Grant proposals for the first round of Grand Challenges Explorations were accepted from March 31 to May 30, 2008.  Almost 4,000 applications were received for Round 1, from all levels of scientists in more than 100 countries.  Acceptance and decline letters have been sent to each applicant informing them of the funding decision.  Accepted projects will be publicly announced in early October.

We received many more applications than we are able to support for Round 1.  If your application was not accepted for Round 1, we invite you to consider revising the proposal and applying for future funding rounds.  While we are not able to provide individual feedback to applicants, a number of applications were declined because the proposal did not directly address one of the topics for Round 1, did not propose an idea that was significantly different from current approaches, or were incomplete.

Grant proposals for Round 2 are being accepted now through November 2, 2008, in six topic areas.  If you are interested in applying, please confirm that your proposal directly addresses one of the Round 2 funding topics, offers a creative approach to the problem, and clearly outlines an objective to be accomplished within the timeframe of the grant period.

Additional application information is available here.

For more information about Round 2, please visit the Grand Challenges Explorations page at http://www.gcgh.org/Explorations/Pages/Introduction.aspx.