On November 4, 2014, Grand Challenges Explorations grants were announced for 61 researchers from around the world. Each will receive $100,000 to conduct early-stage research projects focusing on one of five global health and development challenges selected for this Round.

On November 4, 2014, Grand Challenges Explorations grants were announced for 61 researchers from around the world. Each will receive $100,000 to conduct early-stage research projects focusing on one of five global health and development challenges selected for this Round.

Grand Challenges Explorations Round 13 Highlights

Explore New Ways to Measure Fetal and Infant Brain Development (Round 13)

Shannon Ross-Sheehy of East Tennessee State University in the U.S. will study whether simply monitoring eye movements in infants can be used to measure their neural development.

Using Eye Movements To Assess Functional Brain Development in Infants

Grand Challenges Explorations Round 13 Grants

Grand Challenges Explorations

Photo Galleries

Photo Gallery

Inciting Healthy Behaviors: Nudge, Disrupt, Leapfrog, Reach (Round 13)

Marilyn Nations from the University of Fortaleza in Brazil will evaluate a program established in 1990 at a public hospital in Fortaleza that was designed to increase bonding between fathers and their newborns and thereby improve overall health, as well as reducing crime rates.

Father-Baby Bonding for Infant Health and Family Nonviolence

Inciting Healthy Behaviors

New Ways of Working Together: Community-Based Interventions (Round 13)

Zvi Bentwich of Ben Gurion University in Isreal will support mass drug eradication efforts against parasitic worm infections in Ethiopia by implementing in parallel a health education campaign run by local students and the provision of clean water and sanitation facilities.

Behavioral Change and WASH are Essential for Control of NTD

Community-Based Interventions

Jamie Edgin of the University of Arizona in the U.S. will determine whether the quality of sleep in infants can predict the level of specific brain functions such as language and cognition later in childhood.

Sleep Quality as a Marker of Early Brain Development

Brain Development / Gestational Age

Novel Enabling Tools and Models Supporting Development of Interventions for Enteric Dysfunction (Round 13)

Linda Saif from Ohio State University in the U.S. will develop a pig model to recapitulate the vicious cycle of malnutrition and repeated enteric infections seen in young children in developing countries in order to study the underlying biology and identify effective treatments.

Childhood Malnutrition and Enteric Infections

Diarrhea and Enteric Dysfunction

Anne de Groot of GAIA Vaccine Foundation in the U.S. will use printed West African Cloth to educate women on the benefits of screening and vaccinating against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer.

Textiles as Teaching Device to Prevent Cervical Cancer

Mbutolwe Mwakitalu of the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania will expand treatment of parasitic worm infections to nomads in Tanzania by coupling the provision of anthelmintic drugs with drugs and vaccines for livestock, which are highly valued by this community.

Integrating MDA for NTDs with Livestock Services in Nomadics

Farrah Mateen of Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. will measure the thickness of the retina in children from Zimbabwe over the first five years of life using a handheld optical coherence tomography device to determine whether they can identify abnormal brain development in low-income settings.

Handheld Retinal Measurements to Assess Early Brain Growth

Innovations in Feedback and Accountability Systems for Agricultural Development (Round 13)

Evelyne Kiptot from the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya will evaluate whether television programs can teach innovative agricultural practices to dairy farmers, and whether mobile phones can be used to measure their performance.

The Power of TV in Triggering Feedback Through Mobile Phones

Agricultural Development

Laura Goetzl of Temple University in the U.S. will analyze whether the presence of specific microRNAs in maternal blood during early pregnancy can act as biomarkers of fetal neurodevelopment.

Maternal Blood Biomarkers to Assess Fetal Neurodevelopment

Susana Nery of the University of Queensland in Australia will test whether soil transmitted helminth infections in school children from developing countries can be better controlled by providing deworming and improved hygiene practices to an entire community as opposed to just the schools, which is the current WHO recommendation.

School Versus Community-integrated Deworming and WASH for STH Control

John Spencer of the University of Iowa in the U.S. will utilize functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure brain activity during specific tasks and during resting states in young children of different ages to determine how they change over time.

Measuring Changes in Functional Brain Activity with fNIRS

Brain Development / Gestational Age: Measuring Changes in Functional Brain Activity with fNIRS

Carson Meredith from Georgia Tech in the U.S. will determine whether pollen can measure gut function by assessing mucus qualities, which vary along the gastrointestinal tract particularly in children with enteric diseases.

Pollen-Based Assays of Intestinal Mucus Water Content and Rheology

Hans Super of Braingaze in Spain will develop a low-cost application for smart phones that can measure eye vergence, which is when the two eyes align on one object, as a potential proxy for cognitive development in infants.

Monitoring Brain Development in Infants by Eye Measurements

Kumanan Wilson of Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada will analyze whether specific metabolic analytes found in blood spots collected routinely from newborns in many countries can be used to accurately determine gestational age.