Bill and Melinda Foundation, the charity organization owned by the family of billionaire Bill Gates, is encouraging applications for grants, for its first round of its Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, the Foundation disclosed on Tuesday, April 22, in a press release sent to Fortune.
 

The Foundation prefers applications from scientists and innovators from private sectors and young researchers from Africa and Asia.
 

“One of the primary objectives of the initiative is to involve scientists around the world who don’t typically do work in global health,” says the statement.

The initiative has a budget of 100 million dollars, and welcomes two-page “bold and unconventional proposals” exploring solutions to global health problems. Proposals on alternative traditional vaccines against infectious diseases; developing drugs that limit resistance; anti-retrovirals and drugs that cure HIV infections but have been developed outside of current researches; and new ways of breaking the cycle of TB transmission are areas where the Foundation said it is interested in receiving applications.

“The Foundation and an independent group of reviewers will select the most innovative proposals,” said the press statement.

Interested applicants are invited to apply on line at www.gcgh.org/explorations up until May 15, 2008. The Foundations promises to award successful proposals 100,000 dollars each within three months of acceptance. Projects that are deemed successful are up for an additional financing of one million dollars.