Stop TB Partnership

Canada launches new initiative to support global health research

Today marked the launch of Grand Challenges Canada / Grands Défis Canada - an innovative organization that will help redefine Canada’s role in the developing world by bringing together Canadian scientists, developing world scientific researchers, and the private sector to solve some of the most persistent health challenges facing poor countries.

The Government of Canada is committing $225 million over five years to the Development Innovation Fund, announced in the 2008 Budget, to support the best minds in the world in a collaborative search for solutions to global health challenges. Grand Challenges Canada was created to implement the realization of this goal working with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Crown Corporation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), a Government of Canada Agency.

Grand Challenges Canada’s mission is to identify global Grand Challenges, fund researchers and organizations to address them, and support the implementation and commercialization of the solutions that emerge.

There will be five Grand Challenges identified and launched over a five year period. The challenges will be determined through an exploration process by Grand Challenges Canada, based on advice from its International Scientific Advisory Board.

The first Grand Challenge is on Point-of-Care Diagnostics and seeks to create a new class of diagnostics that will be easy to use, low cost, multiplexed and able to assess disease stage and provide information on prognosis. Please see the Request for Proposals

For more information, visit www.grandchallenges.ca / www.grandsdefis.ca