The competition is seeking planning and design ideas that will ‘radically improve’ hospital care in the UK and around the world.
The Wolfson Economics Prize, named after the owner of the Next retail group, is promoted as second only to the Nobel Prize in monetary terms.
The 2021 Prize question is: How would you design and plan new hospitals to radically improve patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing and integration with wider health and social care?
Entrants are asked to submit up to 10,000 words, plus a non-technical summary of 1,000 words. Charts, illustrations and links to multimedia assets, etc, and are welcome. The deadline for first round entries is 5pm Friday 18th June 2021. Five finalists will be asked to expand upon their ideas and an eventual winner will be announced in autumn 2021.
The judging panel is chaired by Lord Kakkar, who said: “We are hoping to see visionary ideas – from questions around how wards are run to the design of a whole hospital campus – which challenge the status quo and are deliverable at pace and scale.”
Lord Wolfson, who founded the prize in 2011, said: “All too many hospitals are now outdated. Their design, facilities and technology simply no longer provide the best clinical care. We now have a generational opportunity to improve the provision of healthcare. There are a host of brilliant ideas waiting to improve every aspect of the modern-day hospital – the aesthetics, internal logistics, communication, technology, workflow, hygiene systems and more.
“We seek to establish a new benchmark for hospital design and style, drawing on innovation from around the world, to help create hospitals that work better for patients, their staff and the communities they serve.”
For further details, and how to enter, see: policyexchange.org.uk/WolfsonPrize
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