Gates Gambles Big on Bold Medical Probes

$10M in public-health grants eschew peer review for innovation

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 23, 2008 2:13 PM CDT

(Newser) – The Gates Foundation has awarded more than $10 million to medical researchers with quirky ideas that might not be funded otherwise, the Washington Post reports. The initiative, dubbed Grand Challenges Explorations, offered a simple 2-page application and vetting by entrepreneurs, not medical professionals. “Peer review—by definition almost—excludes innovation because innovation has no peers,” the Foundation’s global health director said.

“It’s just opening the world up to a broader array of ideas,” he continued, “rather than placing our bets on just a few horses that might not ever succeed.” If successful, researchers can look forward to a second round, and $1 million. Among the 104 projects awarded the $100,000 grants are a gene-therapy approach to viral infection and a study of mosquitoes as vaccine carriers.

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Research funded by the Gates Foundation. (AP Photo)

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during the Centennial Global Business Summit at Harvard Business School. (AP Photo)

Mosquitoes could play a vital role in the future of public health. (AP Photo)

Malaria studies are at the heart of the Gates Foundation's public health initiative. (AP Photo)

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It's usually very difficult. Usually they are looking for an idea that has some kind of backup before you get funding ... we usually have a lot of problems going for grants because English is not our first language. - Pattamaporn Kittayapong, grant winner

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Gates Gambles Big on Bold Medical Probes