Human health and social work activities

The Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) Fund is a global funding programme that supports innovative, evidence-based solutions with the potential to improve millions of lives. The fund operates as an R&D engine for development, combining risk-tolerant capital with rigorous evidence and scaling pathways.

DIV’s core objective is to identify, test, and scale cost-effective innovations that deliver measurable social impact particularly in low- and middle-income contexts.

Funding Structure (Tiered Model)

About the Due Diligence Fund

The Due Diligence Fund (DDF) is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as part of the Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains Initiative (SASI). Now in its fifth round, the DDF has already supported 30 projects across four previous rounds since 2022.

Opportunity Type: Research Funding / Seed Grant

Funding Organisations:
South Africa–Sweden University Forum (SASUF) & National Research Foundation (NRF)

Application Deadline: 10 June 2026
Project Duration: Up to 2 years (Starting 1 August 2026)
Number of Projects Funded: Up to 20 projects

Overview

This global Grand Challenge seeks innovative solutions to significantly reduce the cost of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) used to treat Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 

The objective is to enable more children to access life-saving treatment by improving cost-efficiency across formulation, production, and supply systems. Proposals must demonstrate a minimum 30% reduction in the ex-factory unit cost of RUTF, while maintaining nutritional quality and regulatory compliance. 

This global Grand Challenge seeks to fund breakthrough innovations that significantly reduce the cost of diagnostic and screening tools for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The focus is on developing scalable, high-impact technologies that can deliver diagnostic results at approximately USD 1 per test or near-zero incremental cost, while maintaining quality, speed, and usability in low-resource settings. 

This global Grand Challenges call for proposals seeks to accelerate the development of innovative interventions targeting placental and maternal gut inflammation and oxidative stress to improve fetal growth outcomes.

Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR) remains a major contributor to neonatal mortality and long-term health complications, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This call aims to support scalable, science-driven solutions that can generate decision-grade evidence and advance toward clinical application.

The Grand Challenges initiative has launched a global call for proposals seeking breakthrough innovations that can significantly reduce the cost of treating Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) while maintaining or improving treatment outcomes.

The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research is inviting proposals for applied policy and political economy research to accelerate the implementation and expansion of health taxes.

This call aims to fund up to three country teams to conduct real-time policy analysis and strategy co-production that directly supports national-level health tax reform. The focus is not academic theory alone, but actionable insights embedded within ongoing national policy processes.

The iLCT Pipeline Research Acceleration Programme is a targeted funding call launched by Cure Parkinson’s to accelerate high-priority therapeutic candidates toward clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease.

This programme forms part of the International Linked Clinical Trials (iLCT) initiative, a global drug selection and evaluation platform established in collaboration with the Van Andel Institute. The iLCT committee comprising over 20 world-leading Parkinson’s experts annually reviews and ranks candidate compounds with disease-modifying potential.