Request for Proposals: Advancing Women's Health Innovation

About

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is requesting proposals to advance women's health innovation.

The Opportunity Map has three main components. First, it establishes broad topics of women's health R&D with unique challenges, needs, and goals. Topics fall into two categories -

• Cross-cutting topics include data and modeling, research design and methodologies, regulatory and science policy, innovation introduction, social and structural determinants, and training and careers.

• Issue-specific topics include communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and chronic conditions, and female-specific conditions.

Challenge

• The Women's Health Innovation team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is looking for innovations and ideas that address opportunities outlined in the Opportunity Map. While not all opportunities in the Opportunity Map are in scope for this RFP, they are looking to fund proposals that address a wide range of issues.

• The ultimate goal of this RFP is to kickstart work to address gaps in women's health R&D. The overall objectives are to:

  • Advance bold ideas that address opportunities in the Opportunity Map

  • Enhance overall funding and resources for women's health R&D

  • Demonstrate effectiveness of investments in women's health R&D

Award Information

• The funding level for each award is a total of up to USD $150,000 for a project lasting up to 2 years, based on the scope of the proposed project.

• They intend to fund up to 3 proposals for each of the 8 in-scope Opportunity Areas.

What they are looking for?

• They are looking for proposals that address opportunities for the following topic areas in the Opportunity Map:

  • Data and modeling – Collecting more granular data, strengthening capacity for sex- and gender-informed data collection, and filling critical data gaps.

  • Research design and methodologies – Advancing sex- and gender-intentional research design, methods, and analysis.

  • Regulatory and science policy – Implementing sex- and gender-intentional regulatory and science policy frameworks that promote the development of innovations that improve the health of women.

  • Innovation Introduction – Strengthening the innovation ecosystem and pathways for women's health solutions to scale.

  • Social and structural determinants – Including social determinants of health in R&D in women's health research agendas to develop more equitable and appropriate women's health products.

  • Training and careers – Embedding a sex and gender lens throughout education and supporting women's career advancement to develop a workforce able to drive innovation in women's health.

  • Communicable diseases – Evaluating the burden of infectious diseases and their direct and indirect costs, exploring associations between microbes and chronic conditions, and developing innovations for infections that disproportionately impact women and that can benefit pregnant women.

  • Female-specific conditions – Researching the etiology and progression of gynecological, reproductive, maternal, and life stage conditions, supporting new methods for data collection and sharing, and developing innovations to prevent, diagnose, monitor and treat female-specific conditions.

Ineligible

• They will not consider funding for:

  • Proposals not related to improving women’s health

  • Proposals that do not consider health conditions based on gender differences

  • Proposals that do not have a clear link to at least one opportunity outlined in the Opportunity Map, even if the proposal still applies to a specific topic area.

  • Proposals related to the two out-of-scope topic areas of the Opportunity Map for this RFP:

  • Non-Communicable Diseases

  • Partnerships

  • Proposals that only address needs for high-income countries

  • Proposals that focus on lobbying efforts 

  • Proposals that are not easily scalable or not aligned to local needs for uptake

Eligibility

• This initiative is open to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies and academic institutions. They particularly encourage applications involving projects led by women or from women-led organizations and applications from institutions based in low- and middle-income countries. Proposals should be aligned to local public health systems. Additionally, collaborations are highly encouraged. Individuals and organizations classified as individuals for U.S. tax purposes are not eligible to receive an award from the foundation as part of this initiative.

• Upon registration, applicants must provide information about the tax status of their organization as different terms and conditions may apply. You should confirm your organization’s tax status with the appropriate advisor or entity within your organization such as your grants or contracts department, finance, or office of sponsored research. The foundation may request additional information regarding your tax status.

Post Date: October 09, 2023