The next breakthrough solution could come from anyone, anywhere. For that reason, we are committed to advancing USAID’s culture of innovation by opening up international development to new people, ideas, and ways of solving development challenges.
Discover and Test:
ITR provides opportunities for talented, creative people in every field around the world to share and apply their knowledge to global challenges. We use evidence to identify and refine the most promising solutions and provide additional support only to innovations that prove their impact, cost-effectiveness, and potential to scale.
Accelerate and Apply:
ITR helps innovators reach more end-users, secure financial sustainability, and maximize the potential of each innovation. We provide venture and acceleration assistance for innovations that demonstrate they have the greatest impact. We also integrate and apply innovative solutions to USAID’s projects and programs around the world, and continually find ways to reach development objectives more effectively and sustainably.
Our flagship initiatives include:
- Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) Through a tiered funding model inspired by venture capital, DIV invests in innovations that demonstrate evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and potential to scale. It is a year-round competition and open to ideas across sectors and countries where USAID works.
- Exploratory Programs and Innovation Competitions (EPIC) uses cutting edge program design that prioritizes solutions from local communities. EPIC also supports USAID’s uptake of open innovation competitions, including Grand Challenges, Challenges, Prizes, and hackathons, to incentivize local and global entrepreneurs, academics, civil society, and other passionate problem solvers to address well-defined problems, pilot and test new solutions, and scale the most promising solutions.
