Grand Challenges Explorations - Application Deadline this Week

This is a reminder that the application deadline for the latest round of Grand Challenges Explorations is less than a week away!

Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions, is accepting grant proposals until May 11, 2016, 11:30 A.M. US Pacific Day Light Time. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies.
Two-page proposals are being accepted online on the following topics:

• Assess Family Planning Needs, Preferences and Behaviors to Inform Innovations in Contraceptive Technologies and Services
• Develop Novel Platforms to Accelerate Contraceptive Drug Discovery
• Design New Analytics Approaches for Malaria Elimination
• Accelerate Development of New Therapies for Childhood Cryptosporidium Infection
• Novel Approaches to Characterizing and Tracking the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance
• Explore New Solutions in Global Health Priority Areas

Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions in Chinese, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish are available here.

Furthermore, below are three other grant opportunities currently accepting applications:

1) The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), The Wellcome Trust and The Gulbenkian Foundation, are jointly holding a competition to award grants to outstanding early career scientists working outside the United States and other G7 countries. This International Research Scholars program aims to provide support for promising international scientists and to bring them into an eco-system that can foster their work and allow them to better understand and address biomedical issues of global relevance.

We invite you to check this blog by Dr. Chris Wilson. Application deadline is June 30, 2016. For more information please visit here.

2) The Blue Economy Challenge: Launching a Blue Revolution for Aquaculture: This challenge aims to find solutions to three important issues of aquaculture: 1) Rethinking feed for aquaculture 2) New ocean products and 3) Sustainable design by encouraging innovations that will revolutionize aquaculture in the developing world with a focus on the Indian Ocean region, where transformations in aquaculture can help eradicate poverty, end hunger, and preserve ecosystems.

Application deadline is June 30, 2016. For more information please visit http://www.theblueeconomychallenge.org
3) Combating Zika and Future Threats The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invites global problem solvers to answer the call for groundbreaking ideas to enhance our ability to respond to the current Zika outbreak and generate cutting-edge technologies and approaches that better prepare the world to address the disease threats of tomorrow. Applications will be accepted starting from April 29, 2016 with Zika-focused submissions due by 5:00 p.m. on May 20, 2016, and all other submissions due by 5:00 p.m. on June 17, 2016. For more information please visit the official website here.

We are looking forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world and from all disciplines. If you have a great idea, please apply. If you know someone else who may have a great idea, please forward this message.

Thank you for your commitment to solving the world's greatest health and development challenges.

The Grand Challenges Team