PHA-Exchange> Grand challenges issued

[Claudio]

From: "Dr Rana Jawad Asghar" > Grand challenges issued

> Gates initiative joins growing number of urgent research to-do  lists
>  
> Ten months after Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced his 
> "Grand Challenges in Global Health" research initiative in Davos, 
> Switzerland, a hand-picked panel of international scientists has 
> drafted a list of 14 challenges, whose solutions could lead to 
> important healthcare advances for the developing world. The list 
> appears in today's issue of the journal Science:
> http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/302/5644/398 
>  
> The 14 challenges include controlling infectious disease through 
> new and improved vaccines and better management and eradication 
> of the insects that transmit agents of disease. Others call for 
> improved nutrition and better disease measurement in both indi-
> viduals and populations. Each challenge will receive grants of up 
> to $20 million over 5 years or less. The Bill and Melinda Gates 
> Foundation is funding this $200 million project, which is admin-
> istered by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.
>  
> A description of deliberations that led to selection of the 14 
> global health challenges and an outline of steps to apply for 
> funding to address one or more of them are included in a "policy 
> forum" article by Grand Challenges Panel Chairman Harold Varmus 
> and colleagues.
>  
> The aim of the Grand Challenges is to guide researchers to spe-
> cific scientific or technical breakthroughs that overcome barri-
> ers and find solutions to one or more significant health prob-
> lems, one of the article's authors, Peter Singer, director of the 
> Joint Centre for Bioethics at University of Toronto, told The 
> Scientist.
>  
> "We often talk about the 10/90 gap, where 90% of health research 
> resources are devoted to the problems of 10% of the world's popu-
> lation. Here is an initiative that is turning the tide on the 
> 10/90 gap, both through the investment of substantial financial 
> resources, but ultimately, and perhaps more importantly, through 
> capturing the imagination of and engaging the global scientific 
> community to focus on the scientific and technological challenges 
> of five billion people in the world," said Singer, who is also a 
> member of the Grand Challenges Scientific Advisory Board.
>  
> Gates' Grand Challenges effort joins a growing list of similar 
> initiatives and scientific forums that are forming to tackle the 
> world's most daunting problems. In July, the United Nations De-
> velopment Programme published the Human Development Report 2003 
> proposing a series of international forums be created to help set 
> the research priorities required to meet the technological needs 
> of the developing world. In the same month, The Millennium Pro-
> ject, an international think tank with more than 1500 partici-
> pants, released its 2003 State of the Future report, detailing 
> global views on the challenges facing humanity today. The Millen-
> nium Project has also set its own 15 global challenges.
>  
> It's still too early to tell if these global challenges and re-
> search initiatives are going to work in the long run, said Kevin 
> Frost, vice president of clinical research and prevention pro-
> grams at the American Foundation for AIDS Research in New York 
> City, which works with the National Institutes of Health to fund 
> more avant-garde research projects. "It's a gamble, but these 
> challenges make us realize that we do have the resources to make 
> a difference and improve peoples' lives."
>  
> So far, some of the earliest initiatives, such as the Global 
> Fund, founded by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to 
> fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, have not made much head-
> way. Part of the problem is funding, said Frost. Despite a com-
> mitment of $1.2 billion, the Fund estimates that it needs between 
> $7 and $10 billion annually in order to turn tide on those epi-
> demics.
>  
> There is early evidence that the Grand Challenges in Global 
> Health initiative has captured the attention of the global scien-
> tific community. More than a thousand submissions came from all 
> over the world in response to the call for ideas, said Singer. 
> "Ultimately, if the best scientific minds focus on the problems 
> affecting five billion people in the world, the initiative will 
> be a success," he predicted.
>  
> What's most important ultimately is the application of the re-
> search, said Singer. "If and when a 'Grand Challenge' is solved, 
> that scientific or technological solution will still have to be 
> implemented appropriately and on a widespread basis, to benefit 
> the global poor," he noted. And that may require an entire new 
> set of Grand Challenges.
>