Grand Challenges Explorations Round 21 open

The Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative invites applications for Round 21 of its Grand Challenges Explorations grant (GCE). Deadline of submissions is May 2, 2018. Phase I grants of $ 100,000 will be awarded with an opportunity for successful projects to receive a follow-on Phase II grant of $ 1,000,000. GCE is open to non-profit organisations, for-profit companies, international organisations, government agencies and academic institutions.

Topics for Grand Challenges Explorations Round 21 are:

• Affordable, Accessible, and Appealing: The Next Generation of Nutrition;
• Innovations in Immunization Data Management, Use, and Improved Process Efficiency;
• Tools and Technologies for Broad-Scale Disease Surveillance of Crop Plants in Low-Income Countries.

GCE supports hundreds of early-stage research projects - including many ideas that have never before been tested – and scientists and innovators from a wide range of disciplines and regions. The Explorations initiative funds innovative ideas that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies targeting diseases that claim millions of lives every year, as well as improvements and innovations in agriculture development and others of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation priority areas. GCE is an extension of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s commitment to the Grand Challenges in Global Health, which was launched in 2003 to accelerate the discovery of new technologies to improve global health.