SBIR DM: call for women's health innovations in Africa

We are looking for innovations that support and improve health systems by addressing women’s health gaps and strengthening primary care and referral systems. Innovations should offer effective and practical tools that enable healthcare professionals to diagnose, monitor and manage women’s health conditions more accurately and safely. Eligible innovations include:

• Innovative assistive devices or supplies;
• Adapted assistive tools;
• Validated clinical workflows;
• Decision-supporting methods suitable for primary and community healthcare settings.  

The competition focuses on Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa (to be confirmed) and Uganda. We invite both entrepreneurs already active and those not yet active in these countries or internationally to submit an idea. The competition offers a funded feasibility phase to further explore your idea and find partners. 

Themes for innovative solutions

You can submit ideas for 3 themes. The focus is on solutions suited to the local context. As an entrepreneur, you decide which challenge you wish to tackle, and in which country. Collaboration with local partners and organisations that can implement the innovations is essential.

Theme 1: Improved availability and quality of healthcare services for women  

Theme 1 focuses on improving women's access to healthcare in Africa. It involves bringing services closer to underserved areas, ensuring gender-responsive care and trained professionals. 

The goal is to reduce barriers preventing women from seeking care, enhance quality with better diagnostics and maternity care and improve health outcomes. This involves developing new medical technologies and treatment approaches to detect health conditions early and manage them. Portable diagnostic tools and self-testing kits are examples of this. Products should be reliable, culturally appropriate and cost-effective to improve availability and adoption.

Theme 2: Diagnostic solutions, medical assistive devices and clinical practices that improve women’s health outcomes

Theme 2 focuses on tools and approaches that help healthcare professionals detect, monitor and treat women's health conditions better in low-resource settings in Africa. They strengthen clinical decision-making, reduce complications and improve quality of care for reproductive, maternal and non-communicable diseases affecting women. By customising diagnostics and treatments to women's bodies, these tools improve primary care, referral systems and data quality within health systems.

Innovations should also aim to equip medical staff with appropriate diagnostic tools, purpose-designed medical assistive devices and evidence-based clinical practices tailored to women's biological and social health needs. By using locally sourced materials and simplified protocols, the innovations reduce costs, improve availability and ensure usability.

Theme 3: Self-care and home-based medical products for women's health challenges

Theme 3 focuses on innovations that improve self-care and women's health in African communities. They do this by developing products tailored to women's biological needs and cultural contexts. 

Innovations are designed to be accessible, affordable and practical for use in low-resource settings, reducing the need for women to travel long distances for healthcare services. By using locally sourced materials and manufacturing, the innovations aim to lower costs, improve availability and increase adoption among women.

The emphasis is on creating women-centred design, promoting privacy and ease of use to address stigmas surrounding reproductive and maternal health. The goal is to shift healthcare towards prevention-focused, community-based care that saves time, reduces costs and improves health outcomes for rural women in Africa. Innovative products like self-testing kits and home-monitoring solutions should be culturally appropriate, clinically reliable and user-friendly for frontline healthcare providers.

Duration

This SBIR DM competition runs from July 2026 until April 2029. It is important that you are motivated to make your innovation a success and continue after funding ends.

Process

The SBIR DM competition has 2 phases.

Phase 1

Phase 1 focuses on researching the feasibility of the innovation. At the end of phase 1, projects are expected to have:

• Involved partners and stakeholders in the target country;
• Determined the (technical) feasibility and commercial potential of the innovation.

Phase 2

Phase 2 focuses on research and development (R&D) and testing. At the end of phase 2, projects are expected to have:

• A prototype, validated clinical workflow or evidence-based clinical practice supported by a tangible tool or reproducible methodology (rather than general training or health service reform).

Budget

The available budget is €3,900,000 (including VAT).

How to apply

All documents related to this call are available on TenderNed. Before applying, please read the full call (‘2026 DM Health’) listed in the TenderNed documents. It explains how to submit an Expression of Interest.

Online information session

We are organising an online information session about the call on Tuesday 31 March, 15:30–17:00 CEST. During the session, you will have the opportunity to ask questions and network with other participants. Register for the information session here.

More information

For questions about this SBIR DM competition, please email us via sbir@rvo.nl.