Maternal Health and Nutrition Solution

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Scientists Without Borders recently announced three winning solutions in the $10,000 Scientists Without Borders Maternal Health and Nutrition open innovation challenge. Folic acid deficiency in pregnant women is one of the leading preventable causes of birth defects and perinatal deaths, and this challenge sought innovative ways to incorporate folic acid into the diets of pregnant women in regions where staple food fortification is lacking. The following three winning solutions were chosen by an independent advisory panel of nutrition experts and represent the best of the more than 60 potential solutions submitted from 21 different countries. More information is available by clicking on each title.

Winning Solution

Triple Fortified Salt, FA, Vit B6 and Vit B12

This novel idea is to develop a Triple Fortified Salt to solve the problem of Folic Acid (FA/Vit B9), Pyridoxine (Vit B6) and Cyanocobalamine (Vit B12) deficiencies, which occurs mainly in developing countries. In summary, the idea is to create a blend of plain table salt (Sodium Chloride, uniodised), Vit B9 (Folic Acid), Vit B6 (Pyridoxine) and Vit B12 (Cyanocobalamine) in an adequate composition to reach the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Recommend Dietary Allowances and Adequate Intakes (RDA, AI).

Second Place Solution

Reduce Infant Mortality by Fortifying Staple Foods with Folic Acid at the Home or Community Level

In this solution micronutrients, duly encapsulated, are packed in sachets in appropriate dosages and sold/marketed separately, but as a supplementary product. Product will mix easily with food raw materials in presence of water. These items packed in sachets, sold as part of the main product (like wheat flour), can be used by adding and mixing into raw materials, like wheat flour at precooking stage at room temp.

Third Place Solution

Overcoming the Cultural Barrier: Leveraging Microfinance Networks for Local Community-Based Distribution of Folic Acid & Other Micronutrients

Our solution calls for the creation of a micronutrient intermediary for the group of targeted communities with operating microfinance institutions (MFIs). This intermediary, which would itself be a small profit-driven company, can be headquartered in any country, and would facilitate trades between folic acid producers and local food entrepreneurs.

About Scientists Without Borders

Scientists Without Borders is a web-based collaborative community dedicated to generating, sharing, and advancing innovative science and technology-based solutions to the world´s most pressing global development challenges. Through free web platform, we enable our worldwide community of users and our strategic partner network to frame and tackle specific scientific or technological challenges in areas of critical global need. We disseminate these challenges to a wide network of diverse problem-solvers who can collaborate to identify solutions and exchange resources and expertise. We do this in a neutral, credible, and noncommercial way. To see the other challenges and the resources available on our site, join today.

Meet Our Advisory Panel
To develop this Challenge, Scientists Without Borders convened an independent Advisory Panel of three of the world´s leading nutrition science and policy experts and vested them with the authority to identify the appropriate parameters, specific focus area, and criteria for this Challenge. They will also participate in selecting the winning submission. We are privileged to rely on their expertise and honored to have them as partners in this important effort.
Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta Husein Laljee Dewraj Professor and Chairman, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Aga Khan University Medical Center, Karachi, Pakistan Dr. Bhutta also holds adjunct professorships in International Health & Family and Community Medicine at the departments of International Health at the Boston University and Tufts University (Boston) respectively. He was designated a Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan in 2007. He is also the Dean of the faculty of Paediatrics of the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Pakistan and the Chairman of the National Research Ethics Committee of the Government of Pakistan. Dr Bhutta was awarded the inaugural Global Child Health award (2009) by the Program for Global Pediatric Research for outstanding contributions to Global Child Health and Research and has recently been elected an honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics for contributions to international child health. He was the Windermere Lecturer at the Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health UK (2010). http://www.aku.edu/medicalcollege/faculty/dtlFaculty	Dr. Ricardo Uauy Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK Professor Ricardo Uauy was appointed Professor of Public Health Nutrition and took up his part-time post in July 2002 at the end of his 8-year tenure as Director of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), Chile. His early career was in paediatrics and neonatology, later he studied nutritional biochemistry and metabolism, and international nutrition, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he gained his PhD. From 2006 -10 he is the President of the International Union of Nutrition Sciences. http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/uauy.ricardo
Dr. Eileen Kennedy Dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts An international nutrition policy expert, Eileen Kennedy was named dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts in 2004. Throughout her career, Kennedy has championed nutrition research and its application to policy, from her seven years as a leading voice for nutrition at the US Department of Agriculture ( USDA) to her studies of maternal and child health and nutrition in Africa, Asia, North and Central America http://nutrition.tufts.edu/1174562918741/Nutrition-Page-nl2w_1177941613339.html