Grand Challenges Canada: Nexa Climate and Health Innovation Funding (2026)
Grand Challenges Canada’s open Nexa opportunity funds proven climate-and-health innovations ready for wider implementation in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean through Transition-to-Scale awards.
Grand Challenges Canada: Nexa Climate and Health Innovation Funding (2026)
Grand Challenges Canada’s live 2026 funding opportunity is Nexa, a climate-and-health competition for innovations that are ready to move beyond proof of concept and into wider implementation. The opportunity is co-led by Grand Challenges Canada and the Science for Africa Foundation with a wider group of partners. It focuses on practical solutions that help local health actors respond to climate-driven health risks in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
This page used to describe Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health seed funding and general open-call model. The official funding page now identifies Nexa as the current open opportunity. That distinction matters: the active round is not an unrestricted Stars seed application window, and it is not open to new proof-of-concept submissions. Applicants should read the current Nexa materials and apply for the Transition-to-Scale track only if their innovation has already been tested and has credible evidence behind it.
Key details
| Item | Current 2026 Nexa detail |
|---|---|
| Funder | Grand Challenges Canada, co-led with the Science for Africa Foundation and consortium partners |
| Opportunity | Nexa – Climate and Health Innovation: Africa and Latin America & the Caribbean |
| Funding stage | Transition to Scale only; proof-of-concept applications are no longer accepted |
| Amount | Approximately USD $250,000 to $2,000,000 per innovation, at the Nexa partners’ discretion |
| Deadline | August 12, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. UTC |
| Implementation geography | Eligible countries in Africa, Latin America, or the Caribbean; the complete country list is in Appendix B of the funding opportunity |
| Applicant organization | A legally incorporated organization, or equivalent, from any country |
| Project maturity | An innovation that has achieved proof of concept and is ready for wider implementation or further scale preparation |
| Application route | Grand Challenges Canada’s Fluxx portal only |
| Application languages | English or French |
| Official call page | https://www.grandchallenges.ca/funding-opportunity-nexa/ |
The deadline is a single date in the page metadata because the official call gives a fixed closing time. Applicants should treat the time zone as part of the deadline: the portal must receive a complete Transition-to-Scale submission by 2 p.m. Eastern Time, which the official page also expresses as 6 p.m. UTC. A saved draft is not a submission, so leave time to resolve validation errors and press Submit.
What Nexa funds
Nexa is aimed at the point where climate risk becomes a health-service problem. The official call asks for solutions that help local health actors turn climate-driven risk signals into timely action and reduce harm from mosquito-borne infections, extreme heat, and poor air quality. The proposal must directly address at least one of two areas.
The first is climate-informed early warning and monitoring. This can include systems that help health actors anticipate and respond to extreme heat, poor air quality, or changing mosquito ecology associated with diseases such as malaria and dengue. Relevant approaches may integrate weather or climate information with health data, identify emerging risk, and support decisions or early action by people who deliver or manage health services.
The second is climate-responsive patient-care delivery. This covers innovations that strengthen local responses to mosquito-borne disease, heat-related illness, or conditions linked to poor air quality. It can include climate-smart diagnosis, treatment, continuity of care, or operational approaches that help health systems function more effectively under climate stress.
The call is not asking for a general climate project with a distant health connection. Climate-driven health risk needs to be central to the innovation’s design, operation, and deployment. A strong application will show the chain from a defined climate-related threat, to a health-system or patient-care gap, to a solution that local actors can use, and finally to evidence that the approach improves a relevant outcome or removes a significant barrier.
Funding stage and amount
Nexa’s open track is Transition to Scale. The official page defines this as an approach that has already been tested, proven effective, and is ready to be implemented more widely. Applicants may also use the funding to develop a scaling plan, validate the viability of a business or scaling model, or address gaps that have become clear during earlier testing. The proposal should therefore be grounded in results, not only a promising concept.
Requests may range from approximately USD $250,000 to USD $2,000,000 per innovation. The amount is not an automatic award and is subject to the Nexa partners’ discretion. The application form permits project durations of 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, or 24 months, with a maximum investment period of 24 months. The requested amount and duration may be reassessed during due diligence if the proposal advances.
This funding range replaces the older Stars-in-Global-Health figures that appeared on this page. Historical Stars rounds are not the basis for the current Nexa request, so an applicant should not use the old CAD $100,000 or CAD $150,000 seed-grant figures when preparing a Nexa budget. The current application asks for a scale-oriented budget in U.S. dollars and expects the amount to match the activities, implementation setting, evidence base, and proposed route to wider reach.
Eligibility
The applicant must be a legally formed and incorporated organization, or an equivalent legal entity, and may be incorporated in any country. The proposed innovation must be implemented in eligible countries in Africa, Latin America, or the Caribbean. The official funding opportunity contains the complete eligible-country list in Appendix B; confirm that list before choosing the implementation country in Fluxx. An organization’s country of incorporation and its implementation country are separate questions, so do not assume that incorporation outside the target regions makes an application ineligible.
The innovation itself must fit the Nexa focus and be beyond the earliest concept stage. New proof-of-concept applications are not eligible for the current open window. The applicant should be able to present credible proof-of-concept results, explain the population and setting in which the innovation was tested, and show why the next phase is a scale or scale-readiness step. Evidence should be concrete enough for reviewers to understand the result, the method used to measure it, and the demand or need for the solution.
The Project Lead must be formally affiliated with the applicant organization, be an active and key member of the project team, and be listed as Project Lead on only one application. The application also asks about the team’s connection to the affected community. This includes whether key team members are from or based near the community, whether the organization has a local presence, and whether it has an active, equitable relationship with community organizations. These questions are not a substitute for the core legal and geographic criteria, but they help demonstrate that the proposed implementation is grounded in the people and health system it is intended to serve.
Applications must be complete and submitted in English or French. Submissions in another language will be deemed ineligible according to the current application questions. Required legal-incorporation documents are not necessarily needed at the first form stage, but the organization must be able to provide documentation such as a certificate of incorporation or equivalent if the application reaches the relevant review stage.
Application steps
Read the official Nexa funding opportunity. Start with the full funding opportunity document linked from the official call page. Review the funding focus, the Transition-to-Scale definition, the eligible-country list in Appendix B, the assessment criteria, and any terms that affect intellectual property, sharing, access, or implementation. The short webpage summary is not a replacement for the full call document.
Confirm organizational and project fit. Check that the applicant is a legally incorporated entity, that implementation will occur in an eligible country in the required regions, and that the innovation is already supported by proof-of-concept evidence. Choose the relevant focus area: climate-informed early warning and monitoring, climate-responsive patient-care delivery, or both if the proposal genuinely addresses both.
Register for or sign in to Fluxx. New applicants go to gcc.fluxx.io, choose “Create an account now,” enter the organization’s information and contact details, and verify the account through the email link. Existing applicants should sign in with their current account rather than creating a duplicate. The Fluxx portal is the required application channel for this funding opportunity.
Select the Nexa Transition-to-Scale opportunity. Once signed in, use the portal to view the open funding opportunities and select the current Nexa call. The current window is for Transition to Scale. Do not select or prepare a new proof-of-concept application because the official notice says those applications are no longer being accepted.
Complete the form with evidence and a scale plan. The application asks for the problem and population context, the innovation and its distinctive features, the role of climate-driven health risk in the design, the team and community connection, proof-of-concept results, and organizational plans for the next 24 months. It also asks for the amount requested, project duration, collaborators, implementation countries, and the organization’s legal status. Answer every required question in English or French and keep the requested amount and duration consistent with the work plan.
Review, save, and submit before the deadline. Fluxx lets applicants save work and return to a draft. Before submitting, check the geographic selections, amount, duration, required fields, attachments or supporting information, and the Project Lead certification. The application questions state that a submitted application cannot be edited, and the submission must be completed before the posted deadline. The official Nexa deadline is August 12, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. UTC.
What to prepare
A competitive submission should make the evidence easy to evaluate. Prepare a concise description of the health problem and the climate-related mechanism behind it. Explain the target population and implementation setting, then show exactly how the innovation changes decisions, services, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, or continuity of care. Avoid describing climate as a broad background issue; identify the health risk the team can act on.
Prepare proof-of-concept results with enough detail to establish what was tested and what changed. Include the sample or population, measurement tools, methods, results, and limitations. Quantitative results are particularly useful, but qualitative or operational evidence can also clarify community demand and implementation feasibility. State what remains uncertain and how the Transition-to-Scale work will address it.
The scale plan should connect the proposed budget to deployment. Describe the organizations, public systems, health workers, community groups, or service channels that will carry the innovation forward. Explain the partnerships needed, the geographic expansion, the staffing or training requirements, and the way the solution can remain useful after the grant period. Include a realistic implementation schedule for the selected project duration rather than presenting scale as an unbounded ambition.
The budget should distinguish implementation costs from research, product refinement, training, monitoring, partnership, and operational costs. The current range is broad, so explain why the requested amount is proportionate to the innovation’s maturity and target reach. If third parties own patents, copyrighted content, trademarks, trade secrets, or datasets used by the innovation, identify those rights and explain whether the team has permission to scale in the implementation countries. The application questions specifically ask about third-party intellectual property and licensing.
Review and decision process
Grand Challenges Canada describes an initial eligibility check followed by an innovation screen. For Transition to Scale, the strongest applicants may be invited to submit a fuller second-stage application. The process then includes peer review, due-diligence conversations, funding decisions, and grant negotiations. Due diligence may explore impact potential, operations, finances, intellectual property, and partnerships. A proposal that passes the initial form review is not automatically funded; the requested amount, duration, objectives, and budget can be revisited as the funder assesses the opportunity.
The official review model makes clarity important. Reviewers need to see why the innovation fits one of the two Nexa focus areas, what evidence supports it, how local actors will use it, and why the proposed next step is appropriate now. Claims about scale should be tied to a credible delivery route and measurable outcomes. A well-structured application also makes clear which elements are already proven and which questions the proposed work will answer.
Current status and practical caution
The Nexa Transition-to-Scale call is open on the official Grand Challenges Canada funding page as of this page’s last verification. The official notice also says that proof-of-concept applications stopped being accepted on July 22, 2026. This page therefore records the active Transition-to-Scale deadline rather than the former general Stars seed-grant amounts or a generic “apply when open” instruction.
Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health program remains an important part of the organization’s historical portfolio and innovation pipeline, but the Stars program page lists past funding calls and describes current portfolio areas rather than presenting a general Stars application deadline. Readers looking specifically for a new early-stage Stars grant should not infer that the Nexa call accepts an untested concept. They should monitor the official Apply for Funding page for any future call and follow the requirements attached to that call.
Official links
- Current Nexa funding opportunity: https://www.grandchallenges.ca/funding-opportunity-nexa/
- Grand Challenges Canada Apply for Funding page: https://www.grandchallenges.ca/apply-for-funding/
- Grand Challenges Canada How to Apply guidance: https://www.grandchallenges.ca/how-to-apply/
- Fluxx application portal: https://gcc.fluxx.io/
- Stars in Global Health program and past calls: https://www.grandchallenges.ca/portfolio/stars-in-global-health/
Before submitting, confirm the live call page, the full Nexa funding opportunity document, Appendix B’s eligible-country list, and the Fluxx form. Use the official deadline and time zone shown above, submit through Fluxx, and retain the portal confirmation for your records.