The Gates Foundation’s Nutrition team has announced an open call on http://www.gatesfoundation.org to solicit concept memos for a Development of innovative imaging or other technologies to measure individuals’ dietary intakes RFP. Links to the RFP page with more details can be found below. Any questions about the RFP can be sent to NutritionRFP@gatesfoundation.org.
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Full Title: Development of innovative imaging or other technologies to measure individuals’ dietary intakes
Abbreviated Title: Development of innovative technology to measure individual dietary intake
Purpose: To develop two new forms of dietary assessment technology, based on image capture and, possibly, image recognition: 1) active image capture in the form of manual photos or video images, and 2) fully automated, passive image capture (in the form of video, either real-time or in time intervals) of food preparation and consumption; and field testing to validate new technology against reference dietary intake assessment methods. Image recognition software should be applied, if possible, to identify foods consumed. Food intake and food composition data should be linked to enable conversion of food intake to nutrient intake.
Instructions: The Request for Proposal Application provides further detail on the background and scope for this open call for concept memos. A Concept Memo, along with biographical information, should be submitted no later than 22 July 2016, 11:59 pm PST. The Gates Foundation will evaluate the concept memos, and applicants who propose projects of further interest to the Gates Foundation will be invited in August 2016 to prepare full proposals. These time periods are subject to change. Instructions on the preparation of full proposals will be provided to selected applicants. Due to expected high volumes, the Gates Foundation will not be able to provide individual feedback for concept memos not selected for submission of full proposals.
To apply, click on this link to access the Grant Seekers RFP submission site. If you are new to this site, you may need to create a login in order to start the application process. When uploading your submission in the Upload Files tab of your application, please upload the Concept Memo to section 3) Upload the Completed Files, and upload the biographical information to section 4) Optional: upload other files relevant to your application.
Please note: If you start working on your application and would like to finish and submit it at another time prior to the due date, log back in at https://unison.gatesfoundation.org in order to access your application.
Abstract: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is committed to ensuring that all women and children have the nutrition they need to live healthy and productive lives. Globally, 45% of deaths of children under age 5 are attributable to undernutrition. For those who survive, undernutrition causes permanent physical and cognitive impairments–reducing a child’s future productivity and earnings as an adult. By increasing our investment in nutrition over the next six years, we are working to spur continued commitment and accelerated action on nutrition in order to avert morbidity and mortality attributable to malnutrition. For more information on the foundation’s Nutrition Strategy, see http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Nutrition.
Currently, one of the critical barriers to establishing recommendations for optimal nutrition in vulnerable populations and for informing nutrition policies and programs, such as food fortification or dietary supplementation, is the lack of up-to-date, comprehensive and reliable data on individual dietary intake, particularly in low income country (LIC) settings. Furthermore, there is a high demand for dietary measurement approaches that reduce the personnel requirements and time commitment required, improve the quality of information collected and simplify the processing, analysis, and interpretation of data.
The grant(s) selected through this RFP process will support development and evaluation of novel technologies to collect and interpret individual food preparation and consumption data using imaging methods to measure food intake and appropriate software to recognize individual and mixed foods, quantities consumed, and convert food intake to nutrient intake.
Start Date: 6/13/2016
Close Date: 7/22/2016