Deadline: 13-Jan-22
The Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH) is offering a grant program, “Digital Health Services for Pregnant Women to Support Antenatal Risk Stratification.”

GCGH seeks patient-facing digital health services for pregnant women that have been developed and are actively being provided in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
The Challenges
- GCGH will consider proposals for services that can support or contribute to the ARS vision via digital applications. Types of services that they would consider includes:
- Engagement: Services that increase the participation of pregnant women in digital healthcare. (E.g., a platform to provide group antenatal care or a telemedicine platform that allows pregnant women to send medical questions to doctors by text)
- Adoption of existing platforms: Services that leverage existing digital systems/platforms to support pregnant women (e.g., contacting patients about care or scheduling using an existing messaging app like WhatsApp)
- Data collection: Services that collect data from pregnant women that could support clinical care. (E.g., a mobile app that allows pregnant women to track their pregnancy through metrics such as weight and fetal movement)
- Algorithm development: Services that use data from pregnant women to assess or make predictions about their health (e.g., a web-based tool where pregnant women can input information to receive an automatic assessment on whether or not they should see a doctor)
- GCGH seeks projects that will help them develop and deliver an ARS solution in sub-Saharan Africa. Proposals should endeavor to build upon existing solutions to help support ARS. Potential options include (but are not limited to):
- Researching implementation methods for a solution (e.g., conducting market research for an existing app that supports one or more of the objectives)
- Expanding the scope of a solution (e.g., translating a web-based app to mobile platforms to increase engagement)
- Adding features/functionality to a solution (e.g., adding cloud-based data collection to a mobile app)
- Improving the delivery of a solution (e.g., integrating a mobile app into an existing clinical health system)
Funding Information
- Funding level: up to USD $500,000 for each project, with a grant term of 6 to 24 months depending on the scope of the project.
They will consider solutions that are:
- Developed and/or actively supported in sub-Saharan Africa (note: development/active support does not include cases when groups outside of SSA are testing their solutions on users in SSA)
- Delivered in sub-Saharan Africa
- Providing pregnancy-related services
- Offered directly to pregnant women (i.e., patient-facing)
- Currently available for use and interested in expansion
- Serving a substantial and active user base in sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., more than ~100 users)
- Digitally integrated (i.e., have a strong, technical component)
- Clearly linked to the development and implementation of ARS
- Preference for solutions that reach women in both rural and urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa
Eligibility Criteria
GCGH will consider solutions that are:
- Developed and/or actively supported in sub-Saharan Africa (note: development/active support does not include cases when groups outside of SSA are testing their solutions on users in SSA)
- Delivered in sub-Saharan Africa
- Providing pregnancy-related services
- Offered directly to pregnant women (i.e., patient-facing)
- Currently available for use and interested in expansion
- Serving a substantial and active user base in sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., more than ~100 users)
- Digitally integrated (i.e., have a strong, technical component)
- Clearly linked to the development and implementation of ARS
- Preference for solutions that reach women in both rural and urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa.
