The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday announced it has formed an alliance “with the Brazilian Ministry of Health in the latest expansion of the foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative,” the Puget Sound Business Journal reports (Bauman, 4/16). The strategic alliance, which will “explore new ways of tackling challenges associated with vaccines, nutrition, maternal and child health, and infectious disease control,” builds on existing collaborations “to control tuberculosis and dengue fever and improve productivity among small famers,” according to a joint press release from the Gates Foundation and the Brazilian Ministry of Health (4/16).

Later this year, the alliance will launch Grand Challenges Brazil, which will focus initially on maternal and child health, the Puget Sound Business Journal notes. “The Brazilian government and the Gates Foundation will allocate up to $8 million for research to prevent and manage pre-term birth,” the newspaper writes (4/16). Complications from pre-term birth are “the second leading cause of death in children under five globally, and solutions developed in Brazil could have broad impact both within and beyond its borders,” according to the press release (4/16).