In this new series, GOBEL will be highlighting recent transformational generosity seen around the globe. In today’s post, $10M+ USD gifts from Europe are highlighted.
Europe
£1B Invested In The Future Of UK Discovery Science – July 2022
The Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, and Wellcome have announced £1B of funding for the Francis Crick Institute helping secure the future of the UK as a scientific leader. The investment will cover the next seven years and go towards expanding the Francis Crick Institute’s scientific work, forging connections across the country and beyond in support of the ambition to make the UK into a place where researchers work at the forefront of global innovation.
Wellcome, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Provide $550M For TB Vaccine Development – June 2023
Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced funding to advance a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate, M72/AS01E (M72), through a Phase III clinical trial. If proven effective, M72 could potentially become the first new vaccine to help prevent pulmonary TB, a form of active TB, in more than 100 years. To support the M72 Phase III clinical trial, which will cost an estimated US$550 million, Wellcome is providing up to $150M and the Gates Foundation will fund the remainder, about $400M. Conducted in collaboration with an international consortium of TB clinical investigators, the trial will enroll approximately 26,000 people, including people living with HIV and without TB infection, at more than 50 trial sites in Africa and Southeast Asia.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Agence Française de Développement announced the launch of a new strategic partnership funding projects supporting gender equality and human development across Africa and South Asia. The partnership draws on up to $240M in funding, including a $20 million grant from BMGF, matched by a $20 million grant from AFD in addition to up to $200 million of concessional lending. This partnership will support projects that focus on mother and child’s health, sexual and reproductive health, social protection, water and sanitation, nutrition, and climate resilience.
Wyss Foundation Donates CHF 108M ($114.7M USD) To Wyss Zurich Translational Center – February 2023
The Wyss Foundation is excited to announce a CHF (Swiss Franc) 108M ($114.7M USD) grant to support the Wyss Zurich Translational Center, an innovation hub in Switzerland translating research into clinical use and market solutions. The Wyss Zurich Translational Center is a joint accelerator of the University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. It was established to foster translational research focused on developing treatment protocols and clinical therapies, as well as novel technologies and intelligent systems, in the emerging fields of regenerative medicine, robotics, and medical devices/bionics technologies. Wyss Zurich unites world-leading experts from both institutions in multidisciplinary teams, pooling their knowledge and expertise.
£50M Philanthropic Fund To Support Translational Science At The Francis Crick Institute – April 2022
The Francis Crick Institute, supported by Cancer Research UK, has received a pledge from the Chris Banton Foundation. The gift enabled the establishment of a £50M research fund, dedicated to accelerating the translation of Crick discoveries and ideas into societal benefit, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of human disease.
IQVIA and (RED) joined the Abbott Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in a $54M catalytic fund. The Laboratory Systems Integration Fund aims to advance laboratory systems’ readiness and capability ratings in over a dozen low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to detect and respond to potential local health threats before they become global pandemics. The IQVIA-(RED) impact partnership will invest $5M in the Laboratory Systems Integration Fund. Doubling this impact, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match every dollar from the partnership to the Global Fund. The Laboratory Systems Integration Fund has already received pledges from The Rockefeller Foundation, which has committed $15M, with the Abbott Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the global health care company Abbott, pledging an additional $5M. On top of these commitments, the Global Fund intends to invest an additional $29M. This brings the total investment capacity of the catalytic fund to more than $54M.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Invests £30M In UK Biobank – September 2022
UK Biobank, the large-scale biomedical database and research resource, together with the Medical Research Council; Calico Life Sciences, a biotechnology organization founded by Alphabet and Arthur D. Levinson; and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropy founded by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, today announced an ambitious project to conduct a repeat set of imaging scans on 60,000 UK Biobank participants. This £30M project will capture a repeated set of highly-detailed, multi-organ images from a large cohort of participants, allowing researchers to assess changes in physiology over time. This effort will enable a better understanding of the trajectory of major chronic diseases of mid-to-later life and enable researchers to explore the mechanisms through which diseases occur in individuals.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria celebrated the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation pledge of $33M to accelerate progress in the fight against HIV transmission in up to five priority countries. The Global Fund intends to further match this commitment with at least $1.5 for every $1 committed by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
GAVI Receives $30M To Support Covid-19 Response – 2020
Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin donated $30M to support GAVI’s response to COVID-19 and help protect the world against new outbreaks of other infectious diseases.
The Kellner Family Foundation Donates CZK500M To Build Cancer Research Centre – April 2023
The Kellner Family Foundation formally agreed with Motol University Hospital and the Ministry of Health to build a Scientific and Diagnostic Oncology Centre at the Motol Hospital grounds. The Foundation will donate CZK500M towards the project, CZK300M being allocated to the research facility’s construction, and the remaining CZK200M for later use by the centre to support scientific research and to purchase equipment once the centre opens in spring 2026. According to the agreement, the Ministry of Health will provide CZK240M from its own resources to purchase the centre’s instruments and internal equipment. The agreement also includes a commitment that the research centre may use the memory of Petr Kellner’s name in commemoration.
Malaria Consortium Receives $10M From Mackenzie Scott – April 2023
Malaria Consortium announced a gift of $10M from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. The generous one-time gift, the largest single unrestricted donation received by Malaria Consortium, will enable them to operate with greater agility in addressing the underlying challenges driving health inequity and develop its organizational resilience to create and sustain impact in the longer term.
Did we miss one? Email us at research@gobelgroup.com! To catch up on our previous posts in this series CLICK HERE.
