The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has issued a call for proposals aimed at advancing innovations in women’s health.
According to the Challenge organizers, the objective is to fund a diverse array of proposals addressing a wide range of issues. The overarching goals are therefore to:
- Foster groundbreaking ideas that address the opportunities in the Opportunity Map.
- Bolster overall funding and resources dedicated to women’s health R&D.
- Demonstrate the effectiveness of investments in women’s health R&D.
The components cyclocross themes within women’s health R&D, each with unique challenges and goals.
These themes can be categorized into two groups. One is cross-cutting topics which encompass areas such as data and modelling, research design and methodologies, regulatory and science policy, innovation introduction, social and structural determinants, and training and careers.
The other is issue-specific topics which include communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, and chronic conditions, as well as female-specific conditions.
Award Information
Nairametrics learns that the funding allocation for each award could be up to USD 150,000 for projects spanning up to 2 years, depending on the project’s scope.
The plan is to support up to three proposals for each of the eight in-scope Opportunity Areas.
Proposal topics sought for
Proposals addressing opportunities within the following topic areas in the Opportunity Map are sought after:
- Data and modelling: Collecting more detailed data, enhancing capacity for gender-informed data collection, and bridging critical data gaps.
- Research design and methodologies: Advancing gender-inclusive research design, methodologies, and analysis.
- Regulatory and science policy: Implementing gender-inclusive regulatory and science policy frameworks that promote innovations enhancing women’s health.
- Innovation Introduction: Reinforcing the innovation ecosystem and pathways for scaling women’s health solutions.
- Social and structural determinants: Incorporating social determinants of health in women’s health R&D to develop more equitable and suitable women’s health products.
- Training and careers: Integrating gender lens into education and supporting women’s career advancement to nurture a workforce capable of driving innovation in women’s health.
- Communicable diseases: Assessing the burden of infectious diseases and their associated costs, exploring links between microbes and chronic conditions, and developing innovations for infections disproportionately affecting women and those beneficial to pregnant women.
- Female-specific conditions: Researching the aetiology and progression of gynaecological, reproductive, maternal, and life-stage conditions, supporting new methods for data collection and sharing, and creating innovations for the prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of female-specific conditions.
Eligibility Criteria
- This initiative is open to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions.
- There is a particular emphasis on applications involving projects led by women or from women-led organizations, as well as applications from institutions based in low- and middle-income countries.
- Proposals should align with local public health systems.
- Collaborative projects are highly encouraged.
The foundation, however, will not consider the following:
The foundation will not consider funding for proposals unrelated to improving women’s health, proposals that do not account for health conditions based on gender differences, or proposals lacking a clear link to at least one opportunity outlined in the Opportunity Map.
This RFP does not apply to non-communicable diseases, partnerships, proposals focusing solely on high-income countries, lobbying efforts, or projects that are not easily scalable or do not align with local needs for adoption.
Applicants are to apply here before the deadline on the 6th of December 2023.