Global Development Awards Competition 2025
The Global Development Awards Competition (GDAC) is GDN’s largest and longest-running programme that brings together a rich community of researchers and development practitioners. It is an award scheme that:
- Identifies talent and supports the career advancement of researchers in the Global South
- Funds innovative social development projects implemented by NGOs that benefit marginalised groups in the developing world
THEME - 2025 EDITION
Digital Transformation for Universal Health Coverage
Digital health is a cultural transformation of traditional healthcare. Digital technologies offer powerful tools to improve access, affordability, and quality of health services. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are often at the forefront of innovation in this space, offering valuable lessons to the global public health community on how to do more with less, impacting health outcomes, behaviour and knowledge among the most marginalised communities. The right combination of research and research-led implementation can help scale innovations to benefit larger groups, or it can enable impactful innovations to travel and be adapted across different health systems.
In recognition of the critical role research and innovation play in advancing universal health coverage, this year’s awards will spotlight two key categories:
The Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development (ORD)
We invite social science researchers based in LMICs to put forward proposals that focus on building the empirical evidence and the actionable knowledge capable of transforming the pursuit of universal health coverage through digital solutions. Research should illuminate how digital solutions impact the pursuit of universal health access across low- and middle-income countries. Winners will receive grants ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 to support their research work, in addition to mentoring support from a Scientific Advisor and Technical Advisor. Click here to learn more and apply!
The Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project (MIDP)
We invite non-profit Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from LMICs with existing (i.e. ongoing) projects engaged in the development, implementation or evaluation of digital solutions in support of universal healthcare delivery in underserved areas to submit applications. Winning organisations will receive grants ranging from $25,000 to $50,000, in addition to mentoring support from a Scientific Advisor and Technical Advisor. Click here to learn more and apply!
By supporting both rigorous research and innovative on-the-ground initiatives, these awards aim to drive meaningful progress toward universal health coverage through digital solutions.
The Global Development Awards Competition is an innovative award scheme administered by GDN, funded under the Policy and Human Resources Development Fund (PHRD) trust fund managed by the World Bank, and generously supported by the Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan.
For queries, write to awards@gdn.int.
If you have a grievance regarding the implementation of this project or its future impacts, send an email to awards@gdn.int, with a copy to fobino@gdn.int or check www.gdn.int/awards/grievance for further instructions.
About the Competition | Our Approach | Recent Editions of the Competition | 20 years of the Global Development Awards | Global Development Awards Platform | Impact of the Competition
