Saving Brains

UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT

The Saving Brains program promotes the fulfillment of human capital potential by focusing on interventions that nurture and protect early brain development in the first 1,000 days of life.

Grand Challenges Canada is honoured to have Mrs. Laureen Harper serve as Honourary Chair of the Saving Brains initiative.  Click HERE to read A Message from Mrs. Laureen Harper.

Mrs. Laureen Harper with Drs. Peter A. Singer and Karlee Silver.

As many as 200 million children fail to reach their full potential as a result of exposure to risk factors–malnutrition, infection, poor management of pregnancy, birth complications, and lack of stimulation and nurturing–in the first 1000 days of life (from conception to 2 years of age).

Targeted interventions may help unlock the potential of the next generation of children – and provide their countries with an exit strategy from poverty. The complexity of the issue requires Integrated Innovation which is at the heart of the Grand Challenges Canada approach.

 

Saving Brains – Scaling Impact is the third call for proposals issued under the Grand Challenges Canada Saving Brains program.

The first Saving Brains call was launched in May 2011, with a goal of determining the long-term impact of bold ideas to improve child development and human capital formation. Through this call’s competitive process, Grand Challenges Canada announced $11.8 million CAD in support of the
11 projects that were selected as the most promising bold ideas with big impact.

The second Saving Brains call was launched in October 2011, with a goal of determining the economic impact of poverty-related risk factors to cognitive development and human capital. The project selection has been made and will be announced in 2013.

Saving Brains – Scaling Impact

The goal of this Request for Proposals is to test and scale up bold ideas for products, services and implementation models that protect and nurture early brain development in a sustainable manner.

Our focus is on low- and middle-income countries. Specifically, proposals must provide innovative solutions relevant to low-resource settings.

The total funding available to support this competition is up to $10 million CAD. We expect to fund proposals through two funding streams: seed grants (up to $250,000 CAD) and transition-to-scale grants (up to $2 million CAD).

The application period is currently closed. The Proposal Deadline for Saving Brains: Scaling Impact was February 11, 2013. Applicants will be notified in May 2013 regarding the application decision. Subscribe to our mailing list to be notified of future rounds.

Saving Brains Video

In this short video CEO of Grand Challenges Canada Dr. Peter A. Singer discusses Saving Brains with Program Officer, Dr. Karlee Silver. Saving Brains is a program within the Women’s and Children’s Health initiative. It’s goal is to unlock the cognitive potential of children growing up in the developing world.

Previous Rounds

 

QUERIES

Please submit queries to savingbrains@grandchallenges.ca