Seed grants to commercialize responsible artificial intelligence innovations in global health
These startups — across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and Asia — will receive financial and technical support, including mentorship, skills strengthening and networking opportunities to strengthen business models focused on health equity, gender equality and inclusion. The recipients, sponsored through IDRC’s Artificial Intelligence for Global Health initiative, will share knowledge and experiences within and across regions, as well as with other partners.
Each of these innovations focuses on ethical and responsible AI to mitigate potential associated ethical, legal and social harms of AI so that AI solutions can improve health outcomes. Results from these grants are expected to catalyze ecosystems of local, socially oriented entrepreneurs and innovators that develop responsible AI solutions to optimize inclusion, equitable health outcomes and commercially viable scale.
The regional hubs are led by Tec de Monterrey (LAC), Villgro Africa (Africa) and Villgro Philippines (Asia). For all three incubators, mentorship in business development, scale up and technology is vital to the operations’ success. These are provided alongside seed funding to kickstart and nurture early stages of the innovation cycle. Target areas for global health for each grant focus on either sexual, reproductive and maternal health, or strengthening prevention, preparedness and response to epidemics and pandemics, with an emphasis on the potential to promote health equity.
The five subgrantees from LAC address female health, cancer detection and accessibility. The innovations range from cervical cancer diagnosis using an AI tool to a real-time sign-language translation app. Read more.
The 10 recipients from Africa, selected through the Artificial Intelligence for Health funding call, address gender gaps in healthcare, democratizing healthcare access, sexual health diagnostics and inquiries, and maternal and neonatal health. These health-focused innovations range from teleradiology for underserved, distant communities, to HIV patient triage via AI modeling. Read more.
The eight grant recipients in Asia address sexual, reproductive and maternal health, gender-based violence, strengthening health systems for pandemic preparedness and regulatory compliance in food marketing. Their projects range from an application with an AI assistant for pregnant women to mobility solutions for emergency management. Read more about these recipients.