Gates Opens $500K Challenge to Test AI in Family Planning

The Gates Grand Challenge for AI-Enabled Consumer Engagement to Advance Family Planning is offering grants of up to $500,000 for 12 months to organizations ready to put AI-powered conversational tools to the test – and, crucially, demonstrate whether they lead to measurable improvements in contraceptive uptake, continued use of chosen methods, and informed contraceptive choice.

What makes the opportunity particularly interesting is its evidence-first approach.

The RFP openly acknowledges that there is still limited evidence about which AI-enabled engagement strategies actually work in family planning. As a result, proposals cannot rely on surface-level engagement indicators – such as the number of conversations, messages, registered users, or completed sessions – as the primary evidence of impact.

Instead, successful grantees will be expected to generate practical public goods that can strengthen the broader field. These include labeled conversation datasets, quality-assessment frameworks, interaction taxonomies, and protocols for safety, confidentiality, and AI guardrails.

Any AI-generated information must also be based on vetted, authoritative guidance and aligned with recommendations from the relevant national Ministry of Health or the World Health Organization.

Who Can Apply

The opportunity is open globally to nonprofits, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions. Partnerships bringing together multiple stakeholders are explicitly encouraged.

However, this is not an opportunity to start from scratch. The key requirement is an existing pathway to consumers.

Applicants need to demonstrate:

• An established consumer-engagement model with an active user base in family planning, women’s health, or the broader consumer-health space.
• An existing user base or distribution partnership in at least one of the following countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Senegal, Niger, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, or Côte d’Ivoire.
• A clear use of grant funding for deployment, learning, and evaluation. Funding is not intended for building an audience from the ground up or securing access to a new distribution platform.
• A willingness to experiment with a new AI solution. The AI component itself does not need to be an existing product; what must already exist is the consumer relationship and distribution infrastructure.

In other words, the technology can be new, but the pathway to users cannot be.

Apply Now

Deadline: August 25, 2026