Biologists have been submitting research proposals in droves hoping to receive money from a new Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant program aimed at improving global health. As Yiwu He, Gates foundation senior program officer in global health, told me at a biomarker meeting in Philadelphia on Monday (May 19), the Gates Foundation has gotten about 5,000 proposals for the Grand Challenges Explorations program since registration opened at the end of March.

The program seeks to encourage and support research ideas that could lead to new vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, and other technologies targeting diseases that kill millions of people in the developing world.

In this first round of the program, funds will be awarded to research projects falling under four topics set out by the Gates Foundation: Explore the Basis of Latency In Tuberculosis, Create New Ways to Prevent or Cure HIV Infection, Create New Ways of Protecting Against Infectious Disease, Create New Drugs and Delivery Systems To Limit the Emergence of Resistance.

The program's funding structure is similar to the federal government's Small Business Innovation Research program, which supports research-based start-ups by providing progressively larger infusions of cash based on the success of programs. The Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations grants award successful researchers $100,000 at the start of their projects, then grant one million dollars at the end of 12 months if the research is showing continued promise.

Registrations are still being accepted online for the first round of funding, and final proposals are due by May 30. A second round of awards, which will focus on four different topics addressing global health, will begin sometime later this year, and He told me that approximately 100 round one awardees will be announced this September. He expects the program to include two rounds of funding per year for the next several years.