Some big names are joining forces to find solutions to global health challenges.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust will each invest USD 300m in a three-year project to promote global health. The organizations have already committed USD 100m.

The aim of the collaboration is to support research to find solutions to the health challenges faced by people in low- and middle-income countries. In particular, challenges that are a direct result of the climate crisis are in focus, including the consequences for agriculture. The same applies to infectious diseases.

In addition, they want to gain a better understanding of the interplay between nutrition, immunity and disease.

All three foundations already have extensive experience in supporting health research.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation seeks to contribute to better prevention and treatment of, for example, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease through its support for research.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, supports a wide range of projects in different areas. These include gender equality, education and health.

Wellcome is a UK-based foundation that focuses on mental health, climate change and infectious diseases.

When three organizations with different experiences and expertise come together in a project like this, it can help create results that would not otherwise be possible, says Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

”I am particularly excited about the chance to break down barriers between often isolated areas of work—between cardiometabolic and infectious diseases, or between scientific discovery and delivery of solutions, for example—and support the development of truly innovative solutions that can improve, and save, lives,” he says in the announcement.

The announcement comes ahead of a global health summit in Elsinore on Monday organized by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which Bill Gates and Wellcome Trust CEO John-Arne Røttingen will attend. 

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Catherine Brett)