Research Insights

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is inviting applications that address specific challenges, ranging from antimicrobial resistance to digital financial services data and from vaccine manufacturing to Grand Challenges in Africa.

1) Grand Challenges Explorations is seeking innovative global health and development solutions and is now accepting proposals for its latest application round. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies. Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million.

Proposals are being accepted online until November 11, 2015 for the following challenges:

• Novel Approaches to Characterizing and Tracking the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance
• Explore New Solutions in Global Health Priority Areas
• Addressing Newborn and Infant Gut Health Through Bacteriophage-Mediated Microbiome Engineering
• Explore New Ways to Measure Delivery and Use of Digital Financial Services Data

2) New Interventions for Global Health: Vaccine Manufacturing. This challenge focuses on innovations in vaccine manufacturing platforms designed to lower production cost for vaccines that target diseases of great global burden and that are among the most costly to produce with current technologies.

3) In addition, the African Academy of Sciences and the New Partnership for African Development have launched Grand Challenges Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. This program joins others within the Grand Challenges family of grant programs supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its partners. Grand Challenges Africa will build on the global success of Grand Challenges programs in India, Brazil, and South Africa, as well as the strong base of Africa Grand Challenges grantees already funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and USAID.
New Global Health Innovations LinkedIn Forum

As a forum for sharing ideas, pursuing new opportunities and keeping abreast of new developments in the field of global health, The Gates Foundation together with Grand Challenges Canada has set-up a LinkedIn group. All you need to join is a free LinkedIn account – go to Global Health Innovations and click “Join.”