Deadline: 31st January 2023
Grand Challenges Senegal is calling for proposals from innovators working across Africa and African scientists in the diaspora on interventions to improve epidemiological intelligence, surveillance and outbreak response.
The aim of Grand Challenges Senegal is to promote the ecosystem for public health innovation in Africa. Grand Challenges Senegal will distribute funding to test new ideas led by innovators working in the region and African scientists in the diaspora.
Grand Challenges Senegal was launched by the government of Senegal in October 2022 with the vision of enabling the next set of breakthroughs in discovery and translational life sciences in West Africa, with initial funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and ELMA Philanthropy.
The Grand Challenges initiatives are united by their focus on promoting innovation, directing research to where it will have the greatest impact and serving those most in need. Grand Challenges Senegal will be no different and will prioritise innovators who:
- integrate across disciplines and converge solutions,
- prioritising Senegal as a setting to exemplify the work, but with regional impact and potential reach, and
- applying the latest science in an ecosystem that is evolving into a centre of impact and translational production.
Reach
Grand Challenges Senegal was established for:
- Advancing innovation in life sciences and public health in Africa
- Raising the work and profile of Senegalese and African innovators in Africa and innovators among the diaspora around the world.
- Implement the Grand Challenges financing model in Africa, with a particular focus on the ECOWAS region
- Supporting the innovation pipeline from discovery to development and deployment
- Support existing beneficiaries of Grand Challenges initiatives in Africa, particularly those supported by Grand Challenges Africa, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and Grand Challenges for Development USAID.
Grand Challenges Principles of Senegal
The guiding principles of Grand Challenges Senegal are the same as those of Grand Challenges Africa:
- Well-articulated strategic grand challenges will serve both to focus research efforts and to involve Africa's best innovators.
- The projects will be selected on the basis of public and transparent calls for proposals, looking for the best ideas.
- Funders, researchers and other stakeholders will actively collaborate and integrate advances to ensure that these advances serve those most in need.
- Projects will be selected not only for their scientific excellence, but also for their likelihood of achieving the desired impact. They must be milestone-orientated and actively managed to this end.
- Projects and researchers will make equitable access commitments to ensure that the fruits of their research are available to those most in need.
Financing information
Up to 8 proposals will be supported with a grant of US$ 50,000 for a period of 18 months. Upon completion, successful projects will be eligible for assistance with additional resource mobilisation, project planning and grant monitoring.
Ineligible proposals
They will not consider funding for:
- Proposals that do not address one or more programme areas as defined above
- Proposals that do not include a researcher based in Senegal or led by an ECOWAS national
- Proposals that do not focus on programme delivery in the ECOWAS region
- Proposals that don't include men and women in submission
- Proposals that do not advance the original work
- Proposals submitted by individuals without an institutional partner or affiliation
- Proposals that do not want to align with the equitable access policy of Senegal's Grand Challenges
For more information, visit https://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenges/interventions-enhance-epidemic-intelligence-surveillance-and-outbreak-response
