Saving Lives at Birth (SLB): A Grand Challenge for Development (Round IV) a joint initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and Britain’s Department for International Development, have issued a Request for Applications (RFA) seeking new proposals for their fourth round of funding.
The partners launched SLB in 2011 issuing the first global call for transformative ideas. Since 2011 two additional proposals have been initiated and SLB has supported 59 solutions through 61 grants.
Recently, SLB issued the fourth RFA (RFA –OAA-14-000071) to find groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches aimed at assisting women and their newborns in poor and hard-to-reach communities worldwide. The program is especially looking for ideas that can leapfrog conventional approaches in three main domains to include technology, service delivery, and to find low cost solutions to empower pregnant women and their families to practice healthy behaviors.
The SLB Challenge is looking to invest in approaches that would integrate the latest scientific, technology, behavior changes, and information and communication advances. The objective is to develop radical solutions that would impact maternal and newborn health.
The SLB Challenge is encouraging partnerships to bring together diverse expertise from non-traditional partners, particularly private sector partners to include for-profits, non-governmental organizations, academic and medical research institutions, faith-based organizations, civic groups, and foundations across a range of disciplines. To foster sustainability, the SLB Challenge is encouraging ideas that combine scientific, technological, social, and business innovations.
SLB will provide seed grants up to $250,000 for up to two years and transition to scale grants for up to $2 million for up to four years. In addition to the funding, awardees will receive support and networking assistance from each of the partners, engage with other innovators, and participate in high-level meetings to include the Gates Foundation’s annual Grand Challenge meeting.
The closing date for the proposal is March 27, 2014. For questions, go to GrandChallenge2014@usaid.gov which are due February 7, 2014. For more information, and to review the RFA, go to www.savinglivesatbirth.net.