USAID, the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and The World Bank joined to launch Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development, on 9 March 2011.

Partners expected to provide nearly $14 million for this grant program’s first round of funding. This has since been increased to a $50 million, five-year partnership.

The initiative sought innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in rural, low-resource settings with the call to: "the brightest minds across the globe to identify and scale up transformative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in rural, low-resource settings around the time of birth"

More than 600 submissions from around the world were received. From July 26-28, 77 finalists, travelled to Washington, D.C. to compete in the final stage of this competition, display their ideas to the public in an open market place and establish connections with a community of innovators dedicated to a single cause: ensuring every mother delivers safely and every newborn has a healthy start to life.

19 nominees were chosen from among the finalists. The nominees will be entering final negotiations before being issued an award. Another set of nominees for transition grants will be announced on a later date.

More on this resource