacy notice provided to the data subjects pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of the GDPR. 

Art. 14 Liability for damages 

Penta shall not be held liable for any damage caused or sustained by any of the participants, including any damage caused to third parties as a consequence of or during the implementation of the activities related to BFA 2023. 

Art. 15 Miscellaneous  

Participation in the BFA 2023 implies that nominators, nominees and winners unconditionally acceptance all rules and clauses set out in this Rules. 

Penta will not be held responsible for any technical difficulties that may arise during the nomination period that prevent recipients from participating in the BFA 2023. 

In the case that nominations or nominees are found to be fraudulent, the right to claim the prize is lost. 

The BFA 2023 is excluded from the Italian Presidential Decree (DPR) 430/2001 pursuant to the exclusions set out in article 6 thereof. 

CONTACT 

Any questions related to the Rules of the BFA 2023 should be addressed by e-mail to the following functional mailbox:  communication@pentafoundation.org  

Answers will only be published periodically and within a reasonable period of time on the Penta BFA 2023 website. Questions submitted 7 (seven) working days prior to the closing date of the BFA will be the last questions for which answers can be provided.