The nominations are now closed for the Nutrition Champions Awards 2013, in total an impressive 53 nominations were put forward. The next stage is for the panel of 5 judges to shortlist 10 case studies before announcing the final three winners at the end of August.

The panel of judges consists of:

•       Shams El Arifeen, ICDDR,B Bangladesh and TN Research Director
•       Bibi Giyose, Senior Food & Nutrition Security Advisor, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
•       Anna Lartey, Associate Professor, Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana and incoming IUNS president (also co-leading the Transforming Nutrition Summer Course)
•       Ellen Piwoz, Deputy Director, Nutrition Lead for the nutrition team in the Family Health division of Global Health Program. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (and TN Consortium Advisory Group member)
•       Emorn Wasantwisut, Senior Advisor, Institute of Nutriton, Mahidol University, Thailand

The Nutrition Champions award is an important initiative not only to raise awareness of the importance of nutrition but to give recognition to those who have contributed to this field. It celebrates the power of advocacy, communication and how innovative and challenging strategies can bridge the gap between research and action.

Stuart Gillespie, CEO of Transform Nutrition said:

“The more we learn about key drivers of the growing momentum on nutrition, the more we understand the pivotal role of leadership.  There are many different approaches to getting nutrition onto the development agenda and keeping it there. By identifying local champions in high-burden contexts, and providing space for them to tell their ‘stories of change’, we hope we can inspire others as well as contribute to our knowledge of what can be done in different contexts.”

Emorn Wasantwisut, Senior Advisor, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand, commented:

“The nutrition champion awards are important because they recognize local heroes from various disciplines whose efforts contribute significantly to improving nutrition of mothers and young children. This has implications for the SUN Movement to reinforce its principles to advocate the scaling up of both nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions at the country level.”

Research to Action is looking forward to telling the stories of the finalists, and is pleased to be supporting and raising awareness of how individuals from different research backgrounds have brought about change and the strategies they used to accomplish it.

To keep up to date with the progress of the finalists follow @Research2Action and share with hashtag #nutritionchampions