Grand Challenges — Ultralow-Cost Diagnostics and Screening for Low-Income Countries

Grand Challenges — Micronutrient Absorption Barriers in Fortified Foods

Funds global teams researching novel approaches to overcome infection, inflammation, and microbiome-related barriers that reduce the effectiveness of food fortification programs.

Eligibility · Open globally to all countries

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

This Grand Challenge is run by the Gates Foundation under its Grand Challenges program. It funds research that identifies and overcomes physiological barriers — chronic inflammation, gut microbiome disruption, environmental enteric dysfunction — that prevent food fortification programs from delivering micronutrients effectively in low-resource settings. Awards are up to $250,000 per project with an 18-month grant term. All stages of development are accepted from discovery R&D through proof-of-concept.

The program is particularly interested in novel product ideas, new scientific approaches, and discovery R&D on unanswered biological questions. Solutions can be products or strategic scientific approaches. Eligible work includes: novel biomarkers to identify populations with impaired nutrient utilization; fortification formulations optimized for inflammatory states; microbiome-modulating or anti-inflammatory strategies combined with fortification; and gut-repair interventions.

For-profit companies, nonprofits, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions worldwide are eligible to apply. No company-age, revenue, or citizenship restrictions are stated. Multi-stakeholder collaborations are encouraged, and LMIC collaborators are particularly welcome. All applicants must comply with the Gates Foundation's global access requirements. Individuals classified as individuals for U.S. tax purposes are not eligible.

Applications are submitted through the Gates Foundation Grand Challenges portal. The 2026 cycle opened March 17 and closed April 28, 2026. Decisions expected by end of August 2026. Budget must be commensurate with scope; indirect costs included within the $250,000 total.

The program explicitly excludes: agricultural and plant biology topics, live biotherapeutics with regulatory challenges in food, public health data collection and population status assessment, policy making and advocacy, and commercialization or marketing only.