Tag Archives: Gates

Application Template for Saving Lives at Birth – Grand Challenges Round 3

Posted on 11 Feb 2013 | Leave a comment

Melinda Gates - saving lives at birthWe put together an Application Template for the current (3rd) round of the Saving Lives at Birth – Grand Challenges program, funded by USAID, DFiD, Gates Foundation, Government of Norway and Grand Challenges Canada. This template is based on the amended RFA (dated January 17th, 2013), which can be accessed here. The online system will likely start accepting applications from March 18th. This template is for the first stage Seed Grants (up to USD250,000 for a total of 2 years), not the second stage Transition Grants. We’d appreciate any feedback or questions, further advice can be found through Grand Challenges Canada. Applications close March 28, 2013 – 2 p.m. EST (US).

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Posted in Goodwin Collaboration, Opportunities, Resources

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Viet Nam Library Project to close digital divide

Posted on 8 Dec 2011 | Leave a comment

Viet Nam’s Ministry of Information and Communications has launched a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will improve the state of and access to information technology in the country. The $30 million grant, plus an additional $17 million from the Vietnamese government and other agencies, will be allocated for the installation of computers with broadband Internet access in nearly 2,000 public libraries and community post offices. The funds will also be used to provide training courses to enable staff members help users get acquainted with the new technology.

The project, which aims to reach 760,000 new users in forty provinces across Viet Nam, also will work to reduce poverty by promoting job and vocational training and expand access to Web-based government services at the local level. Microsoft Corporation will donate software to selected libraries as part of its global citizenship commitment to bring the benefits of relevant and accessible technology to communities. The project will include advocacy activities to increase awareness of the benefits of Internet and information technologies.

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Posted in Ideas, Opportunities

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Aid effectiveness agenda agreed in Busan

Posted on 2 Dec 2011 | 1 Comment

With around two billion people living in poverty, without clean water and sanitation or access to schooling and healthcare, it’s clear that development has to work better to improve people’s lives. In that spirit, delegates to the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, have endorsed a global development partnership that embraces the diversity of actors in international development, a rights-based approach to development, and the use of innovative sources of development finance. Importantly, the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation features new(er) players in the development game, including countries such as India, Brazil and China, plus private and philanthropic organisations, such as the Gates Foundation. Key principles of the Partnership include:

  • Ownership of development priorities by developing countries
  • Focus on results
  • Inclusive development partnerships
  • Transparency and accountability to each other

Other key issues included the role of the private sector, with a growing consensus of its role as “an engine of economic growth and job creation, as an innovator and supplier of affordable goods and services.” With government aid budgets likely to shrink, there will be increasing attention paid to effective approaches to development and the role of the private sector and new development players.

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Posted in Ideas

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Gates Foundation announces US$35 million in grants to help women and children

Posted on 1 Dec 2011 | Leave a comment

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced that it will invest US $35 million in grants to expand the pipeline of groundbreaking ideas that can help women and children live more prosperous and healthy lives. The funding, announced at the annual Grand Challenges Meeting in Delhi, India, will support two new Grand Challenges in Global Health grant programs:

First is ‘Preventing Preterm Birth’, managed in partnership with the Global Alliance for the Prevention of Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS), an initiative of Seattle Children’s, will invest US $20 million in the discovery and development of interventions to prevent preterm birth and stillbirth by limiting infection and improving nutrition. Discover New Ways to Achieve Healthy Growth will invest US$15 million in research to discover the causes of growth faltering during the first 1,000 days of life and to identify effective and affordable interventions to promote healthy growth. Second is $9 million in funding for a new related initiative, “Biomarkers of Gut Function and Health,” that seeks to develop non-invasive measures of intestinal functioning as a way to assess infant health and development.

Several new grant awards through the broader Grand Challenges family of programs were also announced today at the meeting in Delhi. 110 grants of US $100,000 each will support innovative proposals to improve nutrition and development in young children, as well as address infectious diseases such as polio and HIV. The funding was awarded through Round 7 of Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE). 9 GCE projects that have shown promise in tackling global health challenges such as malaria and tuberculosis will receive additional funding of up to US $1 million each to enable researchers to continue to advance their ideas toward impact.

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Posted in Ideas, Opportunities

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