Bill and Melinda Play Risk

摘要

The Bill and AAelinda Gates Foundation has announced a $100 million program to fund 1000 high-risk research projects. Tadataka "Tachi" Yamada, head of the Seattle foundation's global health program, says the focus will be in areas the charity already supports: infectious disease, maternal and newborn health, and nutrition, with the hopes that the research will complement the $436 million the philanthropy spread to 43 grant winners in its Grand Challenges in Global Health program. Proposals can run no more than two pages, and decisions will be made within 3 months, with the first grants going out in the second half of 2008. Yamada says the relatively small, roughly $100,000 awards should allow scientists to test novel ideas and reveal "Is this really wacko or does it have life?"