How do you stop a problem you can’t yet see clearly? Lead poisoning affects roughly one in three children worldwide, yet in much of the world the basic facts of exposure remain unmapped: where the lead is coming from, who is most affected, how it moves through food and soil and water. Closing that gap is one of the highest-ROI investments in global health, because even a relatively small, well-placed grant has the potential to change how a country protects its children from lead.
That conviction is what led us to launch the Pure Earth Opportunity Fund. The Pure Earth Opportunity Fund supports strategic, short-term projects that advance our communal understanding of lead poisoning prevention, interventions, and policies. This fund is a mechanism to quickly address emerging issues or urgent data gaps related to lead poisoning in low- and middle-income countries. This program is supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Lead Poisoning Prevention Initiative.
The Pure Earth Opportunity Fund holds real potential for capacity building, especially for small, under-resourced NGOs doing this work around the world. For many of them, a single timely grant can be the difference between an idea and an intervention. By funding the researchers, organizations, and advocates building the evidence the field needs, Pure Earth is complementing its longstanding work as an implementer, partnering with governments and communities to put proven solutions into practice.
The response to our call for proposals confirmed how much demand there is. We received over 190 applications from organizations around the world. After a careful review, we selected eight to make up our inaugural 2026 cohort, each receiving a 12-month grant.
What stood out across the applicant pool was how many strong proposals converged on the same issue: lead in food. Dietary exposure remains one of the least understood pathways in many countries, and several of our grantees are working to change that, analyzing contamination in fish, staple crops, prepared meals, and the cookware families use every day. Others are mapping environmental hotspots tied to informal battery recycling, tracing regional lead trade flows, and assessing exposure among the most vulnerable: children, pregnant women, and newborns. Together they form a picture of a field moving from awareness toward precise, actionable evidence.
The 2026 Pure Earth Opportunity Fund Cohort
Nature Conservation Management (NACOM), Bangladesh — Sampling fish and aquatic environments across Bangladesh’s eight divisions to build a national baseline of lead contamination, paired with community awareness and policy engagement to reduce dietary exposure.
National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), Georgia — Investigating dietary lead exposure in households already enrolled in Georgia’s lead surveillance system, analyzing raw foods, prepared meals, and traditional cooking pans to identify exposure sources and guide safer food practices.
Indian Institute of Public Health Shillong, India — Examining ongoing and chronic lead exposure in mothers and newborns in Meghalaya, linking blood and bone lead measurements with detailed surveys to identify potential exposure sources.
Shifa Foundation, Pakistan — Assessing and mapping household and environmental lead exposure sources affecting children and pregnant women in Rawalpindi District, while raising community awareness and convening a local working group for sustained coordination.
University of Nevada, Philippines — Conducting a Total Diet Study to identify dietary lead exposure sources, estimating intake across population groups and demonstrating the feasibility of a future full-scale study to inform food safety policy.
Global Development Incubator, Ghana — Mapping the West African used lead-acid battery recycling supply chain, tracing lead flows across the region and toward U.S. markets to identify points where policy and commercial action could reduce demand for unsafely recycled lead.
Women & Youth Development International, Liberia — Generating environmental contamination and lead pollution data across communities in Montserrado County, mapping hotspots tied to informal recycling and waste burning, building community capacity to monitor environmental pollution, and supporting the strengthening and implementation of Liberia’s National Lead Action Framework.
Cámara de Comercio de Pasto, Colombia — Identifying and reducing lead exposure in automotive workshops and informal recycling sites in southern Nariño, piloting practical mitigation measures and training workers in lead-safe practices.
Looking Ahead
These eight projects span continents and approaches, but they share a common purpose: turning urgent questions into evidence that protects children and families. Over the next year, their findings will deepen what researchers and policymakers in these regions understand about how lead reaches the people most at risk, and what it takes to stop it. They will also be learning from each other as a cohort and contributing new evidence to the global community of practitioners.
This is just the beginning. We’ll be sharing updates throughout the year as these projects unfold, following the data each grantee uncovers, the communities they reach, and the lessons that emerge along the way. Stay tuned: there’s a lot to learn together, and we’re glad you’re here for it.
