The RECOVERY Trial has won the Project Management Institute’s Special Covid-19 UK Response Project Award.
The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired a range of innovative and rapid projects to protect health, save lives and maintain economic stability. To formally recognise this, the Project Management Institute (PMI) introduced a new, special category as part of their National Project Awards for the best COVID-19 response project in the UK. These awards, in partnership with PwC, celebrate outstanding success and recognise the best talent in project management across the UK.
RECOVERY: Trials of Dexamethasone to reduce patient mortality was announced the winner of the UK's Best COVID-19 Response Project Category on 15 July 2021 at the National Project Awards virtual gala event.
The first stage of the award was open to public nominations until 25 September 2020, after which a judging panel decided on the top ten finalists. This shortlist was then open to a public vote until 28 February 2021 to select the overall winner.
The award specifically recognised RECOVERY’s work to investigate whether the cheap steroid dexamethasone was an effective treatment for patients hospitalised with severe COVID-19. On 16 June 2020, the trial announced that dexamethasone reduces death by up to a third from COVID-19, and the treatment is now recommended for COVID-19 patients worldwide.
It is an incredible achievement, particularly given the high standard of all the shortlisted projects. These included the Astra Zeneca/University of Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine; the COVID-19 Volunteer Testing Service; and NHS Volunteer Responders.
Sir Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, and Joint Chief Investigator of RECOVERY, said 'The RECOVERY Trial has shown that clinical trials can be set up quickly without compromising the quality of evidence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this has yielded results that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide. We are delighted to accept this award, which reflects the dedication and hard work of an extremely wide range of people - including our outstanding coordinating team at Oxford University, thousands of front-line NHS workers, and of course the wonderful patients who participated. Thank you.'
PMI UK President, Ciaran Smith commented: ‘We are delighted with the response to the public vote for the COVID-19 special award as part of the PMI UK National Project Awards 2020. Congratulations to RECOVERY as the overall winner and for an outstanding contribution in response to the pandemic. The last 18 months have been a challenging time for the UK and the outcome of this project has been instrumental to saving lives and reducing hospital care time for patients. This is a testament to the organisation's innovation, hard work and commitment.’
Information on all ten finalists in the Special Covid-19 UK Response Project Category.