Innovations for Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Challenge 2025

This Grand Challenges RFP will identify and select the first projects within the consortium. The focus of this RFP will be on the discovery of antibiotics with broad spectrum activity against Enterobacteriaceae, using Klebsiella spp. as the pathogen to initiate a discovery program.

The Challenge 

• The ultimate objective of Gr-ADI will be to enable discovery of safe and simple first-line broad-spectrum drugs for syndromic management, through:
  • Development of novel and emerging biological, chemical, and AI tools that could be applied broadly for antibiotic discovery to identify new antibiotic targets.
  • Application of these innovative approaches to generate chemical starting points for project-based drug discovery.
  • Fostering a collective mindset to address gaps in knowledge, solve problems, and manage a portfolio of targets and hits.

Themes

• Proposals must address at least one of the following themes:
  • Development of genome-scale tools or other innovative technologies to identify new chemical starting points linked to targets as well as assessment of potential drug target vulnerability, singly or in combination.
  • Development of innovative technologies to select targets and chemical leads with a very high bar to resistance.
  • Gaining a better understanding of the chemistry underlying penetration of compounds to different compartments of the bacterial cell to build a platform to rapidly test whether compounds reach and accumulate at their target.
  • Development of novel and coordinated approaches to identifying new chemical leads for clinically or in vivo validated drug targets, for which there is currently no agent in Phase 3. 

Funding Information

• Projects with a duration of up to three years and a maximum requested budget of $5,000,000 USD are eligible for funding.

Eligibility Criteria 

• This initiative is open to nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions.
• Only individuals who are applying through a legally recognized corporate entity are eligible.
• They particularly encourage applications from institutions based in LMICs and projects led by women and other groups that are historically underrepresented in the drug discovery field. All applications received will then be reviewed on their merits.
• Lead applicants must be able to demonstrate the experience needed to drive and lead a project and to deliver on the objectives.
• Applications can be from multi- and inter-disciplinary teams, and they encourage lead applicants to put together diverse teams, promoting a diverse, inclusive, and supportive research environment.
• Researchers may participate as co-applicants or collaborators on multiple proposals but may submit only one application as a lead applicant to this RFP. If researchers are co-applicants or collaborators on multiple proposals, they must be able to demonstrate that they can dedicate enough time and resources to all projects if all the projects they are involved in are funded.

Ineligibility Criteria

• They will not consider funding proposals that:
  • Do not directly address the core objectives as outlined above. Proposals not focused on direct acting small molecules (e.g. vaccines, phages, peptides, microbiome) would not be in scope.
  • Do not include Klebsiella spp.
  • Use surrogate organisms to develop tools or identify leads that will then need to be validated in pathogens of interest.
  • Are focused solely on basic exploratory scientific research without a direct connection to or impact on advancing antibiotic discovery. There must be a component of development of novel tools and technologies or methodologies.
  • Focus on development of technologies that do not have a direct link to development of small molecules.

For more information, visit Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.