Opportunity:
Our Global Health Program aims to create and improve preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic interventions for infectious diseases and conditions affecting maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition. We do this in three primary ways: 1) by identifying and filling gaps in knowledge that limit our progress on the critical path to health solutions; 2) by creating new technology platforms that can accelerate research in support of our goals or enable products suited to resource-poor settings; and 3) by investing in transformative ideas to help solve tough global health challenges. All of our investments are driven by the need to develop and apply solutions that can be deployed, accepted, and sustained in the developing world.
What We’re Looking For:
This topic seeks to complement the other, more specific Round 8 topics through the identification of new technology platforms, which can be translated into safe, effective, affordable and widely utilized interventions applicable to the following Global Health priority areas: malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, pneumonia, enteric disease & diarrhea, polio, maternal and neonatal health, and/or family planning. Please note that if your idea responds to one of the more specific Round 8 topics, then you should apply under that topic. For more specific information about the foundation’s strategies in the priority Global Health areas, see: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health/Pages/global-health-strategies.aspx
To be considered, ideas must constitute revolutionary rather than incremental improvements in health solutions, and any proposed technologies must be low cost. We define low cost as interventions targeted for populations with individuals living on less than $1 per day, deliverable, and scalable in low- and middle-income countries. Proposals must (i) have a testable hypothesis, (ii) include an associated plan for how the idea would be tested or validated, and (iii) yield interpretable and unambiguous data in Phase I, in order to be considered for Phase II funding.
We encourage applicants to take one or more of the following approaches:
- Intersections between any of the past Grand Challenges Exploration topics (e.g., nutrition for vaccine efficacy; new ways to induce mucosal immunity to protect neonates);
- Applying existent knowledge or technologies from developed world funding priorities towards new applications focused on our Global Health priorities;
- Cross-disciplinary approaches that engage technical disciplines which are less represented in the global health arena.
We will not consider funding for:
- Ideas or solutions not aligned with the Gates Foundation’s Global Health priority areas and strategies listed above (see http://www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health/Pages/global-health-strategies.aspx);
- Ideas without a clearly-articulated and testable hypothesis;
- Approaches that represent incremental improvements to conventional solutions (e.g., research of current methods for vaccine discovery, development and delivery intended to expand, improve or integrate existing technologies or tools);
- Basic research without a clear objective to solve a global health problem;
- Variations on conventional small molecule and biologic therapeutic approaches (such as those focused on screening for new chemical entities, assays for validation, or tests of drug efficacy) that would yield drug treatment approaches in areas other than malaria or tuberculosis;
- Solely behavioral change / educational initiatives (e.g., training programs, scholarships, education programs);
- Solely infrastructure or capacity-building initiatives;
- Approaches that present unacceptable downstream safety risks (e.g., as a barrier to product development);
- Research that exclusively addresses other Round 8 topics (e.g., proposals that employ synthetic biology techniques, address nutrition for children between the ages of < 9 months to 24 months, or seek to improve immunization supply systems).