The Gates Foundation has announced a new Grand Challenges initiative aimed at revolutionising how women’s health is measured and understood globally. The Request for Proposals (RFP) on “Innovative Data and Modeling Approaches to Measure Women’s Health” seeks groundbreaking solutions that go beyond traditional indicators like the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY).
The foundation is offering grants of up to $150,000 per project for 18-24 months to develop new methodologies that better capture the multidimensional nature of women’s health outcomes.
Women’s health remains under-represented and inadequately measured in global health frameworks. Current methodologies fail to account for gender-sensitive and multidimensional factors, resulting in limited insights for policymakers and health professionals.
The initiative builds on the Women’s Health Innovation Opportunity Map 2023, a collaborative effort involving over 250 stakeholders across 50 countries that identified critical gaps in women’s health measurement.
The programme specifically targets nonprofits, for-profit companies, international organisations, government agencies, and academic institutions. The foundation is particularly encouraging applications from women-led organisations, early-career researchers, and institutions based in low- and middle-income countries.
Successful proposals will need to demonstrate innovative thinking in modelling women’s health while utilising existing or feasible-to-collect datasets. The foundation has stated that proposals should adopt intersectional approaches that address economic, social, and structural health disparities.
Projects must focus on at least one of three key areas: the impact of gender disparities in education and workforce participation on health; the influence of healthcare systems and financing on women’s access to essential services; or the relationship between health outcomes and women’s financial independence, caregiving burdens, and workforce inclusion.
This is an opportunity for researchers to play a critical role in reshaping how women’s health is understood and addressed globally.
The foundation will not consider proposals that focus solely on new data collection without novel analytical components, implement health interventions without measurement elements, or lack gender-sensitive approaches.
The application deadline has been set for March 25, 2025.
More information about the application process, eligibility criteria, and programme details can be found on the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges website.
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