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…Toronto. Daniel was a 2015 Programs Summer Student at Grand Challenges Canada.     It has been just over a week since my summer with Grand Challenges Canada came to a close. With still a few days to go before I am back to school, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some reflections on a…ideas with big impact toward saving and improving lives. 12 summer students were hired this year to work across the full breadth of the organization. About half supported the communications, investments, stakeholder relations, and legal teams; the rest worked with the Targeted Challenges and Stars in Global Health programs, providing focused and cross-cutting support alike.…student I worked with all three programs, as well as with other innovator-defined challenges through the Stars in Global Health program. I have a background in health promotion and rural public health research, but I would say that my interests in global health are still very broad. I found the cross-cutting position a great way…helps when they offer to share their decision making with you. This is the best way to learn some of the less tangible skills that are vital for working in teams, finding solutions and driving projects forward. Learning the importance of targeted communication, outcomes-focused thinking, and mentorship are three lessons I know I will take…

Dr. Tuan Tran (PhD) is the founder and director of the Research and Training Centre for Community Development (RTCCD) in Hanoi, Vietnam. Mother’s Day, celebrated internationally, reminds us of the inestimable social contribution that women make to the world as they care for their fetuses, newborns, infants and young children. Most mothers are living in the world’s resource-constrained low- and lower-middle income countries. Many…are experiencing a common mental disorder. Those who cope with these problems are less able to respond to healthcare recommendations, including reminders about taking essential recommended micronutrient supplements in pregnancy. The early cognitive, motor, social and emotional development of their babies is compromised. Grand Challenges Canada is supporting collaboration between the Research and Training Centre…

…balance fostering innovation — with its inherent risk of failure — with scaling impact? Part of the answer lies in our financial ecosystem, shown below.     To stimulate innovation, we fund a large number of grants at the “seed” phase. These grants are $100,000 ($250,000 for our Targeted Challenges). The review resembles traditional peer review, is done virtually, and the reviewers tell us their key focus is on novelty. One of the review…to have impact, they must have scale and sustainability. This is the focus of our “Transition to Scale” phase. These grants or loans repayable on revenues are up to $1M. They require at least 50% matching funding from a “smart partner” who can help to scale the innovation because they bring distribution channels, local knowledge,…

Jo-Ann Osei-Twum Global health continues to evolve, with increasing investments, the diversification of stakeholders, and a staggering interest from young people seeking to exercise their privileges as global citizens. At our university campuses, global health speakers attract students from across the disciplines – economics, forestry, journalism, microbiology, and nutrition – there’s richness in this interdisciplinary…Grand Challenges Canada is drastically different from the lab; however, the lessons learnt from those painstaking months spent optimizing a cell culture protocol, have come in use for developing a database for Stars in Global Health. Like lab work, the database presented a problem that needed to be solved and required an iterative process and…of conducting research. This is the beauty of the Stars in Global Health program – it is like no other Canadian global health initiative, in that it supports innovator-defined projects driven by entrepreneurs in Canada and low- and middle-income countries. This approach couples talent with opportunity and reflects what local scientists deem as critical health…

During the week of September 22, 2014 the nations of the world gather in New York for the Annual United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Among the topics up for discussion is a set of proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), drafted by UN Open Working Group over the past year. The list contains 17 goals and 169 targets for a 15 year period from 2015 to 2030. [caption id="attachment_21974" align="alignnone" width="565"] SDG Targets[/caption] As attention shifts from developing this strategic framework to executing it, some are concerned that there are too many goals…situations 16.2 end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children 16.9 by 2030 provide legal identity for all including birth registration We invite you to read the piece in Lancet for further details of the argument. It is available for free here.   We encourage you to post your questions…

Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, supports Bold Ideas with Big Impact in global health. Since we believe the challenges in global health are too large to solve using public funds alone, we have also supported financial innovations to crowd in private investment. In September 2013 Grand Challenges Canada participated in 3 deals that…While the models are different, they had in common the sharing of risk using public funds to crowd in private funds. We recently wrote about our framework for mitigating risk and crowding in private investment but thought it would be useful to share these more specific and varied models in this blog. The first model…angel investing, shared value, blended value and social impact investing – which all boil down to providing social/developmental and economic returns to investors. They all crowd in significant private investments by using public funds to share risk in various ways. These are certainly not the only models to entrain private funds – for example others…

Projects in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax receive grants from Grand Challenges Canada to improve maternal, newborn, and child health in developing countries Toronto, Canada – Grand Challenges Canada today announced a CDN $2 million investment in 20 Canadian innovations to address persistent challenges in women’s and children’s health…the Caribbean. The projects will each receive seed grants of approximately CDN $100,000 to develop and test their innovations, funded by Grand Challenges Canada with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. Among the innovations: In Nepal, innovators from the University of Victoria will use 3D printing to fabricate high-quality, low-cost orthotic devices for children suffering from skeletal deformities like clubfoot and scoliosis. [caption id="attachment_26267" align="aligncenter" width="800"] A prototype of a 3D printed scoliosis brace made out of polypropylene undergoing benchmark…provided CDN $52 million to 471 projects implemented in 81 low- and middle-income countries. 19 percent of these innovations are now scaling and have the potential for significant impact by 2030, exceeding the 10 percent success rate expected in comparable venture capital models. Quotes “ By sparking and supporting bold ideas to improve global health,…Policy. Canada’s ongoing global leadership in development innovation will help drive progress toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,  particularly Goal Three: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” - Dr. Karlee Silver, Vice President Programs, Grand Challenges Canada Background Project Descriptions (PDF) Stars in Global Health Global Affairs Canada…