Grand Challenges in Global Health

The Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) is a research initiative launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in search of solutions to health problems in the developing world. Fifteen challenges are categorized in groups among seven stated goals plus an eighth group for family health. The disciplines involved include immunology, microbiology, genetics, molecular biology and cellular biology, entomology, agricultural sciences, clinical sciences, epidemiology, population and behavioral sciences, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Goal 1: Improve Vaccines

Goal 2: Create New Vaccines

Goal 3: Control Insect Vectors

Goal 4: Improve Nutrition

Goal 5: Limit Drug Resistance

Goal 6: Cure Infection

Goal 7: Measure Health Status

Two additional challenges for family health were announced in 2011.

In January 2003, Bill Gates first announced the Grand Challenges in Global Health at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMFG) granted $200 million to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). The goal behind the initiative was to fund research to advance the fight against disease that disproportionately affects people in the world’s poorest countries. At this time the scientific board’s responsibilities were outlined: to identify scientific or technological innovations that have a global impact or show potential for feasibility.

In May 2003, the scientific board publicly advertised for ideas. Over a thousand suggestions from scientists and institutions in 75 countries were submitted by July. The scientific board met to further discuss these proposals, which were presented orally with a statement of the problem, descriptions of obstacles to progress, the challenge itself, and a discussion of potential benefits and priority areas for study and application. The following questions raised during the meetings reflect the difficulty in defining these Grand Challenges:

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