Foundation Now Accepting Proposals for Latest Round of Grand Challenges Explorations | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced the opening of Round 6 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a $100 million grant initiative to encourage bold and unconventional global health solutions. Proposals are being accepted until November 2, 2010.

Grand Challenges Explorations offers researchers the chance to win $100,000 grants to foster innovative projects that could transform health in developing countries. The initiative focuses on areas where creative, unorthodox thinking is most urgently needed. For this round, applicants are asked to focus their proposals on these five topic areas:

  • Design New Approaches to Cure HIV Infection;

  • Create the Next Generation of Sanitation Technologies;

  • Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Applications for Priority Global Health Conditions;

  • Create New Technologies for the Health of Mothers and Newborns;

  • The Poliovirus Endgame: Create Ways to Accelerate, Sustain and Monitor Eradication.
The topic focusing on sanitation technologies highlights the integrated approach the foundation is taking toward health in developing countries. Improved sanitation is essential to reducing water-borne illnesses and has profound economic, educational, and social benefits.

“Water, sanitation, and hygiene are critical to reducing the burden of water-borne diseases like polio and rotavirus,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Global Health Program at the Gates Foundation. “We hope the Grand Challenges Explorations program will unearth new, sustainable approaches to sanitation that could save the lives of thousands of children who die from diarrheal diseases each year.”

Proposals are being accepted online at www.grandchallenges.org/explorations. The initiative uses a streamlined, grant-making process. Applications are two pages, and preliminary data about the proposed research is not required. All are encouraged to apply.

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 5 will be announced in October 2010.