BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network

Grand Challenges Explorations is an agile, accelerated grant initiative with short two-page applications and no preliminary data required. Anyone with a bold idea that shows great promise can apply. Applications are submitted online, and winning grants are chosen approximately 4 months from the submission deadline. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million, and could eventually evolve into Grand Challenges project.

Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) supports hundreds of early-stage research projects – including many ideas that have never before been tested and scientists from a wide range of disciplines and regions. The Explorations initiative funds innovative ideas that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies targeting diseases that claim millions of lives every year.
GCE is an extension of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s commitment to the Grand Challenges in Global Health, which was launched in 2003 to accelerate the discovery of new technologies to improve global health. To date, the foundation has committed over $450 million to support hundreds of projects on topics such as making childhood vaccines easier to use in poor countries, and creating new ways to control insects that spread disease.

The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative supports health research projects that aim to achieve the scientific breakthroughs needed to prevent, treat, and cure the diseases of the developing world. In June 2005, the initiative offered grants totalling more than $436 million to 43 projects. The initiative’s partners include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust. Recognizing that great ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, in 2008 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched Grand Challenges Explorations, a $100 million program to encourage even bolder and less conventional solutions. Anyone with a bold idea that shows great promise can apply. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year.

Unorthodox thinking is essential to overcoming the most persistent challenges in global health. Vaccines were first developed over 200 years ago because revolutionary thinkers took an entirely new approach to preventing disease.
Grand Challenges Explorations fosters innovation in global health research. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to encourage scientists worldwide to expand the pipeline of ideas to fight our greatest health challenges.

Grand Challenges Explorations fosters innovation in global health research. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to encourage scientists worldwide to expand the pipeline of ideas to fight our greatest health challenges. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline, from student to tenured professor, and from any organization – colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies.

Grand Challenges Explorations supports hundreds of early-stage research projects – many pursuing ideas that have never before been tested and involving scientists from a wide range of disciplines and regions. The Explorations initiative funds innovative ideas that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies targeting diseases that claim millions of lives every year.