Innovation Platform for Maternal Newborn and Child Health

The project aims to improve the lives of women newborns and children under the age of five living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by providing funding and technical support to innovators who have identified solutions to maternal newborn and child health (MNCH) challenges. The project focuses on the first two phases of Grand Challenges Canada’s (GCC) innovation platform. In the first phase GCC provides small grants to innovators to conduct research and develop promising innovative ideas to address MNCH challenges. The second phase includes testing and piloting innovations developing strategic partnerships leveraging private sector funding and know-how and business and marketing plans to enable their further development. In this phase funding is awarded to Canadian and LMIC innovators who have demonstrated their innovation works and can be prepared for take up by the private sector international organizations and LMIC governments. Over 300 innovations in the first phase and up to 100 innovations in the second phase will be implemented over 10 years.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) reduced mortality and morbidity among target populations; and (2) improved health outcomes arising from innovative health products and/or services for beneficiaries communities and health providers in low and middle income countries with a focus on the poorest of the poor.