Bass Connections provides students with greater exposure to inquiry across the disciplines, partnership with unlikely fellow thinkers, sustained mentorship in teams, and the chance to experience the intersections of the academy and the broader world.
 
Check out these Bass Connections projects and apply today!
 
Evaluation of Scaling Innovative Healthcare Delivery in East Africa  
What are the factors that affect scalability in healthcare innovation? How can social entrepreneurship impact the acceptance and success of new interventions? The goal of this Bass Connection Project is to increase our understanding of the drivers of scale for health-focused Social Entrepreneurs (SEs) and the impact of these organizations in improving the health and healthcare of their target populations. Learn more.
 
Chlorhexadine for Umbilical Cord Care (Graduate Students)
Each year 3 million newborns die globally, and infection causes approximately 13% of these deaths. Evidence supports that cleansing the cut cord with 7.1% chlorhexidine digluconate is a safe and cost-effective strategy to reduce neonatal mortality.  Through a year long class (Sep 2014 - May 2015) and field trip to Kenya (~ May 2015), students on this Bass team will explore global health topics, analyze CHX for Cord Care gaps and propose solutions to problems identified through their research.  Learn more.   
 
Technology & Innovation Policy Lab
 The Technology & Innovation Policy Lab combines Duke expertise on innovation policy and global development to advise development agencies on novel intellectual property (IP) strategies applicable to their growing investments in innovation for development. The Policy Lab will conduct empirical case studies of the business models, intellectual property strategies and regulatory context of innovators for development in both developed and developing countries.  Learn more.

Photo credit: USAID

On April 3rd, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah announced a new program to help lead the effort to end extreme poverty by 2030. The U.S. Global Development Lab will develop solutions to global problems using science and technology. The initiative brings together 31 Cornerstone Partners, including Walmart, DuPont, Coca-Cola, GlaxoSmithKline, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Duke University.

TIME writes, "Those partners are developing products that marry cost-effective strategies with science and technology, often creating simple strategies to tackle problems ranging from hunger to disease to literacy in the process. A group of Stanford University graduates are shopping a low-cost, environmentally friendly home lighting product that set out to reach 22 million people in Africa who currently rely on kerosene lamps to light their homes at night. USAID partners at Berkeley created a mobile application that can detect water borne diseases using an iPhone camera and parts built from a 3-D printer. And by working together, USAID hopes the solutions will reach a higher number of people at a faster pace.

'We see this as a transformation in how you do development,” said Lona Stoll of USAID. “By tapping into things that really make America what it is, which is our entrepreneurial spirit, our scientific expertise, and our real commitment to help people, you have a real ability to accelerate our impact.'"

By becoming a member of the SEAD SAC, you will have the opportunity to shape the field of social entrepreneurship education at Duke and network with key researchers, innovators, and faculty involved in social entrepreneurship!

What is the SEAD SAC?

The purpose of the SEAD SAC is to bring together diverse students interested in global health and social entrepreneurship with the goal of informing thought around global health and social entrepreneurship education, practice and research; students will contribute to institutionalization of programs that serve student needs in these areas. The Student Advisory Council will also foster cross-disciplinary student networking and collaboration in global health entrepreneurship. 

What is the SEAD SAC member obligation?

Members of the SEAD SAC will serve as a liaison between students and the SEAD program and are responsible for identifying, developing, implementing, and promoting a variety of activities that will inspire and actively engage students, as well as support them in their own pursuit of innovation in global health.  The SEAD SAC currently functions through three working groups, and each member is expected to be part of at least one group and contribute to its projects throughout the year.  The working groups are as follows:

1.       Academic: Focused on inspiring students through incorporation of global health innovation and social entrepreneurship into academic and co-curricular activities, such as course content/projects, speakers, workshops, and case competitions.

2.       Experiential:  Identify and promote experiential learning for Duke students in global health innovation and social entrepreneurship; identify ways to provide support for student social entrepreneurs focused on global health (for example, through internship and career resources or mentorship opportunities)

3.     Research and Evaluation: One of the ways in which SEAD aspires to promote global health innovation is via systematic analysis of the challenges businesses face as they attempt to scale; this can be achieved through interdisciplinary research that identifies best practices for innovation growth  and disseminate these to the field. This group works to identify how training and opportunities across Duke schools and programs may equip students to engage in SEAD-themed research through standard curricula, as well as design new opportunities with faculty and innovators for students to initiate and/or participate in global health innovation research projects and program evaluation.

Students who are part of the SEAD SAC will be expected to attend monthly meetings, take on at least one (team) project during the year, provide input into other SEAD student engagement efforts, and promote SEAD student engagement activities within their academic and extra-curricular programs.

When is the application deadline?

The deadline is Wednesday April 30, 2014

All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD)

All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) has launched its second round of competition to unearth and champion solutions to improve child literacy. Through both a grant competition and a software-themed prize competition, ACR GCD aims to catalyze the creation and expansion of innovations and programs that leverage the transformative power of technology to leapfrog existing challenges and empower children to read. 
In Round 2, the All Children Reading Partners seek strategies that employ technology in three focus areas:  mother tongue instruction and reading materials, family and community engagement, and children with disabilities.  Approximately three awards per focus area will be made, with a total of $900,000 available under each focus area, and with the flexibility to make more or less awards.

Along with the grant competition, ACR GCD is hosting Enabling Writers, a $100,000 prize competition aimed at finding technological solutions to improve reading skills for children in developing countries. Enabling Writers seeks to spur the development of software that easily allows authors to write and publish materials to help primary school children in developing countries learn to read in mother tongue languages. In the first round of the prize, three finalists will be awarded $12,000 each and offered feedback to improve their submissions for field testing. The technological solution that best enables local writers to quickly and easily create appropriate and interesting texts that follow tested reading instruction methodologies, and provide the optimum reading and learning experience for early primary school children, will win the $100,000 grand prize.

To learn more about the Challenge and to apply, go to AllChildrenReading.org or follow them at @ReadingGCD on Twitter. 

Deadline: May 2, 2014

Student Media Grants Program - Conflict and Development at Texas A&M (open to all students)

The Student Media Grants Program is an annual photojournalism grant awarded to students interested in using innovative methods to research and chronicle issues facing fragile and conflict-affected nations. Interested students should submit a proposal by May 14, 2014, that outlines their intended use of grant funds, with details about locations to be visited, issues to be studied, how the funds will be used and any special needs. They should choose an international development area that reflects issues of food insecurity, health, education, land tenure, poverty, and other issues faced by people in fragile and conflict-affected nations. Students can earn up to $5000.  
During their experience, students will be required to accomplish the following:
- Show three-month engagement (minimum) with international development issues through Extension activities, internships, student research, etc.
- Write a series of blog postings for the ConDev Blog during their experience, and document their chosen subjects through photo and/or video journalism that draws attention to conflict and development issues.
- Publish or exhibit the results of their work in a form of refereed media with the possibility of publishing with Texas A&M University Press.

To learn more and apply, visit: http://condevcenter.org/smgp-2014-open-for-proposals/

Deadline: May 14, 2014

Innovation in the Global Food System - Global Center for Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI) at Michigan State University (open to all students)

Michigan State University's Global Center for Food Systems Innovation intends to issue a Request for Application (RFA) in April, 2014. The goal of this RFA will be to create innovation in the global food system by finding, incubating and evaluating new and potentially disruptive knowledge and technology based solutions to development challenges, with an emphasis on problems deriving from population growth, climate change and urbanization. GCFSI will provide funding of up to $2,050,000 through three levels of grants in one RFA.

To learn more, visit: http://www.crdfglobal.org/grants-and-grantees/current-funding-opportunities/2014/03/06/advance-notice-for-rfa--msu-gcfsi-food-systems-innovation-grants-2014

Deadline: June 25, 2014

The Desal Prize- Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge for Development

What technological innovations are required to make brackish water desalination more efficient and less expensive in rural and remote settings? What are the key barriers to small-scale innovation in this space? How do you ensure innovations meet the needs of smallholder farmers? We’re challenging private industry, entrepreneurs, academics, other donors, NGOs, and you to weigh in and improve the design for the next call for the Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge for Development: The Desal Prize.
 
The Desal Prize, the second "call" under the Securing Water for Food, aims to develop cost-effective, energy efficient, and environmentally sustainable small-scale desalination technology that provides potable water for humans, as well as water appropriate for livestock and crops in developing countries.  Up to $500,000 in prize money and $75,000 in seed money will be awarded to individuals or organizations through the Desal Prize.

Currently, exciting discussions about the prize criteria regarding the size of the prize purse, the competition design, the technology performance and specifications, and what to do with brine waste discharge are taking place on our website. Join us and your feedback will help us create a prize seeking innovative, accessible desalination technologies in developing and emerging countries.
 
Application opens later this year. Learn more at www.thedesalprize.org and by following @securingwater on Twitter. 

As the school year comes to a close, we ask for your help in planning and improving SEAD for the 2014-2015 school year!  Your input helps us design workshops, support classes, coordinate the Symposium on Scaling Innovations in Global Health, and more.  The survey should take about five minutes to complete.  Whether you have attended SEAD events this school year or not, we want to hear from you!

We're also pleased to announce that photos from the 2014 Symposium are now available on the site!  Check them out here.

For three days, 42 undergraduate and graduate students put their skills to the test to develop recommendations for SEAD Innovator Changamka Microhealth. Changamka is an integrated health-financing company that utilizes an electronic platform, accessible by mobile phone, to facilitate the financing of healthcare services for low- and middle-income families in Kenya. The case challenged teams to develop a marketing strategy to maximize registration, customer savings, and the number of insurance policies purchased. Students joined across schools and disciplines to create a presentation of their recommendations.

The nine teams each received the case on the afternoon of Friday, March 28th and worked over the weekend to develop recommendations due at midnight on Monday. On Sunday afternoon, teams had the chance to meet with an MBA student coach to help them further develop and articulate their recommendations. The coaches included one student who had interned with Changamka this past summer.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the judges scored the teams' slides and selected the four finalists who would present their ideas in person on Friday, April 4th. The judges included:

• Zack Oloo, Executive Director of Changamka
  
• Eric Green, Duke Global Health Institute Faculty, and co-founder of Baby Monitor
• Karen Clune, Innovation Advisor in the USAID Global Health Bureau
• Paul Bloom, former Marketing Professor, and Senior Fellow at Fuqua’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship
• Kim Langsam, Program Director for the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke

On Friday, April 4th, the four finalists presented their recommendations to the judges. Changamka's Executive Director, Zack Oolo, expressed his appreciation for all of the excellent ideas and said there were many things he would keep in mind from all of the case submissions.

The winner of the competition was "Team L," consisting of Jeff Schaal (Pratt graduate student), Katie Cottam, Jaclyn Karasik, and Florence Tesha (Trinity undergraduate students), and Ishaan Jalan and Darrin Lim (Pratt undergraduate students). Their recommendations included a number of ways to incentivize Linda Jamii clients to save at various stages, in addition to communications recommendations. Congratulations, Team L!

Earlier this month, SEAD Innovator Naya Jeevan announced it will join the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global initiative which "aims to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for both commercial success and development impact." Naya Jeevan committed to ensuring more than 39,000 low-income workers in Pakistan will have access to affordable, quality health care by 2015. In the next five years, they plan to distribute USD 14.8 million in health claim benefits to its health plan beneficiaries.

Naya Jeevan provides low-income communities access to a nationwide network of healthcare providers. Naya Jeevan collaborates with multinational corporations, local businesses, schools, and other institutions and hopes to scale up its intervention in Pakistan while expanding to Mexico and the United States.

More than 200 entrepreneurs, speakers, faculty, students, and community members gathered at the Trent Semans Center for Health Education two weeks ago to discuss what is working for innovators around the world. The public Symposium on Scaling Innovations in Global Health wrapped up the three day SEAD Summit conference hosted by SEAD and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Chuck Slaughter, founder and president of Living Goods, was awarded the Enterprising Social Innovation Awards from the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at the Fuqua School of Business. Living Goods uses an "Avon-like" model, traveling door-to-door bringing health services and selling affordable products that are not easily accessible to the poor. Living Goods offers malaria treatments, water filters, solar lamps, and cook stoves to families across Uganda, and relies on mobile phones and other technologies to keep the business working efficiently. "It is important to do both -- to have an impact and be financially sustainable," said Slaughter in his keynote speech. "Great ideas are great, but you really don't get anywhere without execution, management skills, and basic business chops."

After listening to Slaughter's speech, participants could attend panels covering such topics as encouraging behavior change, learning from failure, and developing student innovation pitches. The poster session allowed for students to network with innovators and other professionals.

This summary provided by SEAD Student Assistant Lizzy Knippler, Duke '16.

The Pratt Pouch has been featured in an article by the New York Times highlighting USAID's shift to collaborate with business and technology to meet the agency's goals.

"Many of Dr. Shah’s changes have been inspired by the approach of Gates. In 2011, U.S.A.I.D. began a program, Grand Challenges for Development, which invites innovators to submit ideas to help solve problems like H.I.V or hunger. The agency has financed nearly 100 products under the program, among them the Pratt Pouch, a ketchup-sized packet of anti-AIDS drugs that does not need refrigeration. The pouch, developed by students and faculty at Duke University, is being used in Zambia and Ecuador and could potentially prevent the transmission of H.I.V. to 400,000 babies a year, according to the agency."

Read the full article here.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Duke Symposium for Scaling Innovations on Global Health!  We had over 200 participants join us at the Trent Semans Center for Health Education to learn about social entrepreneurship and the latest innovations in global health.  Chuck Slaughter, founder and president of Living Goods, gave a fantastic talk on his organization's work that we're sure will inspire Duke students to pursue their own innovative ideas.  The panels provided for some engaging discussions on a variety of topics from careers in global health innovation to financing social ventures.

Over the coming weeks we will be processing the video that was taken over the course of the Symposium and will be posting them to the site for anyone that missed a session they were interested in or wants to see one a second time!  We will post an announcement here once the video is ready for viewing.

Thanks again to everyone and we look forward to seeing you again at next year's symposium!