PHA-Exchange> Grand Challenges in Global Health

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> From: "Harold Varmus at Grandchallengesgh.org"
>
> Subject: A Call for Ideas for Grand Challenges in Global Health
>
> Dear Friends and Colleagues:
>
> We are seeking ideas. Specifically, we seek the help of the interna-
> tional health research community in identifying the greatest scien-
> tific and technological challenges in global health-the principal
> current challenges standing in the way of major progress. The Bill &
> Melinda Gates Foundation has committed US$ 200 million to establish
> the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative as a major new ef-
> fort in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and
> the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). Our aim
> is to identify 10 to 15 critical scientific and/or technical chal-
> lenges, which, if solved, could lead to important advances against
> diseases and improve health in the developing world.
>
> This Call for Ideas is a call for your recommendations, and is the
> first step in a novel two-phase approach. Between now and June 15, we
> are asking health researchers around the world to submit their ideas
> on what they consider to be the scientific Grand Challenges in Global
> Health at this time. The Scientific Board that I chair will then re-
> view the submissions and select the 10 to 15 most compelling chal-
> lenges as official Grand Challenges for the initiative. These Grand
> Challenges will be announced this fall, and solicitations for re-
> search grant proposals to address them will follow.
>
> Our Web site, http://www.grandchallengesgh.org, provides a working
> definition of what we mean by "grand challenges," details on the Call
> for Ideas, instructions for submitting recommendations, an electronic
> submission form and a list of the Scientific Board members. Research-
> ers who do not have access to the Web may send an e-mail message to
> <info at grandchallengesgh.org>, specifying whether they can receive a
> PDF file or want the information faxed to a specific number.
>
> Submission of ideas through the Web site is preferred, but those un-
> able to use this form of submission may e-mail their responses to
> <callforideas at grandchallengesgh.org> or fax them to +1-301-480-2752.
> Please read the Call for Ideas material carefully and follow the rec-
> ommended format for submission.
>
> We welcome your interest in this significant new initiative, and en-
> courage you to distribute this e-mail to other research colleagues
> around the world who may have ideas to contribute.
>
> Responses are due by June 15, 2003.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Harold E. Varmus, M.D.
> Chairman
> Scientific Board
> Grand Challenges in Global Health
>
>
> Helen Burnett
> Grand Challenges in Global Health
> Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
> 1 Cloister Court, Suite 152
> Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
> Tel.: +1-310-402-4970
> mailto:burnetth at mail.nih.gov
>
>
> DEFINITION
>
> What is a Grand Challenge?
>
> A Grand Challenge is a call for a specific scientific or technologi-
> cal innovation that would remove a critical barrier to solving an im-
> portant health problem in the developing world with a high likelihood
> of global impact and feasibility. A Grand Challenge is neither the
> statement of the global health problem itself (e.g., malaria or AIDS)
> nor the request for a specific health intervention (e.g., a drug or
> vaccine), but the call for a discrete scientific or technological in-
> novation which will break through the roadblock that stands between
> where we are now and where we would like to be in science, medicine,
> and public health.
>
> For example, a Grand Challenge could be the discovery or creation of:
> * A novel way to neutralize HIV that may be the critical limiting
>   step in developing a preventive vaccine;
> * An innovative technology that provided a fundamentally distinct
>   platform to achieve point-of-care, accurate and affordable diagnos-
>   tics;
> * A viable method to alter mosquito behavior, control mosquito popu-
>   lations or make mosquitoes inhospitable to disease organisms;
> * A definitive way to stabilize antigens to heat to avoid the "cold
>   chain" for vaccines.
>
> SCOPE
>
> What is the scope of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initia-
> tive? The Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative will address
> the diseases and health conditions that cause the greatest morbidity
> and mortality in the developing world, thus accounting for the enor-
> mous health disparities between the developing and the developed
> world, and that receive disproportionately less attention from the
> scientific and technical community than their consequences demand.
> The scope of the ultimate goals of the Grand Challenges in Global
> Health initiative is broad, encompassing prevention, detection, diag-
> nosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and surveillance and control of
> diseases. The wide range of possible disciplines to be employed in-
> cludes, but is not limited to, immunology and microbiology, genetics,
> molecular and cellular biology, entomology, agricultural sciences,
> clinical sciences, epidemiology, population and behavioral sciences,
> ecology and evolutionary biology. Any scientific approach that has
> the potential to address a Grand Challenge in a novel and potentially
> powerful way might be supported by the initiative.
>
> © 2003, Grand Challenges in Global Health, All Rights Reserved.
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