Emerging innovations at the intersection of climate and health: Results from a global call for proposals on the impacts of climate change and health

This report outlines key lessons from the funding call and indicates possible areas for funders and partners to consider as they conduct their own work at the intersection of climate change and health. We know that health is the human face of climate change. Heatwaves, droughts, floods, and other climate events are putting immense pressure on cities, food systems, health systems and livelihoods. It is essential that we find new ways to address and adapt to the rising global temperatures and the stress that these changes are placing on our health systems. With support from the Government of Canada, Grand Challenges Canada and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) launched a funding call on the impacts of climate change and health in October 2022. We sought promising new innovations to address some of the major health challenges in low-and middle-income countries.

Three key findings emerged:

• The grand challenges approach has power not only in funding promising ideas but also reveals how the health effects of climate change are felt in different parts of the world, who is focused on addressing the problem and what is the landscape of ideas that exist.
• Innovators in different parts of the world are focused on solutions for different climaterelated health issues. Across all the applications, it was evident that local solutions are most likely to capture the nuanced aspects of how climate change uniquely affects geographies in low- and middle-income countries. We also noted the strong presence of locally-led innovations, as the majority of applications were based in the implementation country.
• The top three health topics emerged clearly from the applications. These include communicable diseases (vector-, water-, food-borne and zoonotic diseases), nutrition security, and mental health.