The Innovations in Cost-Disruptive Tools for Diagnosis and Screening opportunity, launched by Grand Challenges South Africa (South African Medical Research Council), invites proposals for cost-disruptive diagnostic and screening technologies. The initiative aims to address the critical gap in affordable and accessible diagnostic tools in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where nearly half the global population lacks essential diagnostic tests. This call seeks transformative, high-risk, high-reward innovations that fundamentally rethink how diagnosis or screening is performed, including novel sensing modalities, software-defined diagnostics, and AI-enabled approaches, with a focus on tuberculosis (TB), HIV, and maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH).

Overview

The programme seeks devices that amortize capital to near-zero incremental cost and consumable-based tests that materially reset the cost curve to approximately US$1 per test. All solutions must meet real-world LMIC deployment constraints, including rapid results, ease of use, robustness, cold-chain independence, and minimal consumable requirements. The initiative aims to translate these cost-disruptive concepts into scalable solutions across high-priority disease areas, with a particular emphasis on innovations that address local health system needs, strengthen research capacity, and enable local or regional manufacturing in South Africa.

Priority Areas and Use Cases

The SAMRC has identified four high-priority disease areas for this initiative. Proposals must align with at least one of the following use cases:

• Tuberculosis (TB): Community-level, symptom-agnostic screening tools (non-sputum approaches prioritized) and diagnostic tools or devices aligned with WHO TB diagnostic TPPs that enable rapid confirmation outside centralized laboratories.
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV): Near-POC or decentralized quantitative viral-load testing, POC tools for early infant diagnosis (EID) enabling same-visit diagnosis, and near-POC CD4 or advanced HIV disease (AHD) triage tests.
• Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and Women’s Health: POC diagnostics for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomonas; POC diagnostics for active adult and congenital syphilis; and POC tools for high-risk HPV primary screening enabling same-visit screen-and-treat pathways for cervical precancer.
• Maternal and Newborn Health: Preeclampsia screening and diagnostics, cuffless or low-burden blood pressure measurement, simplified biomarker-based approaches for gestational hyperglycemia detection, rapid POC tools for neonatal sepsis triage, and tools for earlier identification of infectious disease outbreaks in neonatal intensive care units.

Cross-sector, cross-disease, and platform-based innovations are explicitly encouraged. Technologies initially developed for non-health or non-diagnostic applications are eligible, provided a clear, technically credible adaptation pathway to one of the listed use cases is presented.

Award Structure

Multiple award sizes are available to accommodate different stages of technology maturity:

• Option A (Proof-of-Concept): Up to R 5 million per project for up to 24 months, supporting early feasibility and prototyping of high-risk, out-of-the-box concepts.
• Option B (Product Refinement and Early Validation): Up to R 8 million per project for up to 24 months.
• Option C (Mature Platforms and Field Readiness): One award of up to R 16.5 million for up to 36 months, requiring commensurate evidence of technical readiness, feasibility, and a clear pathway to validation.

Final award amounts and durations will depend on proposal quality and strategic fit. Funding is subject to the SAMRC Terms and Conditions of funding.

Eligibility Requirements

This initiative is open to investigators and innovators from South African universities, public research organizations, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies registered in South Africa. The lead investigator must be a South African citizen or permanent resident affiliated with an eligible South African institution. Collaborators from international organizations are eligible, except teams based in countries where cooperation with South Africa is suspended through ministerial directives. Applications from teams led by women and/or researchers at historically black universities, as well as academic-private sector collaborations, are strongly encouraged and will be prioritized. All applicants must comply with the South African IPR Act (No. 51 of 2008) and the Gates Foundation's global access requirements.

Timeline and Submission

Opening Date: May 12, 2026, at 6:00 am PDT.

Deadline: June 23, 2026, at 3:00 pm PDT.

Proposals must clearly articulate the disease focus area and intended use case, describe operational feasibility for LMIC settings, include a feasible workplan and milestones, and present a credible pathway to population-scale economics. Applicants must also commit to independent evaluation participation and adhere to applicable ethical, regulatory, and open access policies. For complete details and to submit a proposal, visit the SAMRC funding portal.

Apply and Learn More: SAMRC Grand Challenges South Africa RFP