Drivers of Food Choice: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grant Opportunity of $5,500,000

Deadline: 1 August 2014

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with the UK Department of International Development (DFID) call Concept Memo from organizations willing to design and manage small grants program to conduct research on the drivers of food choice among poor people in developing countries.

The grant recipient will design and competitively tender a research call and award and manage up to 15 small research grants to the sub-grant recipients.

Program includes

1. Capacity strengthening for research on food choice in Africa and South Asia
2. Systematic communication of research findings to enhance research uptake and provide a strong link between research and policy processes

Grant amount under this call is $5,500,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants can be academic and research institutions, civil society and commercial organizations (including operational development and communications organizations).
• Applicant organizations must have demonstrated competency to run competitive research grant programs, strengthen research capacity and generate research uptake.
• Applicants are expected to have demonstrated experience with global nutrition issues and evaluation methods.
• Proposed submission should align with the goals of DFID and the foundation’s research strategies in agriculture and nutrition.
• Proposed submission must include  a list of the proposed research themes on food choice on which a Request for Applications would be based; a strong plan to empower developing country researchers; and a plan to share research findings through publications or other means.
• The submission must propose to strengthen or build a community of practice for shared learning.
• The submission must demonstrate an understanding of how research findings might translate into policy or program advancement; and good value for money.
• Organizations whose concept Memos are selected are invited to submit full proposal. Notifications will be made by 24 October 2014.
• Submissions exceeding 5 pages will not be reviewed.

For more information, please visit RFP Summary Drivers of Food Choice. Please click See Full RFA and Submit a Concept Memo and create an account (if you do not have yet) to be able to access the guidelines.