Grand Challenges Encourage Global Health Innovation

News outlets report on the Grand Challenges, which invite innovators to develop novel technologies to solve global health problems.

The Economist: Global health: A new challenge
“Ten years ago the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began divvying up the money for what it hoped would be a novel approach to the task of solving the world’s health problems. … Though not as spectacular as its organizers had hoped at the outset, Grand Challenges in Global Health has enjoyed at least modest success. Of the 44 original projects, a fifth are moving towards fruition and another fifth have worked in part…” (10/11).

NPR: Help Wanted: Unlikely Geniuses To Solve Public Health Problems
“…Anyone can enter [a Grand Challenge], from a technology whiz to a small business owner. And, of course, auto mechanics. And therein lies the power of the Grand Challenge — finding great ideas from perhaps surprising sources, says Wendy Taylor, director of USAID’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact. To date, the challenges have resulted in more than 1,600 grants of up to $100,000 each in 80 countries…” (Poon, 10/9).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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