| From: |
Adeyemo Gabriel [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
Five years in, gauging impact of Gates grants
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| Sent: |
Dec 23rd, 2010 - 16:14:39 |
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Fellow Advocates, i think we should read these and put ourselves in Gates' shoes. How are we going to feel after not much inventions to what as had expected?
Date: 20 December 2010
AUTHOR: Donald McNeil
http://www.avac.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/31762/pid/31803
Five years ago, Bill Gates made an extraordinary offer: he invited the world's scientists to submit ideas for tackling the biggest problems in global health, including the lack of vaccines for AIDS and malaria, the fact that most vaccines must be kept refrigerated and be delivered by needles, the fact that many tropical crops like cassavas and bananas had little nutrition, and so on. No idea was too radical, he said, and what he called the Grand Challenges in Global Health would pursue paths that the National Institutes of Health and other grant makers could not.
About 1,600 proposals came in, and the top 43 were so promising that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made $450 million in five-year grants -- more than double what he originally planned to give. Now the five years are up, and the foundation recently brought all the scientists to Seattle to assess the results and decide who will get further funding. In an interview, Mr. Gates sounded somewhat chastened, saying several times, "We were naive when we began." As an example, he cited the pursuit of vaccines that do not need refrigeration. "Back then, I thought: 'Wow -- we'll have a bunch of thermostable vaccines by 2010.' But we're not even close to that. I'd be surprised if we have even one by 2015."
Thanks for reading through.
Adeyemo Gabriel
Moderator: S4M, Nigeria
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