About Grand Challenges Partners and Initiatives

Launched in 2003 by the Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges issues requests for proposals to solve high-priority health and development issues. The initiative is focused on supporting both specific innovations and innovation ecosystems in general, to help foster sustainable, locally led progress. Explore all challenges and awarded grants.

Launched in 2010 and funded by the Government of Canada, Grand Challenges Canada invests in locally led innovations across global health, humanitarian response, Indigenous innovation, early childhood development, women's health, mental health, and more. Explore the portfolio.

Launched in 2012, Grand Challenges Brazil is a partnership between Brazil's Ministry of Health and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. It aims to invest in innovative research to address the main challenges faced by Brazil's Unified Health System while seeking opportunities to extend impact beyond Brazil. Explore GC-Brazil's projects.

Launched in 2013, Grand Challenges India is a partnership between the Government of India's Department of Biotechnology and India's Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). GC-India aims to foster Indian innovation and research to develop affordable and sustainable solutions to improve health in India and across the globe. Explore GC-India's investment themes.

Launched in 2014, Grand Challenges South Africa is a partnership between the South African Medical Research Council and South Africa's Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

Launched in 2015 and managed and implemented by the Science for Africa Foundation, Grand Challenges Africa promotes Africa-led scientific innovations to help countries better achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by awarding seed and scale-up grants to the continent's most impressive solutions. Explore GC-Africa grantees.

Launched in 2015, Grand Challenges China is a partnership led by the National Natural Science Foundation of China to fund both investigators in China and international collaborations.

Launched in 2015, Grand Challenges Ethiopia is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia and is hosted at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI). It seeks to fund Ethiopian investigators with innovative projects to help implement the Ethiopian health sector transformation plan and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Explore progress so far.

Grand Challenges Senegal was launched by the Government of Senegal in 2022 with a vision to enable the next set of breakthroughs in discovery and translational life science in West Africa. Hosted by the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) Foundation, GC-Senegal advances the ecosystem for public health innovation in Africa.

Launched in 2023 by the Rwanda National Council for Science and Technology, Grand Challenges Rwanda funds Rwandan scientists to collaborate with their peers in Africa to conduct research that addresses and solves the most critical development challenges in Rwanda and Africa.

Grand Challenges Nigeria (GCNg), a partnership with the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was launched in 2024. GCNg aims to ignite homegrown innovation and tackle critical health and development challenges head-on. Explore GCNg awards.

Launched in 2007 by the Gates Foundation, this initiative sought to engage more of the world’s innovators more quickly.  It invited high-risk, high-reward ideas via two-page applications with no preliminary data required. Explore awarded grants.

Launched in 2011 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and partners, Grand Challenges for Development sought to create and support sustainable solutions for a variety of development challenges.  Explore awarded grants.

Launched in 2018 as a partnership of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, with support from Grand Challenges Canada, Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge sought life-saving or life-improving innovations to help the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people impacted by humanitarian crises caused by conflict.

Launched in 2021 by the Gates Foundation, this initiative sought to fund cutting-edge science projects that advanced high-priority global health objectives while supporting and expanding a locally led research and development ecosystem. Explore the grants awarded.