Partners

Partners

Grand Challenges India (GCI) was born out of the partnership of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2012 with the aim to encourage Indian innovation and research to develop affordable and sustainable solutions to improve health and well- being in India and then across the globe. In 2016, Wellcome Trust also joined the partnership.

We won't be able to fulfill our objectives on our own. We collaborate and each partner has a unique role to play in driving progress. Our partners are individually and collectively committed to the vision of improving lives by harnessing the potential that cutting edge science and research have to offer.

Funding partner

DBT-emblem-logo

The Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India (DBT) is the designated representative of the India side of the joint partnership.

The Department of Biotechnology was set up in 1986, making India one of the few countries in the world, at the time that had a government body dedicated solely to the advancement of biotechnology to improve peoples’ lives.

Today, the DBT not only encourages innovation in biotechnology, by funding research organizations and forming strategic partnerships with industry across the country, but also encourages research in social areas such as healthcare, nutrition and food security, environmental sustainability and energy security. DBT also works through international collaborations and partnerships with organizations in multiple countries across the world.

Please visit the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India website for further details on the work of the Department.


 

Gates-Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.

The foundation’s work in India started a decade ago with the purpose of developing a model HIV-prevention program. Since then, its work has expanded to include maternal and child health, health and nutrition services, vaccines and routine immunization, family planning, agricultural development, sanitation, control of infectious diseases, and financial inclusion. Together with its partners, the foundation aims to deliver results none of them could achieve by acting alone.

Please visit the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for further details on the work of the Foundation.


 

WT-logo

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation, based out of London UK, dedicated to improving health that supports bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.

Please visit the Wellcome Trust website for further details


 

Implementing partner

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Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.

BIRAC is a new industry-academia interface and implements its mandate through a wide range of impact initiatives, be it providing access to risk capital through targeted funding, technology transfer, IP management and handholding schemes that help bring innovation excellence to the biotech firms and make them globally competitive. In its three years of existence, BIRAC has initiated several schemes, networks and platforms that help to bridge the existing gaps in the industry-academia Innovation research and facilitate novel, high quality affordable products development through cutting edge technologies. BIRAC has initiated partnerships with several national and global partners to collaborate and deliver the salient features of its mandate.

Please visit the BIRAC website for further details