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Dear Colleague,
 
We are excited to share the news about a new Grand Challenges initiative with open grant opportunities, grants recently awarded, last month’s annual Grand Challenges meeting, and the latest blog in the Innovation series.
 
Grant opportunities:
The Misk Foundation, the non-profit philanthropic foundation established by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have partnered to launch Misk Grand Challenges. This initiative seeks to empower youth both with the skills that they need to succeed in the knowledge economy and with the passion required to tackle the world’s most challenging problems. Ultimately, the initiative hopes to nurture a new generation of leaders who will transform both local and global communities. Learn about the initiative and the associated grant opportunities here.
 
Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) grants awarded:
Please see the announcement with links to descriptions of the latest set of awards and to Steve Buchsbaum’s blog. These awards include a set under a challenge launched through collaboration between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Gates Foundation. This challenge - Health Systems Strengthening: Ensuring Effective Health Supply Chains - resulted in over 500 submissions, with 14 awards made by the Foundation and 3 potential award nominees for USAID.
 
The next application round of Grand Challenges Exploration is in March 2018.
 
Grand Challenges Annual Meeting: Grand Challenges partners hosted the 13th Grand Challenges Annual Meeting on October 2 – 4, this year in Washington, DC. You can watch videos of the plenary program focused on innovation to advance global health security, including:


  • Keynotes from Anthony Fauci (Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), Cori Bargmann (President of Science, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative), Jeremy Farrar (Director, Wellcome), Mark Green (Administrator, USAID), Diana Bianchi (Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development), Bill Gates (Co-Chair & Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and Rex Tillerson (United States Secretary of State)

  • Panel conversations on pandemic preparedness and the Coalition for African Research and Innovation

  • Short “Spotlight Talks” from innovators in the Grand Challenges community on topics, including nanoparticles that can detect tumors, breakthroughs against parasitic worms, and developing affordable and durable tools to save newborn lives

  • A demonstration of applying virtual reality for vaccine design


Blog series on innovation:
Trevor Mundel, the Gates Foundation’s President of Global Health, recently published two new blogs in his series on innovation: one on expanding the fight against malaria by focusing not only on Plasmodium falciparum but also on P. Vivax and a second blog exploring how innovation is accelerating progress on addressing neglected tropical diseases.
 
We congratulate the new GCE grantees and invite you to explore an interactive world map of funded ideas across the global Grand Challenges network committed to solving the world's greatest health and development challenges.
 
The Grand Challenges Team