“Create the Next Generation of Sanitation Technologies” is one of the new topics in Round 6 of the Grand Challenges Explorations grants, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Explorations are part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of US$ 1 million or more, and could eventually evolve into Grand Challenges project.
Areas for innovation to be considered in the sanitation challenge include:
- Sanitation capture and containment technologies: improvements or alternatives to pit latrines.
- Solutions to menstrual management and safe disposal of child feces.
- Extraction and transportation innovations for hauling fecal sludge to transfer or disposal points.
- Advancements in decentralized treatment technology for use at community, apartment block, town, and/or city scales.
- Innovations in re-use of waste for agricultural, energy or industrial purposes at community and/or city level.
Other sanitation innovations, including but not limited to:
- Improved temporary toilets that do not use chemicals requiring special disposal;
- Low cost composting facilities requiring minimal user interaction with composted material.