Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, announced last week plans to give $25 million in grants to projects that address world health, poverty and climate change.
At the end of last year, the company announced an initiative, called Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal, the goal of which is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity in the next few years that is cheaper than the carbon-intensive fossil fuel.
Google.org rolled out four additional core initiatives that it said will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. In addition to funding, the company says it will tap the strengths of Google’s employees and global operations.
The resources come from a commitment by Google’s founders to devote approximately 1% of the company’s equity plus 1% of annual profits to philanthropy, as well as employee time.
One of the projects is a system being developed at Clark University to improve monitoring, analysis and prediction of the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food and health in Africa and the Amazon.
Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org, said, "These five initiatives are our attempt to address some of the hard problems we as a world need to face in the coming decade. We have chosen them both because we think solving them will make a better, fairer, safer world for our children and grandchildren – and the children and grandchildren of people all over the world – but also because we feel that these core initiatives fit well with Google’s core strengths, especially its innovative technologies and its talented engineers and other Googlers, who are really our most valuable assets."
The four new initiatives and initial partners include:
Predict and Prevent
$5 million to InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters) to improve early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for global health threats and humanitarian crises. InSTEDD will work with the community of relief and response organizations, governments, academia and top scientists around the world to address gaps in information flow with software and other technology-based tools and services. Acting as an innovation laboratory, InSTEDD aims to support the humanitarian community in preparing for and responding to global public health emergencies. For more information, see http://instedd.org/.
$2.5 million to the Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI), established by the Nuclear Threat Initiative to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats. Google.org’s support will help GHSI to strengthen national and sub-regional disease surveillance systems through workforce training and better laboratory capacity in the Mekong Basin area (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Yunnan province, China). For more information, see http://www.ghsi.org/.
More than $600,000 to Clark University, with equal funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for Clark Labs to study the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food and health in Africa and the Amazon. The project will develop a prototype platform to deploy global environmental, health, and development data, information and analysis tools that the global community can freely access over the Internet. For more information, see http://www.clarklabs.org/.
Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services
$2 million to Pratham, a non-governmental organization in India, to create an independent institute that will conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) as well as large scale assessments in the education sector. The stated goal is to expand these types of assessments to other sectors. For more information, see http://www.pratham.org/.
$765,000 to the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, a Bangalore-based analysis group, to create a Budget Information Service for local governments to facilitate better district- and municipal-level level planning in India. For more information, see http://www.cbpsindia.org/.
$660,000 to the Center for Policy Research, an action oriented think tank based in India, to increase the debate and discourse on issues of urban local governance and urban service delivery. With the rapid expansion of cities in India, the announced goal is to provide policy makers the necessary information to make more informed decisions. For more information, see http://www.cprindia.org/.
Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
$4.7 million grant to TechnoServe to provide general support to expand Technoserve’s efforts to support enterprises, spur job creation, and strengthen poverty alleviation programs globally, and to develop and implement a business plan competition to support entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania. For more information see, http://www.technoserve.org/.
Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT)
RechargeIT is a Google.org initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology.
According to a release Google.org launched a $10 million request for investment proposals last fall, and will invest amounts ranging from $500,000 to $2 million in selected for-profit companies whose innovative approach, team and technologies will enable widespread commercialization of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles and/or vehicle-to-grid solutions.
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