AAS Grand Challenges Africa Innovation Seed Grants - Maternal Neonatal & Child Health (MNCH), 2020

Deadline for applications: 14 Jan 2020

Programme Goal

This call is focused on the SDG3 targets with the overall objective of focusing African scientists to work in local and global partnerships on the ambitious but achievable goals of accelerating knowledge generation, developing and deploying interventions and innovations. These should advance the prevention of maternal deaths, preterm birth, and neonatal deaths and improve the implementation of policies and innovations that will improve care for the mother and child in the first 1000 days of life. The ultimate goal of this challenge is to determine what packages of interventions should be delivered to which group of individuals (mother or infant or both) to reduce the burden of maternal and neonatal deaths in Africa. While new innovations and interventions are required, much progress can be made if we find innovative approaches to deliver already available interventions i.e. we will also be looking for proposals that focus on innovative approaches to deliver existing life-saving innovations.

This joint initiative of GC Africa partners (AAS, BMBF, and Gates foundation) also aims to nurture and strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Africa by supporting the development of sustainable research networks that will contribute to solving Africa’s challenges in Global Health. We want to develop a community of African leaders in MNCH research and innovation; strengthen the development of innovative solutions facilitating the resolution of challenges in global health and development that Africa is facing; reinforce research and training capacity, and equitable partnerships in African institutions through skills transfer between international networks and organisations hosting the grand challenges projects; and facilitate sustainable multidisciplinary partnerships between research groups in Africa.  Enable the adoption of new technologies, innovations and policies to prevent maternal and neonatal deaths.

Programme Objectives

We are looking for innovations that:

1. Package known interventions in a way that ensures they are delivered efficiently and cost-effectively and or promote MNCH in otherwise excluded communities.
2. Apply new technologies to enable rapid identification of risks or management of conditions (communicable and non-communicable) that lead to poor outcomes in pregnancy, birth and in the first month of life.
3. Apply precision medicine techniques to identify or manage common exposures in Africa that may increase susceptibility to communicable and non-communicable diseases in mothers and children under 5 years of age.

What the programme is looking for

To reach these objectives, we are looking for projects that propose innovation in the following areas:

• Delivery tools: Innovative approaches or new ways to deliver already available interventions i.e. proposals that focus on packages / innovative approaches to deliver existing proven life-saving innovations
• Measurement tools: Pilot tests of new measurement tools, such as those based on a new technology or new biomarkers to enable the timely diagnosis, monitoring or management of maternal conditions that can lead to significant improvement of foetal and neonatal outcomes as well as prevent maternal mortality and morbidity.
• Analytical tools: Pilot tests of new analytical tools that use existing biorepositories or existing health and development databases for retrospective analysis.

For more details, or to apply, visit the call webpage.