About

Grand Challenges (GC) partners including GC Brazil, GC Ethiopia, GC India, GC Senegal, GC South Africa, and GC Africa (pan-African), along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and the Pasteur Network, have jointly launched a request for proposals for promoting the equitable use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve global health.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significant potential to transform healthcare around the world. But as AI technology continues to advance, there is an urgent need to position low- and middle-income countries[i] (LMICs) to lead on the design and co-creation of AI-enabled technologies – thereby helping to improve the health and well-being of their women, children, and vulnerable communities. Through this call for proposal, they are emphasizing AI solutions that are locally driven and owned hence more relevant to address the needs of people they intend to serve and more likely to be accepted and used by local communities.

Challenge

This call for proposals aims to uncover innovative approaches for using Large Language Models (such as ChatGPT-4 or other credible sources with equivalent capabilities) to advance global public health. Given the diversity of AI technologies, whether open source or not, they encourage and expect applicants to select the tool best suited to their use case and context.

Areas

• Support for clinical decision-making

  • Development of tools usable by front-line healthcare professionals or clinicians to improve diagnosis, management of health conditions, or delivery of healthcare.

  • Support for the improvement of health guidelines and their compliance.

  • Interpretation of diagnostics, reduction of costs and removal of obstacles linked to distance.

• Health communication and patient journey

  • Creation of impactful and targeted communication tools capable of removing language and literacy barriers when transmitting health knowledge, messages and advice (e.g. translation of local dialects, text to voice conversion, etc.)

  • Providing timely, reliable and tailored advice to marginalized end-users, overcoming significant cultural, access and stigma barriers.

  • Helps patients understand and manage their own health condition and treatment plan.

• Strengthening health systems

  • Using Large Language Models to improve the interoperability of health data, systems and programs.

Priority will be given to proposals that:

• Submit an explicit request for an AI-supported project.

• Have already carried out a pilot project before this “Grands Défis” call for proposals.

• Have lessons or tools transferable to other use cases, situations or contexts with minimal change.

• Highlight the importance of AI specific to the community, representative and adapted to cultural realities.

In principle, the proposal must:

• Address a specific problem identified as a priority in the geographic area concerned.

• Harnessing AI capabilities to improve healthcare productivity and efficiency.

• Contribute to the body of evidence regarding the use of AI in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in global health.

• Encourage innovation with AI to support public health decision-makers and affected communities.

• Focus on systematically observing, validating and quantifying the improvement in outcomes and profitability linked to the use of AI.

• Adhere to global principles for the use of AI, including: i) Do no harm. ii) Use technology to solve the most challenging and relevant global health problems. iii) Ensure that projects are led by actors from LMICs, although there may be a partner from a high-income country. iv) Consider local voices and ideas throughout the process. v) Provide a plan for disseminating project results.

• Give local communities the opportunity to express their own views and cultural context, so that they can decide on both: i) Their own safety thresholds when it comes to the use of AI. ii) The overall usefulness of AI in their own lives.

Funding Information

• Funding consists of a grant of up to USD 100,000 for each project, awarded to the organization, for a maximum period of 12 months.

What they are looking for?

• Proposals demonstrating clear applications of Large Language Models (such as GPT-4, Laude, LLaMA or other credible sources with equivalent capabilities) to address specific global health challenges in the geographic area of ​​interest.

• Proposals showing that the grantee has a good understanding of the request, has conducted a preliminary stakeholder analysis, and has established a plan for engagement with local decision-makers to ensure the success of the project.

• Proposals presenting leverage and the possibility of extension.

• Proposals describing a clear, feasible and reproducible methodology.

• Proposals providing rapid access to data and allowing decision-makers to devote time and interest to the use of AI.

• Proposals explaining how the project can generate short-term impact and how these benefits will persist beyond the life of the project.

• Proposals driven by a shared commitment to open science, data sharing, and the creation of an infrastructure for collaboration and analysis, thereby fostering discoveries that benefit the entire global population.

• They particularly encourage applications from women-led organizations and applications for projects led by women.

They will not consider funding proposals that:

• Do not explicitly use Large Language Models (LLM) in the execution of their project or do not refer to them.

• Do not provide rapid access to necessary data, do not generate commitment and interest from decision-makers (a letter of recommendation/request would be an asset).

• Do not demonstrate that the majority of the proposed work will be carried out by researchers and teams based in the relevant geographic area mentioned below.

• Do not include a validation plan.

• Do not take into account the question of scaling and sustainability.

Geographical Area

• The geographical area for this proposal is Senegal, which means that scientists and innovators from institutes incorporated in Senegal are eligible for the implementation of the projects in this country. Scientists working in one of the Pasteur network institutes are also eligible, but their projects must be implemented in a low- or middle-income country (LMIC).

• Global partners may be included, but proposals must demonstrate that at least 80% of the funding is for an organization located in the relevant geographic area. Bid budgets must be proportional to the scale of the work proposed.

Eligibility

• The call is open to scientists and innovators working in institutes based in Senegal, as well as those already working in institutes in the Pasteur network.

• Institutes may belong to the private, public or non-profit sector.

• Only institutes legally constituted in Senegal, or those of the Pasteur network are eligible.

• A project can only have one project manager, who must be affiliated with the institute from which the proposal is submitted.

• A project manager can only appear on one application.

• An institute can be the applicant for multiple applications, provided that each application has a different project manager.

Post Date: October 11, 2023