What a marvellous afternoon at Mounts Bay Sailing Club for the Next Spark Pitch event, our key event for World Prematurity Day 2025. We heard from three early career researchers who were shortlisted finalists. They pitched their project ideas to win over the audience.
Dr Gayatri Jape pitched her project Bridging the Gap: A pilot school readiness clinic for preterm born children, followed by Dr Lindsay Kindinger who pitched Vaginal Progesterone for preterm birth prevention: prescription versus reality, and the final pitch of the day was from Dr Rebecca Watkinson with her project Identifying preterm babies at risk of re-hospitalisation with respiratory infections.
Following the fast paced pitches the audience had just 10 minutes to decide which pitch should win and cast their vote. We would have loved to fund all three of these big ideas, but there could be only one winner.
Huge congratulations to Rebecca 👏🏻 We can't wait to see how this work unfolds in 2026!
