The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the foundation will invest $279 million in the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to expand its work over the next decade. The investment will give IHME the ability to work on providing independent health evidence to improve public health. The monetary investment will complement other investments by the Gates Foundation in the University of Washington’s work on the Population Health Initiative which was launched in May of last year. It aims to establish a university wide 25-year vision to advance the well-being and health of people globally.
According to Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHME provides important data on global health that influences world policymakers by identifying solutions to fight against diseases. IHME which is located within University of Washington Medicine, provides rigorous analysis and measurement of the world’s most costly and prevalent health problems. IHME evaluates strategies to address them.
The 10-year grant will further IHME’s work in tracking how health resources are spent throughout the world as well as innovations in identifying scenarios in the future which will allow decision-makers to set population health-related priorities and plan better contingencies. The grant will sustain IHME as the coordinating center for Global Burden of Disease project. With more than 2,000 researchers globally, this is the largest publishing collaboration in science. Core support for faculty, staff and students of IHME will also be supported by the grant given by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the IHME states that IHME is deeply grateful for the grant and the continued support from the foundation. According to him, the grant will not be simply a decision to continue outstanding analysis and research but it will also be a commitment to use health metric sciences to improve people’s lives.
The $279 million funding is the largest private donation in the history of the university and continues a long tradition of critical investments by the Gates Foundation to the University of Washington. Grant awards by the foundation include global health, education, library science, law and others. A total of nearly $1.25 billion funding has been given to the University of Washington by the foundation as reported in UW Today.
The grant comes after another large donation that the University of Washington received from the foundation. In October, UW received $210 million in order to help build a new facility. The new facility is to house the IHME as well as other public health and global health departments as reported in an article by CBS Seattle.
