Bill Gates, one of the richest men on the planet is donating a £370,000 grant to scientists at the University of Southampton to help fund research into infectious diseases.
The man who founded Microsoft, who is renowned for his ability to jump over a chair from a standing position, as well as his philanthropy, has donated the money from his joint foundation fund that he runs with his wife, Melinda.
The money is being used to help build a correlation between investment and successful research in to these diseases.
Scientists will be able to study how the funds are allocated in relation to the success of the research. The results from this will be able to inform better research funding in the future.
The man who is leading the study is Dr. Stuart Clark, from the University’s faculty of medicine, said how:
We will quantify the contribution of research funds that these infections receive compared to research involving other pathogens that are important in human health.
He went on to add:
This will give policy makers a comprehensive picture of where there’s been a lack of funding relative to the impact of the disease and help to set global research investment priorities.
With infectious diseases such as ‘super bugs’ becoming more resistant to antibiotics the need for funding has never been greater.
In the past, documentation of funding allocation, and where it is successful, has not been well tracked, initiatives such as this hope to change that.
Bill Gates also funded a University of Southampton meningitis and pneumonia research project in 2009, to the tune of $100,000.
Let us know what you think about Bill Gates’ generous grant to the University of Southampton in the comments below.
Infection Diseases? Why is $100,000 in dollars and not pounds?
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Noted and changed the error, thanks.
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It was only reported in dollars, hard to get accurate information about what it would have been in pounds.
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The title is a bit misleading, Bill Gates didn’t personally donate the money to southampton. Sure it was his money but he didn’t choose to give it and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds a huge amount of scientific research.
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The Gates foundation funds loads of research at Southampton. A more interesting article would have been the total amount of money spent by Microsoft and the Gates foundation on research at Southampton, since it is likely to be in the millions.
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