Global Innovation Exchange—largest development innovation platform—sunsets this fall

June 23, 2021   |   United States

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Global Innovation Exchange (globalinnovationexchange.org), which features 16,000+ innovations and is the largest global development innovation platform, will sunset in late August 2021 due to a lack of sufficient funding. 

Since 2016, Global Innovation Exchange (GIE) has been managed by Results for Development (R4D) and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Australian Department of Foreign Assistance and Trade (Australian Aid), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The current version of the platform was launched in 2017 at USAID’s Global Innovation Week. Since then, GIE has grown to include more than 16,000 innovations. More than 5,000 of these innovations also have a “verified” badge based on input from 50+ partners.

Over the years, the platform has had many other notable achievements, including: 

  • GIE’s most popular functionality has been the Funding Directory, with new funding opportunities open for applications added every week. Nearly 70% of the users consistently reported that they discovered at least one opportunity that was a good fit for their innovation on every visit. Innovators have also shared stories of how GIE made fundraising easier and increased their operational capacity. Currently GIE has more than 500 funding opportunities that are still open for applications. These will remain available for browsing until late August.
  • GIE’s Innovation Finder Service provided curated shortlists of innovations for partners. 
  • GIE ran an engaging 3-part digital workshop to train and help innovators refine their pitch on their path to getting investment ready. Innovators participated in a Digital Pitch Contest for a chance to win a grand prize worth USD 15,000 to support storytelling and fundraising for their innovation. 
  • GIE rapidly launched the COVID-19 Innovation Hub in response to the pandemic in May 2020 to celebrate, source and supply COVID-19 related innovations across 12 response areas. Similarly, GIE has supported many partners over the years to develop their own customized innovation-related websites on the GIE platform. As these sites use the GIE infrastructure, they will be/have been discontinued or transitioned to a new platform before GIE sunsets where their content will be accessible via their current links. See the table below for the status and plans for each of the active GIE Custom sites that are transitioning.
  • GIE has partnered with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs since 2017 to run an annual open Call for Innovations. In 2021, the winners from the 2020 and 2021 Call, were featured in a dynamic Virtual Innovation Exhibit at the UN’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum. This 6-part panel series featured innovators working on education; food systems; maternal, newborn, and child health; the environment or vulnerable communities.
  • Although GIE has had many successes, responding to the changing global context in 2020, the GIE team conducted research about the barriers to scaling the impact of development innovations and the right role, if any, for technology platforms in addressing the barriers. These findings and other GIE lessons learned will be shared in the coming months.

In the absence of sufficient funding, especially to make the necessary adjustments informed by the research, the GIE platform will sunset in late August.

The GIE Innovation Directory will remain available for browsing until late August. After that, R4D will share a modified version of the publicly available innovation information on these profiles via the R4D website. In line with GIE’s public good objectives, the archive will be an editable spreadsheet and publicly available for anyone to download to analyze, curate, or augment it for their programming.

R4D will continue to work on other initiatives and programs to scale up innovations and strengthen innovation ecosystems that leverage GIE learning, data and network in alignment with R4D’s mission to create self-sustaining systems that support healthy, educated people. Learn more about R4D’s Innovation Practice here.

GIE’s transitioning platforms

The GIE Custom sites that are currently using the GIE infrastructure will be/have been discontinued or transitioned to a new platform where their content will remain accessible via their current links. See the below table for the evolving status of the GIE Custom sites in the short-term.

Name Organization(s) Link Status/Plans
Global Innovation Exchange (main GIE website)  Results for Development https://globalinnovationexchange.org/ Website will be discontinued. This link will redirect to a page on the R4D site.
BetterTogether (formerly Venezuela Grand Challenge) United States Agency for International Development and Inter-American Development Bank https://juntosesmejorve.org/ All content will remain  accessible at the same link.
Feed the Future Innovation Exchange United States Agency for International Development http://feedthefuture.globalinnovationexchange.org/ This link will be discontinued. For future updates about the Feed the Future Initiative, please click here.
Center For Digital Development United States Agency for International Development https://digitaldevelopment.org/ This link will redirect to a page on the USAID site.
Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) United States Agency for International Development https://divportfolio.org/ All content will remain  accessible at the same link.
Competitions4dev United States Agency for International Development https://competitions4dev.org/ All content will remain  accessible at the same link.
Million Lives Club International Development Innovation Alliance https://millionlivesclub.org/ All content will remain  accessible at the same link.
COVID-19 Innovation Hub Global Innovation Exchange https://covid19innovations.org/ This website will be discontinued.
UN’s Science, Technology and Innovation Forum United Nations http://stiforum4sdgs.globalinnovationexchange.org/ This link will be discontinued. Information for future Forums and calls for innovations will be posted here: https://sdgs.un.org/tfm/sti-forum
UN’s Solutions Summit United Nations https://www.solutions-summit.org/ All content will remain  accessible at the same link.

###

About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too. 

Global Innovation Exchange (GIE) is managed by Results for Development (R4D)’s Innovation Practice which works on scaling up innovations and innovation ecosystem strengthening across several programs such as the International Development Innovation Alliance and Million Lives Club. Over the years, GIE and R4D have worked with partners on various 

Global & Regional Initiatives

R4D is a globally recognized leader for designing initiatives that connect implementers, experts and funders across countries to build knowledge and get that knowledge into practice.