Gates Foundation Accepting Proposals for Grand Challenges Explorations

Yes, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest philanthropy -- by far -- in the world. But it's also one of the most innovative.

Earlier this week, the foundation announced that it's accepting proposals for the first round of Grand Challenges Explorations, a $100 million initiative designed to encourage bold and unconventional solutions to global health challenges.

According to the foundation, one of the primary objectives of the initiative is "to involve scientists around the world who don't typically work in global health -- [including] innovators in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the developing world; those from complementary disciplines and in the private sector; and young investigators."

The first four topic areas for which proposals will be accepted are:

• Creating new ways to protect against infectious diseases, including alternatives to traditional vaccination.
• Creating new drugs and delivery systems to limit the emergence of resistance from developing in the disease-causing agent.
• Creating new ways to prevent or cure HIV infection that fall outside current research on vaccines, antiretroviral drugs, and other biomedical and behavior-change strategies.
• Exploring the basis for latency in TB, with the goal of discovering new ways to identify and eliminate latent infection and break the cycle of TB transmission.

Initial grants will be in the amount of $100,000, and projects showing success will be eligible to receive funding of $1 million or more.

Proposals will be accepted through the Grand Challenges Explorations Web site through May 30, 2008; applicants must register their intent to submit a proposal by May 15.