About

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a funding opportunity under its Grand Challenges initiative to support the development of independent, policy-relevant estimates of the global burden of diarrheal diseases, with a particular focus on mortality and morbidity among children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The program seeks to generate credible, transparent, and decision-useful estimates using robust epidemiologic and quantitative modeling approaches. Proposed work may focus on individual countries, regions, all LMICs, or global estimates, with priority given to high-burden settings and geographies of strong programmatic relevance, including India, Nigeria, and countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

Supported activities include estimating total and pathogen-specific diarrheal mortality and morbidity, incidence rates, hospitalizations, DALYs, costs, historical trends, uncertainty intervals, etiologic attribution, sensitivity analyses, and regional or global aggregations. Priority pathogens include Rotavirus, Shigella, Adenovirus 40/41, Norovirus GII, ST-ETEC, endemic Cholera, Cryptosporidium, and Campylobacter. Applicants may propose fully independent modeling frameworks or partial re-estimations based on alternative datasets or assumptions, provided that methodologies are transparent and sufficiently documented for external review, including approaches for handling coinfections and multiple pathogen detections. The initiative also aims to strengthen analytic and modeling capacity through LMIC institutional partnerships and collaborations. Projects should produce estimates centered on the year 2025 using the latest available evidence and appropriate projection or extrapolation methods where necessary. Selected projects may receive up to USD 1.5 million for a maximum implementation period of two years, with budgets aligned to the scope and complexity of the proposed work.

Eligibility

The funding opportunity is open to research institutes, nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions with demonstrated expertise in disease burden estimation, epidemiology, biostatistics, and quantitative modeling methods. The Foundation particularly encourages applications from LMIC-based institutions, LMIC-led partnerships, and global consortia that demonstrate meaningful engagement with LMIC partners. Competitive proposals should show strong technical capacity to produce rigorous and transparent burden estimates, clearly justify methodological choices and data sources, and provide sufficient technical documentation to support independent review and reproducibility. Evaluation will also consider the relevance of the proposed geographic focus, the strength of the analytic framework, and the potential usefulness of the estimates for informing policy, investments, prevention strategies, treatment priorities, and product development related to diarrheal diseases.

Post Date: May 08, 2026