Apply for funding

Unitaid provides health partners with financial grants to accelerate innovation in global health.

Through Calls for Proposals, we find smart new ideas to help to alleviate the burden of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which often affect the poorest people in society.

A review committee of independent experts in global health helps us to choose the best proposals for funding through our competitive selection process.

Before you apply, please read the information below carefully, to check if your proposal is eligible for funding.

Your proposal is eligible for consideration if it complies with the following criteria.

Is within the specific scope of the current, open call for proposals.

Please refer to the areas of intervention specified in the text of the call. Proposals which do not address at least one of the specified areas will not be considered for funding.

Has global impact.

Unitaid funds projects that have global market- and public-health impact. We are unlikely to fund an intervention that covers only one country, or very few countries.

In the exceptional case that a proposed intervention in a single country could have global market impact, the proposal should include clear evidence of this. If this is the case for your proposal, please include a clear analysis of its expected market- and public health impacts; and a clear account of how it would contribute to goals and targets set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners in their disease strategies.

Represents an innovative approach.

Unitaid typically funds proposals that, through innovative approaches, help to increase access to better, quality-assured health products and services. In this context, innovation could refer to the product or service itself, or how it is made available, affordable, or adapted to a local user’s needs. The proposal could suggest innovative ways to increase demand, for example, or a new way of delivering or administering a product or service to patients.

Is sustainable.

After Unitaid financial support for the project ends, ethical responsibility demands that patients are kept on essential treatment and services. Applicants for funding must plausibly demonstrate that governments or other international funding agencies have agreed to fund the continuation of essential treatment and services under the proposed project.

Is scalable.

Unitaid considers a project successful if the health product or approach supported is afterwards used at scale by countries and other partners beyond the initial project. We enable others to do more with less. Is your project scalable?

Targets low-income and middle-income countries.

Across its portfolio of projects, at least 85 percent of Unitaid funds dedicated to commodity purchase interventions must be spent in low-income countries. While middle-income countries are eligible for inclusion in Unitaid-funded projects, there are overall limits on Unitaid funding that can be dedicated to commodity purchases in these countries. For any proposed project that includes a greater than 15 percent proportion of funding for commodity purchases in middle-income countries, this needs to be clearly justified in the proposal as being essential to the realization of the project objectives. Wherever possible, funding in middle-income countries should be used to increase access to commodities for vulnerable groups.

Is submitted by an organization or group of partners with proved capability and capacity to implement the project.

Unitaid does not implement interventions directly and has no in-country presence. Unitaid interventions are delivered through implementers, such as NGOs.

Proposals that include country implementation should demonstrate that the organization has the capability and capacity to deliver the proposed work in project countries.

Any consortium approach should have a strong lead organization with overall responsibility for project implementation. A consortium is a group of partners who have agreed to implement the project together on the basis of clearly defined agreements, which set out the basis on which all but the lead implementer is a sub-grantee with no direct legal relationship to Unitaid.

Entities or individuals providing services to the project on a commercial basis are service providers and not Consortium Members. Partners collaborating on the implementation of the project but that are not an active part of the project design and execution are not to be considered members of the consortium. They will be identified as collaborating partners.

Includes 'lean' budget.

Unitaid does not specify minimum or maximum grant sizes, nor does it specify the ceiling of funding available for a given call for proposals. The Unitaid Board considers funding size in light of Unitaid’s strategy and existing portfolio of projects, which are described on our website. Proponents are advised to consult these documents to have a sense of how their ideas for an intervention may fit with Unitaid’s funding model and strategy. As a general principle, Unitaid aims to fund projects that are ‘lean’ – that is, scoped at the minimum size required to achieve the desired market impact or public-health effects, and that demonstrate value for money.

7 easy steps to submit a proposal:

Call for Proposal

Step 1:
Stay informed about Unitaid Calls for Proposal by subscribing for updates at the bottom of this page.

Step 2:
When a call is advertised on the Unitaid website, check if you are eligible to apply by doing the “Eligibility check” in the right-hand column of this page.

Submit your proposal

The proposal must be submitted within the deadline specified in the advertisement of the call, to the following e-mail address: proposalsunitaid@who.int

Please note that your proposal is considered submitted only once you receive a message of confirmation of receipt. (Please note that this is not an automated message and confirmation will be sent after verification of your submission, typically within one working day from receipt of a proposal).

Our email system accepts attachments up to 8 MB in size.

If you require any clarifications, please email proposalsunitaid@who.int. Go through the proposal process or download documents needed to submit a proposal.

TIMELINE: TYPICALLY WITHIN THREE MONTHS OF THE ADVERTISEMENT

Selection of proposals

After the submissions, Unitaid will select the best proposals and seek approval for them from the Executive Board. The Unitaid Secretariat and a Proposal Review Committee – which includes independent experts – jointly assess proposals based on their strategic alignment, impact, value for money, proposal design, potential risks, organizational capacity and budget.

TIMELINE: TYPICALLY THREE MONTHS AFTER THE SUBMISSION OF YOUR PROPOSAL

Notification of result

Unitaid will inform you if your proposal has been selected and invite you to develop a full-fledged grant. A formal go-ahead and invitation to an applicant to develop a full grant agreement in no way guarantees that Unitaid will fund the proposed project. A final decision in this respect will be taken by the Unitaid Executive Board, which retains full discretion to determine this matter.

TIMELINE: TYPICALLY SIX MONTHS AFTER THE ADVERTISEMENT OF THE CALL

Grant development

At this stage, the grantee will develop a full-fledged grant in close partnership with Unitaid, following which it is sent for approval to the Unitaid Executive Board.

TIMELINE: TYPICALLY SIX MONTHS AFTER THE APPROVAL OF THE GRANT PROPOSAL

Approval and signature

The final step in the journey from proposal to full-fledged grant.

What you need to apply for funding

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