Gates Foundation and Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS): Preventing Preterm Birth Initiative - Letter of Inquiry

To discover and develop novel interventions for prevention of preterm birth and stillbirth associated with preterm birth through analysis of underlying biological mechanisms, focusing on the roles of infection, inflammation, and nutrition in altering the course of pregnancy in the developing world. Successful proposals should address a hypothesis that lies along a critical path to practical, affordable, and scalable interventions to prevent preterm birth or stillbirth. While these studies will ultimately be centered on analysis of samples from human cohorts, studies evaluating hypotheses first in cellular or animal models are also encouraged.
We expect to fund a diverse group of investigators with skills and innovative approaches who will ultimately work together to interrogate hypotheses using state-of-the-art model systems. Collaboration and cooperation among Research Investigators will be strongly encouraged with preference for cross-disciplinary studies that could provide the most detailed interrogation of hypotheses, validation, and interventions appropriate to low-resource settings.
Funding: $2,000,000 for up to 4 years. This competition is expected to fund 6-10 grants.
http://gappsseattle.org/index.php/research/healthy_birth/
http://gappsseattle.org/docs/GAPPS_Preventing_Preterm_Birth_RFP.pdf