Impact Funding Resources
The Health & Heritage Innovations Open Call is an initiative of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre to identify and overcome scientific and technical barriers that limit the scale-up of Traditional Medicine (TM) for improved health equity and sustainability.
By supporting start-ups, research institutions, Indigenous & Traditional knowledge holders, community organizations, ethical manufacturers, and governments, this Open Call seeks to nurture new models, pilots, partnerships, and policies—enabling a diverse evidence base—to bring innovative TM solutions to the global stage.
Through regional and global pathways, each WHO Region will review and shortlist proposals, selecting three finalists per region, with a further three innovations recognized for their global potential and impact—totaling 21 awardees, each selected to receive a Health Heritage Innovations Enterprise and Acceleration Package, a multi-dimensional ecosystem of support. The winners will be announced at the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, 17–19 December 2025.
By supporting start-ups, research institutions, Indigenous & Traditional knowledge holders, community organizations, ethical manufacturers, and governments, this Open Call seeks to nurture new models, pilots, partnerships, and policies—enabling a diverse evidence base—to bring innovative TM solutions to the global stage.
Through regional and global pathways, each WHO Region will review and shortlist proposals, selecting three finalists per region, with a further three innovations recognized for their global potential and impact—totaling 21 awardees, each selected to receive a Health Heritage Innovations Enterprise and Acceleration Package, a multi-dimensional ecosystem of support. The winners will be announced at the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, 17–19 December 2025.
End Date20 Oct 2025 Funding AmountN/A Funding Resource TypeInnovation Award
Funding ProviderWorld Health Organization
Innovation Award
World Health Organization
By supporting start-ups, research institutions, Indigenous & Traditional knowledge holders, community organizations, ethical manufacturers, and governments, this Open Call seeks to nurture new models, pilots, partnerships, and policies—enabling a diverse evidence base—to bring innovative TM solutions to the global stage.
Through regional and global pathways, each WHO Region will review and shortlist proposals, selecting three finalists per region, with a further three innovations recognized for their global potential and impact—totaling 21 awardees, each selected to receive a Health Heritage Innovations Enterprise and Acceleration Package, a multi-dimensional ecosystem of support. The winners will be announced at the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, 17–19 December 2025.
The Call will prioritize innovations that:
• Advance universal health coverage by expanding access to safe, effective, and culturally appropriate TM-based interventions.
• Address unmet population health needs, especially where TM offers unique or complementary solutions.
• Demonstrate potential or suitability for scientific assessment while fully valuing traditional forms of knowledge, evidence, and practice.
• Uphold the sustainability of local resources and protect the integrity and intellectual heritage of TM knowledge systems.
• Promote equitable benefit-sharing models, both globally and locally, ensuring fair partnerships with communities and knowledge holders.
• Support evidence-informed decision-making by providing diverse forms of reliable information to policymakers, practitioners, and the public.
Innovations sought through this Call may be:
• Product-based
• Technological
• Process or practice-oriented
• Social and educational
• Biodiversity and sustainability-focused
• Knowledge documentation and governance
• New models of collaboration and entrepreneurship
Target Participants & Eligibility
Eligibility for the Health & Heritage Innovations Open Call is inclusive and cross-sectoral, encouraging a wide range of applications while safeguarding cultural integrity, equity, and ethical engagement. For example — but not exclusively — applicants may be:
• An individual innovator or practitioner.
• A for-profit or not-for-profit organization operating in the fields of TM, public health, biomedical sciences, pharmacology, regulatory science, epidemiology, policy science, environmental science, or related areas.
• An Indigenous knowledge holder, healer, or community-based organization originating, stewarding, or adapting innovations rooted in traditional health practice, biodiversity use, or community wellness.
• An academic consortium or research institution working in genomics, bioinformatics, sustainable pharmacology, preclinical or clinical studies (including mechanism-of-action research, cell and whole-animal models) or digital / technology innovation relevant to TM.
• A start-up or SME developing AI, digital health, or “deep tech” tools applied to TM (such as digital diagnostics, TM data science, mental health applications, nutraceuticals, phytopharmaceuticals, or biosensors).
• An enterprise or manufacturer scaling up sustainable, certified, and ethically produced TM products and services.
• Policy innovators and cross-sector partnerships developing ready-for-market pilots, policy models, or enabling frameworks for TM.
