Gates Foundation Awards 81 Grants Each Worth $100,000 for Innovative Global Health Research
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday awarded 81 "innovative, unconventional" global health research projects grants of $100,000 each, AP/Google.com reports. The researchers come from 17 different countries (AP/Google.com). The projects which were selected from more than 3,000 proposals focus on "novel approaches to prevent and treat infectious diseases, such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases," according to a Gates Foundation statement (Xinhua, 5/5). The projects could receive additional grants if initial results are promising, according to the Press Trust of India/Business Standard.
Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program, said that for some disease research areas, where progress has been slow, unconventional approaches are required to stimulate new ideas. "Some things require a revolution, rather than an evolution, in thinking," Yamada said. Innovation is essential, according to Yamada, who said, "Some of the ideas might seem crazy, but there is a fine line between crazy and absolutely novel" (Press Trust of India/Business Standard, 5/5).
The new grants are part of the second round of the Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations initiative. Last October, 104 grants were distributed during the first round of the initiative (Xinhua, 5/5).
Times Online published an article that describes some of the research projects that received grants (Lister, Times Online, 5/5). A separate Times Online article examines one grantee's project that aims to use magnets to quickly diagnose malaria (Lister, Times Online, 5/5 [2]). In addition, a Baltimore Sun article describes projects being conducted by three Johns Hopkins University researchers who each received grants (Baltimore Sun, 5/5).
The complete list of Grand Challenges Explorations projects is available online.
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