National and supranational research budgets, e.g. National Institute of Health (NIH, USA) and the EU - and from a number of private donors. The latter, on a global scale, dominated by Wellcome Trust (UK) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (USA).

Private donors are making considerable contributions to the international malaria research - the Gates Foundation, for instance, has so far allocated more than 2 billion USD to various malaria research projects in a number of countries.

The Danish malaria research conducted at Center for Medical Parasitology (CMP), University of Copenhagen, is - for the time being - largely financed by the EU. The center is, however, still receiving financial support from the Gates Foundation - which over the years has been very supportive, says professor Ali Salanti, CMP:

"Thanks to this support scientists at CMP have e.g. identified antigenes that can be incorporated in a vaccine against malaria - and in a study led by one of our researchers, Michael Theisen, this vaccine is now in clinical trial in Africa".

For his own part Ali Salanti is trying to develop a vaccine which - he hopes - will give protection to women against cervical cancer (HPV) as well as malaria. Such a vaccine could mean a great health improvement to women not least in the sub-Saharan region in Africa where malaria among expectant mothers is a major problem - also in terms of damages to the fetus.

"If you can protect the woman against malaria before she gets pregnant - and at the same time protect her against developing cervical cancer - you will have achieved a lot", says professor Ali Salanti.

This research project is supported by the EU, Innovationsfonden (Denmark) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
 
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