Organization Mission

Grand Challenges Canada works closely with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) to catalyze scale, sustainability and impact.

Area of Focus

Grand Challenges Canada focuses on innovator-defined challenges through our Stars in Global Health program and on targeted challenges through Saving Lives at Birth, Saving Brains and Global Mental Health programs. We help transition promising innovations from the proof-of-concept stage to scale through our Transition-to-Scale program.

Grand Challenges Canada launched on May 3, 2010. To date, we have supported over 700 projects totaling $177 million implemented in more than 80 countries and have leveraged $269 million in additional funding from outside the Government of Canada, including significant private sector investment. Our investments are producing results: Over 3.5 million beneficiaries have already accessed our innovative products or services (based on about half of our funded projects reported to date). Thousands of lives have been saved and over ten thousands lives have been improved. We anticipate even more impressive outcomes as these innovations move from proof-of-concept to scale.