MMV 9th African call for proposals for malaria drug discovery

To be eligible for consideration for funding as part of this call, MMV welcomes proposals from African scientists focused in the following priority areas:

Medicinal chemistry: compounds with confirmed antimalarial activity

• Novel molecules with confirmed activity against the asexual blood stage of the malaria lifecycle; additional activity against other lifecycle stages, such as liver forms and/or gametocytes, would be an advantage.
• Compounds must demonstrate EC50 < 10 µM and be supported by a credible medicinal chemistry optimization plan addressing known or anticipated liabilities.
• In line with MMV strategic priorities, particular emphasis will be placed on compounds suitable for chemoprevention, with low clearance in relevant early discovery in vitro and in vivo assays.

Assay development and screening 

• Assay development and screening to support discovery or development of novel antimalarials.
• Proposals should clearly define the assay purpose, current status, and include any available screening results.

Computer-aided drug discovery 

• Use of computational approaches (cheminformatic and/or bioinformatic) to discover new molecules with predicted antimalarial activity or new antimalarial drug targets.
• The proposed methodology must be clearly described and supported by evidence of validation or benchmarking.

Innovative biology: Large molecules, biologics or oligonucleotides for the treatment or chemoprevention of malaria.

The proposals funded as part of this call will have a project start date of 1 January 2027.

Read more here. 

Application deadline, 29 August 2026 at 12:00 pm (CEST).