Rewards for Innovative Ideas in Global Health

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to encourage scientists worldwide to expand the pipeline of ideas to fight our greatest health challenges. Grand Challenges Explorations, which is funded by the foundation, fosters innovation in global health research. Launched in 2008, Grand Challenge Explorations grants has so far been awarded to 262 researchers from 30 countries.
This grant program is open to all disciplines. The program is open to students, tenured professors, and researchers or innovators from any organization – colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies.
The initiative uses an accelerated grant-making process with short two-page applications and no preliminary data is required. Applications are submitted online, and winning grants are chosen approximately 4 months from the submission deadline.
Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.
The fifth round of applications for grants is now open. For Round 5 of Grand Challenges Explorations, completion of the review process and announcment of decisions is likely in October 2010.
For more information on the topics and procedures visit http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Pages/Introduction.aspx