After conducting its detailed review of Round 8 proposals, the Global Fund's Technical Review Panel (TRP) has recommended that the Global Fund Board approve grants that, over their first two years, will cost in excess of three billion dollars. This makes Round 8 nearly three times the size, in dollar terms, of any previous round of Global Fund grants.

GFO has no information on what the TRP has recommended regarding individual proposals. But Board members have been informed by the Secretariat of some overall data. Highlights from what Board members were told, and from GFO's analysis of that information and of comparisons with earlier rounds, are as follows:

• Ninety-four Round 8 proposals have been recommended for approval, with a total two-year cost of $3.15 billion (at current exchange rates), up from $1.12 billion in Round 7, the previous largest round.
• The average Round 8 proposal recommended for approval has a two-year cost of $34 million, up from $15 million in Round 7, the previous largest average.
• Fifty-four percent of proposals considered by the TRP in Round 8 have been recommended for approval, up from 49% in Round 7, the previous highest percentage.
• Malaria proposals in Round 8 were particularly successful. Sixty-eight percent of them were recommended for approval (as against 49% of HIV/AIDS proposals and 51% of TB proposals), with an average value of $58 million (as against $32 m. for HIV/AIDS proposals and $11 m. for TB proposals). The total value of malaria proposals recommended for approval was $1.6 billion, which for the first time ever was greater than the value of HIV/AIDS or TB proposals recommended for approval.
• Although HIV/AIDS proposals in Round 8 were less successful than were malaria proposals, they were still significantly more successful than they had been in any previous round. The percentage of HIV/AIDS proposals to be recommended for approval in Rounds 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively was 38%, 38%, 39%, 41% and 49%.
• The TRP completed its review of proposals earlier this month. Early next month, individual applicants will be informed of what the TRP has recommended regarding their proposals. Then on 7-8 November the Board will make a final decision regarding each proposal. (For more information regarding dates, see GFO Issues 93 and 94 at www.aidspan.org/gfo.)
• Further details regarding some of these points are provided in the following two tables.

Round 8 results

For comparison: Results from earlier rounds

Notes:

• Proposals submitted by applicants to the Global Fund are first checked for eligibility. A few are “screened out”; the remainder are then submitted to the TRP for consideration.
• Approved proposals listed do not include those initially rejected but eventually approved after appeal; nor do they include those approved under the "Rolling Continuation Channel" option.
• The total cost of proposals forwarded to the TRP in Round 8 for each disease is an estimate by GFO; it might be out by $0.1 b. However, the cost of proposals recommended for approval is not an estimate.
• "Cost" means the upper ceiling for the budget for Years 1 to 2 (i.e. for Phase 1).
• n/a = not available.