The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced $250 million in new funding for its Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, which was established to support world-class research on the diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing world.

The initiative, which was launched in 2003 with an initial foundation commitment of $200 million, is administered jointly by the National Institutes of Health and the Gates Foundation. This summer, the initiative will announce its first round of grants for an array of innovative research and development efforts selected from more than fifteen hundred proposals and seventy-five countries.

"The overwhelming response demonstrates that when scientists are given a chance to study questions that could save millions of lives, they eagerly rise to the challenge," said Bill Gates. "There is tremendous untapped potential in the scientific community to address the diseases of the developing world. We've barely scratched the surface of what's possible."