Backing bold ideas. Breaking barriers to scale.
Grand Challenges Canada is an innovation platform that invests where it can unlock the greatest impact—from backing bold ideas early to helping proven solutions overcome barriers to adoption and scale. Our ambition: Reach 700 million people by 2035.
For more than 15 years, Grand Challenges Canada has backed bold ideas, supported locally led innovation and invested patient, flexible capital. We have seen what becomes possible when promising solutions are matched with the right partners and resources.
But even strong innovations can stall without the financing, demand and pathways to adoption needed to reach more people. Our 2025-2030 strategy responds by strengthening support across the innovation journey — from early investment and evidence-building to adoption, scale and sustainability.
We will continue to take informed risks, put equity at the centre of our work, and invest in bold, locally-led ideas. We will also do more to prepare promising innovations for scale, address the barriers holding proven solutions back, mobilize different forms of capital, and bring together the partners and systems needed for adoption and long-term impact.
Four directions. One ambition.
Our strategy is organized around four connected directions that guide how we invest, support innovation, and create the conditions for greater impact.
Adapt
Transform GCC for greater impact
We will strengthen GCC as a responsive, effective innovation platform using evidence, learning and feedback to focus our resources where they can make the greatest difference.
Accelerate
Deliver scale-ready innovations
We will help promising innovations build the evidence, capabilities, and partnerships they need to become ready for wider adoption.
Choreograph
Catalyze systems to demand, adopt, and sustain innovation
We will align demand, evidence, financing and delivery across ecosystems so that proven solutions can be adopted and sustained.
Connect
Convene and influence partners for impact at scale
We will bring together innovators, governments, funders, investors, and other partners to share learning, strengthen collaboration and build momentum for greater impact.
We aim to reach 700 million people by 2035 with life-improving innovation.
Where we will focus
Our investment priorities build on GCC’s experience, partnerships, and pipeline of innovations.
Building the next pipeline
At the Proof of Concept and Transition to Scale stages, we will concentrate new investment in three priority areas: climate and health (Nexa), youth mental health (Being), and primary health care. These are areas where GCC’s experience, partnerships and pipeline can make a distinctive contribution—from backing promising ideas to preparing strong innovations for wider adoption.
Unlocking impact at scale
At the same time, we will draw on areas where GCC has deep experience, relationships, and a strong pipeline of innovation—from early childhood development to health systems strengthening—to identify and advance promising, evidence-backed solutions with the potential for impact at scale.
Matching capital to the barrier
Across this work, we will use the right mix of capital, partnerships and support—including grants, debt, equity and outcomes-based financing—to address the barriers preventing strong solutions from reaching more people.
Climate and health
Drawing on the insights from the largest-ever global climate and health survey, we are investing in locally-led solutions to the health impacts of climate change. Learn more about Nexa.
Youth mental health
Backing locally-led approaches to the promotion and prevention of youth mental health. Learn more about the Being Initiative. Together with Fondation Botnar and a group of global partners, we are supporting solutions a Proof of Concept and Transition to Scale, as well as building ecosystem support for youth mental health in Being’s priority countries..
Primary health care
Supporting innovations that strengthen access to effective, equitable primary health care. Slated to launch in 2027, primary health care will be a key investment area for GCC at the Proof of Concept and Transition to Scale phases.
Early childhood development
Helping young children and their caregivers to get the start in life that they need to thrive. We’re drawing on 15 years of learning from our Saving Brains portfolio to explore opportunities for impact at scale in early childhood development.
We listened and learned
This strategy reflects two years of listening and learning, shaped by conversations with innovators, governments, funders, partner organizations, peer institutions and people across GCC.
What we heard reinforced the value of GCC’s innovation model and the need to take it further. Greater impact requires stronger connections between innovation, evidence, financing, demand, and adoption.
Achieving more, together
No organization can achieve this ambition alone. With the Government of Canada as our anchor funder, we will work with innovators and partners across sectors to turn bold ideas into lasting impact, and help more proven solutions to reach the people who need them most.