Who we are
Grand Challenges Senegal is a not-for-profit innovation fund, hosted by the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) foundation. The purpose of Grand Challenges Senegal is to advance the ecosystem for public health innovation in Africa. Grand Challenges Senegal will deploy grant funding to test new ideas led by innovators working in the region and African scientists in the diaspora.
Grand Challenges Senegal was launched by the Government of Senegal in October 2022 with a vision to enable the next set of breakthroughs in discovery and translational life science in West Africa, with seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and ELMA Philanthropies.
Senegal is rapidly advancing with its strategy to manufacture countermeasures for epidemics, starting with vaccines and diagnostics, and the ecosystem the country builds post-COVID represents an unparalleled opportunity to simultaneously enhance its research and development (R&D) environment.
Grand Challenges initiatives are united by their focus on fostering innovation, directing research to where it will have the most impact, and serving those most in need. Grand Challenges Senegal will be no different and prioritize innovators that a) integrate across disciplines and converge solutions, b) prioritize Senegal as a setting to exemplify the work but with regional impact and potential for reach, and c) apply the very latest science into an ecosystem that is evolving into a hub for translational impact and production.
Scope
Grand Challenges Senegal has been established to:
- Support existing grantees of Grand Challenges initiatives in Africa, particularly those supported by Grand Challenges Africa, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and Grand Challenges for Development USAID.
- Advance life science innovation and public health in Africa
- Elevate the work and profile of Senegalese and African innovators in Africa and innovators among the diaspora across the globe.
- Deploy the Grand Challenges funding model in Africa, with a particular focus on the ECOWAS region
- Support the innovation pipeline from discovery to development to deployment
Principles
The guiding principles of Grand Challenges Senegal are the same as those advanced by Grand Challenges Africa:
- Projects and investigators will make equitable access commitments to ensure the fruits of their research are available to those most in need.
- Strategic and well-articulated grand challenges will serve both to focus research efforts and to engage Africa’s best innovators.
- Projects will be selected based on public, transparent calls for proposals seeking the best ideas.
- Funders, investigators, and other stakeholders will actively collaborate and integrate advances to ensure these advances serve those most in need.
- Projects will be selected not only for scientific excellence, but also for their likelihood to achieve the desired impact. They must be milestone-driven and actively managed to that end.
Governance
The Board provides oversight of Grand Challenges Senegal innovation fund, supported by independent reviewers of project proposals. Reviewers are recruited from Senegal and across Africa and scientists of the diaspora across the globe.
