2014-2019

The HealthSIM project, led by Dr Jim Duggan at the IT Discipline, is one of the worldwide winners of the Grand Challenges Explorations Grant, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.  The grant supports groundbreaking research in global health and development.

The idea of the HealthSIM project is to design, implement and test a cloud-based public health supply chain simulator. This will create a virtual laboratory for public health officials in low and middle income countries, supporting learning, information sharing, and decision making within the health supply chain. 

In welcoming the funding, lead investigator on the project, Dr Jim Duggan said:

“We are delighted to receive this generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to work on a project with such high impact potential.

“The project highlights the exciting potential of collaborating with public health professionals to apply computer science and mathematics to help address sustainable development challenges.

“It is highly interdisciplinary, and involves collaboration with our colleagues in the School of Medicine, and also our international partners from our recent EU-funded PANDEM* project.”

Grand Challenges Explorations is a $100 million initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Since 2008, over 1,365 projects in more than 65 countries have received the grants.

NUI Galway’s Vice-President for Research, Professor Lokesh Joshi, commented:

“Grand Challenges Explorations is identifying some of the most pressing problems of our times and rallying scientists and innovators around the world to come up with real solutions.

“We look forward to the work Jim Duggan and his team will do to help create a smoother pipeline in the supply of lifesaving medicines and care.”

 Grand Challenges