The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is inviting proposals for the latest round of the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative. Applications on the following six topics will be accepted until Wednesday, November 14, 2018 11:30 am PST:
- Increasing Demand for Vaccination Services
- New Approaches for Manufacturing Gut Microbial Biotherapeutics
- Innovation for WASH in Urban Settings
- New Approaches for Strategic Prioritization of Agricultural Development Policies
- Tools and Technologies for Broad-Scale Pest and Disease Surveillance of Crop Plants in Low-Income Countries
- Innovations Driving Programmatic Performance in Immunization: Service Experience and Data Use + Measurement
We also invite all who have applied to Grand Challenges Explorations over its 10-year history to fill out a short survey. This survey was sent to you on August 2 from our research partner, the National Business Research Institute (NBRI). Thank you to the over 5,000 who have already responded. We will be resending the survey to those who have not yet responded. We hope to learn as comprehensively as possible what direct and indirect impact the initiative has had, whether the proposal was funded by the Gates Foundation or not – and we expect to identify ways we can improve this way of seeking and funding great ideas from all over the world.
Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) grants have already been awarded to almost 1400 researchers in more than 65 countries. Initial grants are for USD $100,000 and successful projects are eligible to receive follow-on funding of up to USD $1 million. Proposals are solicited twice a year for an expanding set of global health and development challenges. Applications are only two pages, and no preliminary data is required. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any type of organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies.
We invite you to read summaries of the GCE grants funded to date and to explore an interactive world map of projects across the global Grand Challenges funding partner network. We look forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world. If you have a great idea, please apply. If you know someone else who has a great idea, please forward this message.
The Grand Challenges Team
This post was authored by Karen Solheim on 09/20/2018.