Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) jointly funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Ministry of Science and Technology Government of India & Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has announced a 6th call under Grand Challenges India program, titled “ki (knowledge integration) Data challenge in Maternal and Child Health” that aims to diversify the scope of data analytics which can be explored to improve the lives of mother and child.

The program seeks proposals designed to answer critical scientific questions related to maternal and child health and development outcomes, using innovative data analytics and modeling approaches applied to HBGDki India or to other relevant data sets that applicants can access. These proposals should be based on existing primary data in India and yield actionable results with a potential to significantly impact public health policy.

Priorities

RFP gives highest priority to proposals that:

• Support innovative collaborations between Indian clinical research scientists, healthcare experts, and data scientists/data modellers;
• Answer critical scientific questions identified in this Grand Challenges India call, while building and strengthening data science capacity for India;
• Take into account social, environmental and cultural determinants of outcomes and incorporates an understanding of the target community that includes barriers and constraints to delivery of interventions and to implementation of government programs;
• Explain how answers will have the highest likelihood of being relevant for implementation broadly in the public health system.
• Describe mechanistic models for establishing the relationship between interventions and their related outcomes.

Funding Information

Proposal for developing data analytics approaches (12-18 months): Funded at up to $100,000 USD per project and are meant to provide an opportunity to test particularly bold ideas, including applying approaches from outside the field or that bridge fields.

Eligibility Criteria

• This RFP is exclusively India-led and the call is open to Indian academics, research institutions, companies, society, trusts and foundations.
• Project cost will be sanctioned to researchers and innovators who are Indian individuals or Indian entities, they also encourage partnerships with researchers of national/international expertise, subject to the call guidelines.

This call is open to:

• In case of the applicant being an Indian academic scientist, researchers and Ph.D students (citizen of India) who must be willing to incubate at a recognized incubator submit a letter of intent for same.
• Companies
• Companies incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 2013 having a minimum of 51% Indian ownership.
• Limited Liability Partnership
• Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 having a minimum half of the persons who subscribed their names to the LLP document as its Partners should be Indian citizens.
• Indian institution/ universities/ public research organization
• Academic institutions established in India and having NAAC/ UGC/ AICTE or any equivalent recognition certificate or any other Public/Government supported organization
• Society/ Trust/ NGO/ Foundation/ Association
• Society/ Trust/ NGO/ Foundation/ Association established in India under the relevant Indian Law having at least half of the stakeholders (partners/ trustees/ members/ associates etc.) as Indians.
• Experts of the relevant discipline as mentors or collaborators should be a part of the proposal such as clinical researchers, data analytics experts, m-health specialists, management experts, logistics experts and statisticians among others.
• Through national and international collaborations, they expect that sharing experimental methods, data, and resources will ultimately improve the data analytics approach and help developing tools that can have impact at a greater scale.

How to Apply:

Applicants can register themselves via following website.

http://birac.nic.in/grandchallengesindia/pages.php?pid=35

Eligible Country: India