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Gates Foundation Grand Challenges 2026: Up to US$500,000 for AI-Enabled Family Planning Solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Muhammad Chishti
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The Gates Foundation has opened applications for the 2026 Grand Challenges funding opportunity, “AI-Enabled Consumer Engagement to Advance Family Planning.”

The initiative will support organisations that can deploy, test and evaluate artificial intelligence-enabled, direct-to-consumer engagement tools designed to improve contraceptive uptake, method continuation and informed contraceptive choice among women and girls of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa.

Selected projects may receive up to US$500,000 for an implementation period of up to 12 months. The opportunity is open to eligible organisations worldwide, but proposed activities must be implemented in sub-Saharan Africa and applicants must already have an operational user base, intervention cohort or distribution relationship in a target geography.

The application deadline is 25 August 2026 at 11:30 a.m. United States Pacific Time.

Applicants should review the official Grand Challenges opportunity page, request for proposals, rules, application instructions, budget template and frequently asked questions before submitting.

Overview of the Opportunity

The initiative seeks practical, scalable and evidence-generating solutions that use artificial intelligence to improve family planning engagement.

Successful applicants will not simply be expected to build an AI tool. They must demonstrate how an AI-enabled consumer engagement approach can be deployed through an existing platform, tested with real users and evaluated against meaningful family planning outcomes.

Key information includes:

The Foundation has not stated how many projects will be selected.

Why This Initiative Has Been Launched

Despite substantial investment in family planning programmes across sub-Saharan Africa, many women and girls continue to face unmet contraceptive needs.

Access to family planning is influenced by several barriers, including:

Clinic-based counselling remains important, but it cannot independently provide continuous, personalised engagement to every potential user at the scale and cost required.

Digital health platforms have increased the reach of health information. However, many existing systems depend on one-way messages, fixed scripts or rule-based responses. Such systems may deliver standard information but cannot always respond effectively to an individual user’s concerns, follow-up questions and changing circumstances.

How Artificial Intelligence Could Improve Family Planning Engagement

Recent advances in large language models and conversational AI have created new possibilities for direct engagement with consumers.

AI-enabled tools may be able to:

Organisations across sub-Saharan Africa are beginning to use these tools for women’s health and broader consumer-health needs. However, the field still lacks sufficient evidence showing which AI-enabled engagement models produce meaningful family planning outcomes.

The Evidence Gap the Challenge Seeks to Address

The Gates Foundation is seeking evidence that goes beyond the number of messages sent, users registered or sessions completed.

The initiative seeks to understand:

Without this evidence, investments in AI-enabled family planning platforms cannot be properly compared, improved or expanded.

The Central Question

The initiative seeks to answer whether AI-enabled, direct-to-consumer engagement can improve:

Applicants must also help explain which approaches work, for whom they work, why they work and under what operating conditions they are most valuable.

Types of Solutions That May Be Considered

The Foundation does not require applicants to have an AI platform that has already demonstrated family planning results.

Organisations may apply with an existing consumer engagement approach that has a proven record in:

The proposed AI component may be new. However, the applicant must already have an established user base, intervention cohort or distribution relationship that makes deployment and evaluation possible within the 12-month period.

Projects may be delivered through:

The programme is not intended to finance a platform that still needs to begin building its user base or negotiating access to a distribution channel.

Primary Objectives

The initiative has four central objectives.

1. Generate Evidence on Impact and Scale

Projects should demonstrate whether and how AI-enabled, direct-to-consumer engagement affects:

Applicants must present a credible evaluation design capable of connecting AI-enabled interactions with downstream family planning outcomes.

2. Identify Features of Effective Engagement

Projects should determine which elements of an AI-enabled interaction are associated with stronger results.

These elements may include:

Applicants should develop and test a clear theory of what effective consumer engagement means in their proposed context.

3. Build a Shared Evidence Base

Funded work should generate learning that benefits the wider family planning and digital-health field rather than only improving the applicant’s own platform.

Possible shared outputs include:

Applicants should explain how these outputs could help other organisations evaluate and improve AI-enabled family planning engagement.

4. Assess Cost, Feasibility and Added Value

Projects must examine the cost and operational requirements of using AI-enabled engagement.

Applicants should assess:

Budgets should be proportionate to the proposed deployment and evaluation activities.

Expected Characteristics of Strong Proposals

Competitive applications should combine a credible operational intervention with a rigorous evaluation plan.

Strong proposals are expected to:

Eligible Organisations

The opportunity is open globally to:

Collaborations involving multiple stakeholders are encouraged.

Potential partnerships could involve:

Individuals are not eligible to receive funding directly. Organisations classified as individuals for United States tax purposes are also ineligible.

Awards will be made to the organisation where the responsible investigator or project lead holds their primary appointment.

Geographic Requirements

Although eligible organisations may be headquartered anywhere in the world, the proposed intervention must operate in sub-Saharan Africa.

Applicants should already have women’s-health or consumer-health intervention cohorts in one or more of the following countries:

The Foundation has expressed a preference for solutions targeting:

Projects in other eligible sub-Saharan African settings may be considered, but activities outside sub-Saharan Africa will not be funded under this call.

Existing User Base and Distribution Requirements

Applicants must already have an operational consumer-engagement approach and an established user base or distribution relationship.

The existing approach may relate to family planning, women’s health or consumer health more broadly.

The Foundation will examine the quality of engagement, not merely the headline size of the platform.

Applicants should provide evidence such as:

An applicant with a large registered user base but weak active engagement may be less competitive than an organisation with a smaller but consistently engaged population.

Requirements for AI-Generated Health Content

AI-generated content must be based on vetted and locally relevant family planning information.

Content should align with:

Applicants should explain how they will prevent the AI system from providing inaccurate, unsafe or inappropriate information.

The proposed safeguards should address:

Measurement and Evaluation Requirements

Applicants must propose an evaluation design that measures both the interaction and the outcomes occurring after it.

Relevant measures may include:

Applications should present a clear pathway connecting interaction quality with behavioural or service-delivery outcomes.

Projects should investigate not only whether behaviour changed, but also how and why the change occurred.

Importance of Human Touchpoints

The Foundation recognises that digital engagement does not operate in isolation.

Human contact before and after an AI interaction may be important to family planning outcomes. Applicants should therefore describe relevant human touchpoints, such as:

Applications should explain how digital and human engagement will work together.

Activities That Will Not Be Funded

The Foundation will not support proposals that:

Funding Level and Project Duration

The Foundation will consider awards of up to US$500,000 for each project.

The project term may be up to 12 months.

Budgets should be proportionate to:

Indirect costs may be included up to a maximum of 15% of the total budget, subject to the Gates Foundation’s indirect cost policy.

The maximum available amount is not an automatic entitlement. Applicants should request only the funding reasonably required to deliver the proposed work.

Required Application Components

The application consists of three principal elements:

  1. Applicant profile and organisational information completed through the online portal.
  2. A proposal uploaded in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.
  3. A budget table and accompanying budget narrative.

Applicants should follow the official application instructions.

Proposal Length and Formatting

The proposal must not exceed two pages.

Figures, diagrams and references are included in the two-page limit.

The proposal must use:

Applicants should not include a separate cover page. The application system will automatically generate one using the registration information.

Applications that do not follow these restrictions may be blocked from submission or review.

Recommended Proposal Structure

The Foundation recommends dividing the two-page proposal into three sections.

1. Introductory Information

Suggested length: Half a page.

Applicants should provide:

2. Proposal Information

Suggested length: One page.

Applicants should provide:

3. Path to Impact

Suggested length: Half a page.

Applicants should explain:

Budget Table and Narrative

Applicants must submit a budget table and narrative of no more than one page.

The budget may include:

A one-paragraph narrative should explain the major cost drivers and show how the requested resources relate to the planned activities and outcomes.

Applicant Webinar

A dedicated webinar is scheduled for:

The webinar will provide an overview of the request for proposals and allow potential applicants to ask questions.

Interested organisations may register for the webinar.

A recording is expected to be added to the official challenge page after the event.

Application Review Process

Applications will proceed through four main stages.

Stage One: Initial Screening

Applications will be assessed to determine whether they address the challenge’s central requirements.

Proposals may be removed if they:

Applicants removed during screening may receive a decline notification without detailed feedback.

Stage Two: Technical Review

Technical leads from the Foundation, and potentially other funding partners, will chair or co-chair the review.

Applications may be assessed by internal and external reviewers with expertise in the topic or complementary areas.

Applicants should write clearly for a multidisciplinary audience because not every reviewer will necessarily be a specialist in the applicant’s exact technical field.

Stage Three: Validation and Final Selection

The Executive Committee will validate the review and select proposals for possible funding.

The committee may recommend funding subject to changes. These modifications may be negotiated during the award process.

Selected organisations may be invited to submit a more detailed proposal and will receive further instructions.

Stage Four: Due Diligence and Negotiation

The final stage will include:

Main Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed against five principal areas.

Existing Reach and Family Planning Relevance

Reviewers will consider:

Evaluation and Measurement Rigor

Reviewers will assess:

Contribution to Shared Evidence

Reviewers will examine whether applicants will produce outputs useful to the broader field, such as:

Safety, Confidentiality and Content Grounding

Reviewers will assess:

Organisational Fit and Feasibility

Reviewers will consider:

Intellectual Property and Confidentiality

Applicants should assume that information submitted to the Foundation will not remain confidential.

The Foundation may share application information with:

Applicants should not include proprietary or confidential information in proposals, budgets or supporting materials.

The Foundation is also required to publish information about awarded funding and may describe selected projects through its websites, press releases or promotional materials.

Funded organisations generally retain ownership of intellectual property created through their projects. However, project outputs must be made widely available to the intended beneficiaries under the Foundation’s global-access requirements. These conditions are explained further in the official FAQs.

Additional Application Information

Applicants should note that:

Key Dates

Any changes to these dates will be published on the official Grand Challenges website.

How to Apply

Applicants should complete the following steps:

  1. Review the official request for proposals.
  2. Read the Rules and Guidelines.
  3. Review the Application Instructions and FAQs.
  4. Confirm organisational eligibility and tax status.
  5. Confirm the existence of a relevant user base or distribution relationship.
  6. Develop a compliant two-page proposal.
  7. Prepare a one-page budget table and narrative.
  8. Create or access an account on the application portal.
  9. Complete the applicant profile.
  10. Upload the proposal and budget documents.
  11. Review the submission carefully.
  12. Submit before 25 August 2026 at 11:30 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time.

Applications may be started and submitted through the official Gates Foundation application portal.

Questions concerning eligibility, selection criteria or application instructions may be sent to:

grandchallenges@gatesfoundation.org

Conclusion

The Gates Foundation Grand Challenges 2026 opportunity for AI-enabled consumer engagement in family planning represents a significant funding opportunity for organisations already operating women’s-health, reproductive-health or consumer-health platforms in sub-Saharan Africa.

With awards of up to US$500,000 for projects lasting up to 12 months, the initiative is designed to move beyond theoretical AI research. It prioritises real-world deployment, measurable family planning outcomes, operational feasibility, responsible AI use and practical learning that can benefit the wider field.

Competitive applicants will need more than an innovative chatbot or a large list of registered users. They must demonstrate an engaged user base, an established distribution pathway, strong local knowledge, credible evaluation methods, adequate safety protections and a clear connection between AI-enabled interaction and contraceptive outcomes.

Eligible organisations should carefully review all official materials and submit a concise, evidence-driven and technically compliant application before 25 August 2026 at 11:30 a.m. U.S. Pacific Time.

For more global opportunities, click HERE.

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