Innovation Awards 2026-28

Blood Health & Cleft Lip/Palate Disease

We’re pleased to introduce two new Innovation Award categories for 2026-28: Blood Health (supported by an unrestricted educational grant from CSL Vifor) and Cleft Lip/Palate Disease (supported by Operation Smile).

These awards are open to our global network and beyond, with a focus on practical solutions that can be implemented in low-resource settings. Our aim is to support projects that can make a meaningful impact on blood health and on CLPD, particularly in the context of anaesthesia and perioperative care.

Each award category will provide the winner with $25,000 in funding over two years, expert support, travel to the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA) in Marrakech in April 2026, and a short film to help promote their project. The selected innovations will be showcased at WCA2026 and will be shared through our social media channels.

Applications are now open until 30 September 2025.

Innovation Awards 2017-2024

These were supported by Fresenius Kabi and aimed to support the development of innovations that showed the potential to transform the field of anaesthesia and improve patient safety worldwide. In addition to funding, awardees received tailored support through mentoring and consultancy to help bring their ideas closer to real-world application, and each winning innovation was given the opportunity to be showcased at global events.

Previous Award winners 

2024 – Global PRoMiSe: Perioperative Recommendations for Medication Safety

2019- Screenless Anaesthesia Monitor (SAM) by Dr Paul Barton

2018 – RevoCap: A revolution in Global Capnography by Maziar Mohsen Nourian and Michael Lipnick 

2017– SmartBlade: Video laryngoscope by Caroline Corbett and Nick Nevin