Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Government of Canada, today announced $100,000 grants to 51 innovators in 18 low and middle income countries worldwide to pursue bold, creative ideas to tackle health problems in resource-poor countries.
Grants were also announced for 17 Canadian-based projects to be implemented in developing countries.
Among the Canadian-based projects: researchers will mimic rocket technology to propel coagulant nanoparticles into the bloodstream and stop maternal bleeding, a major cause of death in the developing world; test a high-tech Burn Survival Kit that includes a low-cost silver nanotubule dressing making treatment affordable; and develop an HIV infection detector that works in fewer than 5 minutes.
Out-of-the-box projects based overseas include a new trading system in Kenya: seeds and fertilizers for proof of child vaccinations; a $100 kitchen reno to reduce indoor pollution and problem pregnancies in Bangladesh; cultivating disease-fighting prawns in Senegal; creating wealth from human waste in cholera-troubled Haiti; and, in Zambia, anti-diarrhea kits hitching a ride on Coca-Cola's distribution system to get essential medicine to "the ends of the Earth."
The Stars in Global Health program seeks breakthrough, affordable ideas that can be transformative in addressing disease - innovations that can benefit the developing world. A total of more than $7 million will support 68 projects -- 38 in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana (4), Kenya (10), Nigeria, Rwanda (2), Senegal (2), Tanzania (2), Uganda (8), Zambia (4), Zimbabwe and South Africa), 23 in Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh (3), China, India (9), Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan (4), Vietnam), 5 in Latin America / Caribbean (Haiti (3), Guatemala, Nicaragua), and 2 in the Middle East (Jordan, Tunisia).
"Canada works with our like-minded partners throughout the world to leverage our investments in he
|Contact: Terry Collins
Sandra Rotman Centre for Global Health