The Women’s Health Innovation team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is looking for innovations and ideas that address a range of opportunities outlined in the Opportunity Map (the full Opportunity Map can be found here).

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

What is expected : 

The Foundation is looking for proposals that address opportunities for the following topic areas in the Opportunity Map:

1. Data and modeling– Collecting more granular data, strengthening capacity for sex- and gender-informed data collection, and filling critical data gaps.
2. Research design and methodologies– Advancing sex- and gender-intentional research design, methods, and analysis.
3. 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.
4. Innovation Introduction– Strengthening the innovation ecosystem and pathways for women’s health solutions to scale.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.

Eligibility

This initiative is open to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies and academic institutions.

The Foundation particularly encourages 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.

Closing date : Dec 06, 2023, 11:30 am PST

Funding : up to USD $150,000

Further information