Gates Foundation's $540 million gift to science comes as the federal government pulls back on funding

The Gates Foundation is putting $540 million behind the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a 10-year grant aimed at keeping health research open and widely usable as public funding keeps shrinking.

IHME, based at the University of Washington, says the money will help it improve freely available health evidence for governments, researchers and other leaders. The big technical lift is its Global Burden of Disease study, which it plans to stretch from about 925 locations to nearly 5,000. That means a much finer map of where health is getting better, worse, or stuck.

Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray, who leads IHME, framed the gift as a way to act earlier on health crises instead of showing up after the damage is done. He also said the funding should let the group produce higher-quality evidence at a more local level, so decision-makers can see which choices matter most.

The relationship goes back to 2007, when Gates helped provide the founding money for IHME at UW. This latest gift lands as the foundation faces fresh scrutiny over Bill Gates’s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, which also helped push Warren Buffett away from the foundation’s orbit.

The grant also fits a broader shift at Gates itself. Fortune reported last summer that the foundation would wind down in 2045, and Gates has said he plans to give away virtually his entire fortune and spend more than $200 billion by then. That push has already meant a faster pace of giving, more ambition, and hundreds of job cuts. The foundation says it has helped save 82 million lives since 2000 through work like Gavi and the Global Fund, and it is now doubling down on global health while federal support pulls back.