Funding, News and Announcements

This call from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to fund pilot studies that investigate the biological effect of traditional locally fermented foods on key microbiome, gut, and health biomarkers in local populations.

The goal is to provide investigators in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with the resources to build local capacity to investigate fermented foods as novel maternal nutrition interventions. In particular, sequencing technology – a transformative tool that has enabled in-depth investigation of microbial communities – will be provided to all investigators to democratize the ability to investigate foods and health effects and build local capacity.

Proposals should address three core elements:

1. Identification of a local (geographic/cultural) fermented food for study
2. Pilot study design for longitudinal intervention study for understanding the effect of the fermented food in a naïve (no, or limited, fermented food consumption) population
3. Biological sample biobanking and characterization before and after food intervention

For 18-month projects, $200,000 USD in funding is available. Please note that $40,000 of the award will be used to cover the cost of sequencing technology.

More information, including the full competition guidelines, can be found online.

Deadlines

Internal: December 21, 2020 at 4:30pm. Contact ird@dal.ca

Funder: January 6, 2021 at 11:30am PST