Atlanta's Emory University received its largest one-time research grant with a $180 million gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will fund research and analyses on child mortality rates in impoverished communities.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the grant was announced Thursday, and is set aside for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance network (CHAMPS). The global organization analyzes data in an effort to understand the causes of death in children younger than 5 years old.
CHAMPS operates in seven countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Emory officials say that in those countries, the child mortality rate is about 50 per 1,000 for children under 5. In the U.S., data show it's about 6 per 1,000.