Dear Colleague,

Grant applications are still being accepted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the following Grand Challenges and Grand Challenges Explorations initiatives – and multi-language translations are now available for each request for proposals. The Grand Challenges family of initiatives fosters innovation to solve key global health and development problems. The application deadline is April 22, 2020.

Accelerating Discovery for Non-Hormonal Contraceptives: Grand Challenges seeks new approaches and concepts for the characterization of contraceptive drug targets, the identification of active contraceptive compounds, and the establishment of novel and impactful research tools with the potential to revolutionize the field of contraceptive R&D and yield substantially improved contraceptives that better meet women’s needs. Please see the announcement blog.

Improving Access to and Use of Safe and Appropriate Cesarean Section: Grand Challenges seeks ideas for interventions to address challenges related to cesarean section: increasing access to cesarean section where it is currently inadequate, increasing quality and safety of cesarean section to reduce iatrogenic harm to both mothers and newborns, and reducing rates of non-medically indicated cesarean section.

Innovations in Materials Science for a Transformative Menstrual Health and Hygiene Product: Grand Challenges Explorations seeks transformative and innovative ideas to support the design and development of a new menstrual health and hygiene product that meets key criteria of being responsive to user needs, focusing on discreetness, affordability, and sustainability.

Innovations for Improving the Impact of Health Campaigns: Grand Challenges Explorations seek innovative solutions that accelerate the improvement of coverage, reach, efficiency and effectiveness of campaign-based delivery of health interventions.

We invite you to read summaries of the grants funded to date across the Grand Challenges family of initiatives and to explore an interactive world map of projects across the global Grand Challenges funding partner network. We look forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world. If you have a great idea, please apply. If you know someone else who has a great idea, please forward this message so they can apply and sign up for email updates with the latest opportunities.

The Global Partnerships & Grand Challenges Team
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Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.

We are pleased to announce that the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases is now accepting proposals for the primary and/or secondary prevention of cancer in low- and middle-income countries. Each proposal should:

• Focus on implementation research addressing prevention and/or early diagnosis strategies derived from existing knowledge about effective interventions.
• For screening interventions, the local capacity and accessibility of confirming diagnoses and treatment must be ensured. The health care pathway for referral of positive cases must be included.
• Include a strategy to test the proposed model of intervention and to address the socioeconomic and contextual factors of relevance to the targeted region and community.
• Lead to a better understanding of key barriers and facilitators at local, national and/or international level that affect prevention and/or early diagnosis of cancer.
• Align with the priorities in national/regional cancer control programme, if any.
• Propose a pathway to embed the intervention into local, regional or national health policy and practice, addressing:
  • A strategy to include policy makers and local authorities (possibly by inclusion within the research team), as well as other relevant stakeholders such as community groups, patient groups, formal and informal carers and any other group, where ever relevant from the beginning of the project, which will contribute to the sustainability of the intervention after the end of project.
  • Relevance of project outcomes/evidence for scaling up the intervention at local, national and/or international level, including consideration of the social, cultural and economic contexts.
• Include assessments of accessibility, reach, equity and health economic assessments as an integral part of the proposed research

Attached is the Call for Proposals for more information.

The deadline for submission of proposals must be submitted by 16:00 GMT+1 on Thursday, 30th April 2020. You can also visit the link: https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/gacd-prevention-of-cancer/gacd-primary-and-secondary-prevention-of-cancer-funding-call/

Thank you for your continued interest in health research and development.

We are pleased to announce that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is now accepting proposals for the Grand Challenges: Improving Access to and Use of Safe and Appropriate Cesarean Section

In this new grand challenge, they prioritize proposals for interventions to address the following challenges related to the cesarean section:

1. Increasing access to cesarean section where it is currently inadequate
2. Increasing quality and safety of cesarean section to reduce iatrogenic harm both mothers and newborns
3. Reducing rates of non-medically indicated cesarean section.

Attached is the Call for Proposals for more information.

The deadline for submission of proposals is on April 22, 2020, 11:30 a.m. US Pacific Daylight. You can also visit the link: https://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/improving-access-and-use-safe-and-appropriate-cesarean-section.

Thank you for your continued interest in health research and development.