The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Opens Round Five of Grand Challenges Explorations
$100,000 Grants Available for Innovative Projects To Address Global Health Issues
SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced the opening of Round 5 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a $100 million grant initiative to encourage innovation in global health research. Proposals are being accepted through May 19, 2010 at 12 noon Pacific Time.
Explorations offers researchers the chance to win $100,000 grants to jumpstart unconventional projects that could transform health in developing countries. The initiative focuses on research areas where creative, unorthodox thinking is most urgently needed. The topic areas for which proposals will be accepted in this round are:
- Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Applications for Priority Global Health Conditions
- Create New Technologies for the Health of Mothers and Newborns
- Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease
- Create New Technologies for Contraception.
Proposals are being accepted online at www.grandchallenges.org/explorations .
To help uncover new ideas, Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to involve scientists around the world who do not typically work in global health. This includes those with innovative ideas in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the developing world; people working in the private sector; and young investigators.
"We hope to hear from researchers of every age, on every continent, and from disciplines that don't typically focus on global health or even biomedical research," said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Global Health Program at the Gates Foundation. "History has taught us that innovative ideas can come from anywhere."
The initiative uses a streamlined, online grant-making process. Applications are two pages, and preliminary data about the proposed research are not required.
The foundation and an independent group of reviewers will select the most innovative proposals, and grants will be awarded within approximately four months from the proposal submission deadline. Initial grants will be $100,000 each. Projects showing success will have the opportunity to receive additional funding up to $1 million.
The grants from Round 4 will be announced by May 2010.
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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people, especially those with the fewest resources, have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Learn more at www.gatesfoundation.org.