DBT, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation renews MoU to accelerate R&D for global health
The partnership will articulate and implement a new strategic direction and continue awarding and administering a suite of programmes in the larger field of public health
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has renewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), originally signed in 2012, to support innovative approaches for developing new preventions, therapies and interventions needed to solve health (human and animal), food and nutritional inequities on June 7, 2022, in New Delhi.
DBT and the Gates Foundation had previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of health and development issues on July 18, 2012, for five years, which was further renewed for five years till July 17, 2022. Under this joint partnership, in the last 10 years, programmes in diverse areas under maternal and child health, nutrition, sanitation, infectious disease, and data science approaches have been undertaken. The programme has also brought together and leveraged the best of the nation’s researchers and innovators with international best practices to address some of the grand challenges that society faces.
Through the renewed MoU, the partnership will articulate and implement a new strategic direction and continue awarding and administering a suite of programmes in the larger field of public health, tailored to fulfil the strategic needs and requirements of the country and then the rest of the world.
Present on the occasion also was Mark Suzman, CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He said, “The Gates Foundation values our longstanding relationship with the Indian government’s Department of Biotechnology, and we are honoured to continue to support the ministry’s efforts to promote innovative research and enhance domestic biotechnology capacity in India. India’s health and agricultural systems are already strong, but together we can make them even more resilient. I am excited about the potential of this collaboration to address health and food inequities in India and around the world.”
The renewed MoU partnership pledged a combined $50 million investment to the joint initiative, to continue to explore and expand funding arenas and mechanisms to support innovators, focused on early-mid stage research and product development to tackle health and developmental issues.
Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India stated, “Such partnerships bring together the best and the brightest by sharing and leveraging each partner’s strength and resources. The Grand Challenges India partnership exemplifies this, where the partners focus on identifying and funding affordable and innovative solutions to public health challenges not only within India but also in the developing world. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated what can be achieved with the concerted efforts of the government and private sector. The GCI partnership will look to further unleashing this new power, resilience and capabilities in the Indian innovation ecosystem in alignment with the goals of the Government of India priorities in health innovation and science and technology.”
The event also saw the announcement of the latest open call for funding on Diagnostics for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD)- Lymphatic Filariasis (LF). The call focuses on developing point-of-care, novel cost-effective diagnostics for lymphatic filariasis for use in national Lymphatic Filariasis elimination programmes. The goal of this challenge is to have a reasonably inexpensive, durable and accurate point of care testing method(s) that can be used in developing/remote geographies. Successful diagnostics/novel approaches set through this call would then be supported for further validation and development to understand that they would be used in public programmes for LF elimination.
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