Gates Foundation seeks proposals for Grand Challenges Explorations

New Delhi, Apr 2 (UNI) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sought grant proposals for the first round of Grand Challenges Explorations, a 100 million dollar initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions.

The proposals will be accepted online at www.gcgh.org/explorations till May 30 and applicants are required to register their intent to submit a proposal by May 15, a foundation statement said here.

''One of the primary objectives of the Grand Challenges Explorations is to involve scientists around the world who do not typically work in global health-- this includes innovators in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the developing world, those from complementary disciplines and in the private sector and young investigators,'' it said.

The topic areas for which proposals will be accepted are creating new ways to protect against infectious diseases, including alternatives to traditional vaccination and 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 and exploring the basis for latency in TB, with the goal of discovering new ways to identify and eliminate latent infection, are the other two proposal areas.

The foundation and an independent group of reviewers will select the most innovative proposals, and grants will be awarded within approximately three months from the proposal submission deadline.

Initial grants will be 100,000 dollars each, the statement said.

Projects showing success will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of 1 million dollars or more.

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