Introduction:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with the Grand Challenges Network, seeks innovative proposals to reduce the burden of preeclampsia, a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality, premature birth, stillbirth, and neonatal death.

General Description:
The call focuses on several key aspects:

• Early Prediction and Detection: Development of biomarkers (including those other than sFlt1 and PlGF), diagnostic tests, and point-of-care technologies to predict and diagnose preeclampsia early in pregnancy.
• Understanding Pathophysiology: Research to understand the biological mechanisms driving preeclampsia and its subtypes, including the roles of the placenta, endothelial function, immune response, and gut microbiota.
• Preventive and Therapeutic Interventions: Development of new approaches to reduce the incidence and severity of preeclampsia, mitigate disease progression, and prevent cardiovascular and metabolic complications.

Awards of up to $500,000 USD for each project, with a grant term of up to 2 years.

Eligibility Criteria

This initiative is open to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions. We particularly encourage applications involving projects led by women or from women-led organizations and applications from institutions based in low- and middle-income countries.

We are looking for proposals that:

• Identify biomarkers that easily, reliably, and affordably predict preeclampsia risk early in pregnancy
• Identify biochemical, genetic, epigenetic, or metabolomic signatures that can be translated into point-of-care tests
• Leverage innovations in mobile health, wearable sensors, or simple clinical algorithms to identify women at risk before symptoms become severe
• Identify the underlying biological mechanisms driving preeclampsia and its subtypes, including the roles of the placenta, endothelial function, immune response, and gut microbiota
• Identify preventive interventions synergistic with or additive to low-dose aspirin, such as nutritional, pharmacological, or lifestyle-related approaches to reduce the incidence or severity of preeclampsia
• Identify new drug candidates, therapeutics, or repurposed medications that safely mitigate preeclampsia progression without harming the fetus

In case of interest, please click on 'm'interessa' and we will contact you.