Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health Program

Deadline: 3-Jun-21

Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health program is seeking bold ideas that will improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, adolescents, children and LGBTQI+ people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The bold ideas are expected to improve the access, use and quality of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education and services and to be resilient to pandemic control measures.

The Stars in Global Health program supports Bold Ideas with Big Impact® from the best and brightest scientists and innovators, both in low- and middle-income countries and in Canada, to address some of the most pressing global health challenges. It provides funding to explore transformative ideas at proof-of-concept that bring together scientific/technical, social and business innovation.

Focus Areas

Proposed innovations must be bold, innovative and designed with and for people who are not adequately served by current approaches to sexual and reproductive health and rights. All innovations must demonstrate a rights-based approach, the principle of “do no harm” and must be gender-affirming/sensitive and inclusive to the extent possible.

Proposed innovations must have the potential to be sustainable at scale and all proposals must demonstrate their relevance in the context of current and potential pandemic responses. Ultimately, Grand Challenges Canada is looking for innovations that seek to improve the access and demand for quality sexual and reproductive health and rights information, supply and services that lead to at least one of the following priority outcomes:

• Increase met need for comprehensive contraception care and education
• Decrease rates of sexual and gender-based violence
• Decrease in the impact of sexual and gender-based violence
• Decrease in the incidence of female genital mutilation
• Decrease in the incidence of child, early and forced marriage

Funding Information

• Successful proposals will be awarded seed grants of up to $100,000 CAD for up to 12 months to develop and test the proposed innovation.

Eligibility Criteria

Before moving forward in the review process, all applications will be screened for eligibility based on the below criteria.

• The applicant must be a non-profit organization, for-profit company, research/ academic institution, limited liability companies or any other legal institution that is incorporated in an eligible jurisdiction, and is capable of receiving and administering funding.
• Applications must include all required information and address all questions. Only complete applications will be considered for review.
• Applications must be submitted in either English or French.
• A majority of the applicant’s activities and budget must be carried out/spent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Grand Challenges Canada may, at any time and at their sole discretion, modify eligibility criteria with respect to an applicant, Project Leads and/or eligible countries, to the extent that such modifications do not materially undermine the review process.

For more information, visit https://www.grandchallenges.ca/programs/stars-in-global-health/