07 June 2022 | News
Through the renewed MoU, the partnership will articulate and implement new strategic direction and to continue awarding and administering a suite of programs in the larger field of public health, tailored to fulfill the strategic needs and requirements of the country and then the rest of the world
image credit- PIB
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have renewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), originally signed in 2012, to support innovative approaches for developing new preventions, therapies and interventions needed to solve health (human and animal), food and nutritional inequities on 7th June 2022 in New Delhi.
The renewed MoU pledged a combined $50 million investment to the joint initiative, to continue to explore and expand funding arenas and mechanisms to support innovators, focused on early-mid stage research and product development to tackle health and developmental issues.
Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India stated “Such partnerships bring together the best and the brightest by sharing and leveraging each partners strength and resources. The Grand Challenges India partnership exemplifies this, where the partners focus on identifying and funding affordable and innovative solutions to public health challenges not only within India but also for the developing world."
The event also saw announcement of the latest open call for funding on Diagnostics for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD)- Lymphatic Filariasis (LF). The call focuses on developing point-of-care, novel cost-effective diagnostics for lymphatic filariasis for use in national Lymphatic Filariasis elimination programs. The goal of this challenge is to have a reasonably inexpensive, durable and accurate point of care testing method(s) that can be used in developing/remote geographies.