Gates Foundation
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The mission of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. A major focus of the foundation is to reduce infectious disease burden, particularly in low-resource settings, by generating high-quality data and evidence, spurring innovations, creating market incentives, and strengthening global cooperation.
In his own Words
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation appreciates the forum afforded by GloPID-R to its members, including observers from the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, to communicate intent and actions to prepare for and to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. This maximizes cooperation and minimizes unnecessary duplication across funding organizations. These benefits were apparent as a part of the COVID-19 pandemic response since the first GloPID-R COVID-19 meetings in February 2020.“Infectious diseases know no borders, and we believe that joining forces is the best way to fight pandemics and stay ahead of emerging threats to global health. Whether we’re joining forces to fund research and innovation actions, develop new tools, or share knowledge and best practices, it’s clear that collaborative effort is key to successfully fighting infectious diseases. With GloPID-R, we can work together to improve response times and existing interventions.”
David Vaughn, MD, MPH, Senior Program Officer
our Work
Pandemic preparedness and response
The responsibility of pandemic preparedness and response largely falls to governments to protect their citizens since only governments have the needed financial resources. On the other hand, private foundations may have advantages over governments to respond faster, to target under-resourced areas, and to take financial risks. For the example of COVID-19, the foundation issued its first grants in January 2020, ultimately expending more than US$2 billion to improve assessments (e.g., diagnostics and surveillance reporting) and interventions (clinical care and drug, vaccine, and other biologics product development) in support of low- and middle-income countries.
Partnerships & Initiatives
The foundation has made meaningful yearly investments in support of pandemic preparedness, alongside the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. The foundation meets regularly with government funding agencies and other private philanthropies, including through GloPID-R, to coordinate global efforts with a focus on the needs of low- and middle-income countries. With its limited preparedness funding, the foundation focuses on surveillance and disruptive discovery, translational science, and development of better, more affordable, and more easily disseminated products that that can have transformational impact on global health and development.
ASRT’s Sponsored Research Networks (SRN) program is designed to connect eminent researchers from a variety of disciplines to promote collaboration and knowledge-sharing. The program has been highly successful in fostering research partnerships that have led to significant advances in fields such as viral hepatitis and neuroscience. SRN has also played a vital role in supporting young researchers as they develop their careers. The positive impact the program has made on the development of Egypt’s research landscape is set to continue in the future.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ASRT developed a rapid response plan to identify and fund relevant, high-priority research projects. ASRT has already funded several studies on COVID-19, including socioeconomic and post-COVID research.
This program also supports:
- the applications of rapid manufacturing tools: 3D printing and CNC machines
- the design of simple, low-cost, easy-to-use ventilators
- for healthcare workers, the development of antimicrobial textiles using nanotechnology
- the development of diagnostic kits and innovative diagnostic methods to detect COVID-19
The program is open to all Egyptians, including Egyptians abroad working in coordination with research groups and scholars at home.
- ASRT is committed to supporting collaborative research in Africa and the Mediterranean area. Our specialized award program recognizes scientific excellence in Africa by awarding annual prizes to eminent African researchers.
- ASRT acts as the main technical branch of the Egyptian Knowledge Bank which is the world’s largest digital library and online repository. The Bank provides massive scientific resources exclusively to Egyptians while promoting open science and research integrity.
- ASRT is a main publisher in the region and coordinates a large number of journals and local periodicals including the Egyptian Journal of Microbiology, Egyptian Journal of Chemistry, Middle East Journal of Therapeutic Nutrition and Complementary Medicine, Egyptian Journal of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, and the Egyptian Journal of Radiation Sciences and Applications.
- Responding rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, ASRT published a strategic study entitled ‘COVID and Post-COVID Priorities and Preparedness of Science, Technology and Innovation in Egypt’. One of the main recommendations of this study was the need to establish an Egyptian Reference Genome to continue advancing knowledge in personalized and precision medicine. Sound knowledge of the Egyptian genome and related diseases is essential to direct effective preventive, diagnostic and counselling services for prevalent genetic diseases in Egypt.
Following a competitive call from ASRT for the ‘Egypt Genome project’, a consortium, headed by the Egypt Center for Research and Regenerative Medicine (ECRRM), was awarded the grant. The national project for Egyptian reference genome was launched in 2021 with the support of ASRT and total Egyptian governmental funding of $62 million for the first 5 year phase.
The aim of the project is to establish a benchmark genome centre, create a map of the Egyptian human genome, and thereby discover and accurately determine the genetic characteristics of various diseases. The project’s scope covers three categories: the population genome, the genome of ancient Egyptians, and diseased genome.
By advancing the practice of medical genetics and genomics across the country through this large-scale project, ASRT is shifting the approach from ‘one-size-fits-all’ to more personalized healthcare.
ASRT has participated in several co-funded programs including EuroNanoMed and EraPerMED and key initiatives such as Africa-PerMed. ASRT is a member of JPIAMR and the new ERA4HEALTH.
and finally, did you know?
Foundation facts: