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Researcher receives Gates foundation grant
Glenna Bett will use her grant from the Gates foundation to develop a device that could make childbirth safer worldwide. Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE
A UB medical school faculty member has received a grant from the Grand Challenges Explorations program, a $100 million global health research initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Glenna Bett, assistant professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, will use the $100,000 grant to develop a device to treat postpartum hemorrhage.
Bett’s co-principal investigator on the grant is Randall Rasmusson, professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the medical school.
The researchers will use the Grand Challenges Explorations grant to develop a postpartum hemorrhage treatment device suitable for use even when medical facilities are absent or minimal, and in non-sterile environments. If successful, such a device has the potential to reduce perinatal deaths worldwide.
The Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) program funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Bett’s project is one of more than 85 Grand Challenges Explorations Round 6 grants announced recently by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“GCE winners are expanding the pipeline of ideas for serious global health and development challenges where creative thinking is most urgently needed. These grants are meant to spur on new discoveries that could ultimately save millions of lives,” said Chris Wilson, director of global health discovery at the Gates foundation.
To receive funding, Bett and other Grand Challenges Explorations Round 6 winners demonstrated a bold idea in one of five critical global heath and development topic areas: polio eradication, HIV, sanitation and family health technologies, and mobile health.
Launched in 2008, Grand Challenge Explorations grants already have been awarded to nearly 500 researchers from more than 40 countries. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process, with s short two-page online application and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded twice a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to $1 million.
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