Grand Challenges Explorations Round 17 open

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is currently accepting applications for the 17th round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions.

Applicants can be at any experience level, in any discipline and from any organisation, including universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organisations and for-profit companies. Two-page proposals are being accepted on the following topics:

• Assess Family Planning Needs, Preferences and Behaviors to Inform Innovations in Contraceptive Technologies and Services
• Develop Novel Platforms to Accelerate Contraceptive Drug Discovery
• Design New Analytics Approaches for Malaria Elimination
• Accelerate Development of New Therapies for Childhood Cryptosporidium Infection
• Novel Approaches to Characterizing and Tracking the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance
• Explore New Solutions in Global Health Priority Areas

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 until 11 May 2016 at 11.30 am US Pacific Daylight Time.

In addition, the foundation is joining The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Wellcome Trust and the Gulbenkian Foundation in a competition to award grants to outstanding early-career scientists working outside the United States and other G7 countries. The International Research Scholars Program aims to provide support for up to 50 promising international scientists and to bring them into an ecosystem that can foster their work and allow them to better understand and address biomedical issues of global relevance.

Awardees will receive a total of US$650,000 over five years and will be notified of the outcome in April 2017. The application deadline is 30 June 2016