The 30th of August 2023 marks an important milestone to launch Grand Challenges Malawi program at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC), Lilongwe, Malawi. Our goal is to support the most creative scientists in Malawi to collaborate with their partners in Africa and globally, to implement research that fosters innovation in solving the most critical development challenges in Malawi and Africa.

GOALS/OBJECTIVES:

1. To strengthen the national innovation ecosystem and build capacity and capability of local researchers/ innovators and R&D infrastructure
2. To leverage resources and expertise from public, private and development partners for effective and efficient execution of priority areas of research and innovations
3. To optimize financing of the value chain of research and innovation from ideation, discovery, development, delivery and transition to scale
4. To launch a request for proposal (RFP) to solicit applications from scientists in
5. Malawi to collaborate with their partners in Africa and globally, to implement
research that fosters innovation in solving the most critical development challenges.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

1. A request for proposal (RFP) is launched on research that fosters innovation to solve the most critical development challenges in Malawi and Africa;
2. A summary of strategies to support improved R&D and innovation funding towards AU target of 1% R&D funding as a percentage of national GDP;
3. Abroad network of African and global partners established to share ideas and resources to advance R&D and innovation development agenda to promote scientific research excellence and scale and make valuable contributions to society

Priority Areas

1. Health, Humanitarian and Climate change linkage
2. Health and Well being
3. Energy Generation and Supply
4. Agricultural productivity and Commercialization

For more details, download the documents below:

Grand Launch Magazine

Strategy for grand challenges Malawi

GCM – New GC call under MNCH

The Africa Open Lab 2025 Call for proposals

The Africa Open Lab 2025 Call for proposals is now open to receiving concept notes from early career researchers in sub–Saharan Africa. With up to £100,000 per award, mentoring, and scientific support, this program is focused on building local research capacity and supporting impactful research in infectious diseases including malaria, Tuberculosis, enteric diseases and drug-resistant bacterial infections.

Concept proposals can be submitted via this link: GSK’s Supported Studies Program: https://iss.gsk.com/Posting.aspx?ID=16