- thriveopportunitie
AstraZeneca Step Up! - the Young Health Global Grants Programme
The closing date for applications is 12 October 2020.
StepUp!, part of AstraZeneca’s Young Health global grants programme, aims to extend the reach and impact of AstraZeneca’s investment in young people’s health.
It builds on the success of the Young Health Programme and helps NGOs and charitable non-profits engaged in youth-centred health promotion to innovate and scale up their impact, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (health and wellbeing).

Innovation and fresh thinking are required more than ever at this time of COVID-19 pandemic to meet health and wellbeing challenges for young people.
Who can apply?
The fund is open to registered NGOs and non-profit charitable organisations managing youth-focused projects for health promotion or NCD prevention. Organisations must be ‘funding-ready’ and able to provide appropriate documentation to verify their charitable status and financial situation.
Organisations which have been funded previously by AstraZeneca are welcome to apply, but not for the same project that was previously supported.
To be funded projects must:
Take place in under-resourced and marginalised communities
Be targeted at, and substantially led by, young people aged 10-30
Be focused on health education and/or promotion
Show innovation in approach, settings or implementation
Provide evidence at the conclusion of the project of what has been delivered and learned
Priority will be given to projects that:
Demonstrate a response to the ‘new normal’ of the COVID-19 pandemic
Operate in low- or lower-middle-income countries as defined by the World Bank
Are run by non-profits with an annual income of less than US$1 million
Are run in collaboration with other organisations
Utilise technology and digital health solutions
Address health disparities
Are inclusive, addressing the needs of vulnerable young people and especially those with limited access to education
Focus on NCD risk behaviours such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, the harmful use of alcohol, and exposure to air pollution
Aim to engage other stakeholders to make a wider difference in the world
Grants available
StepUp! provides grants of up to US$10,000 to help small, innovative, youth-focused and youth-led non-profits to deliver health promotion messages effectively in under-resourced and marginalised communities worldwide, taking account of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are particularly interested in work to reduce risk behaviours in young people that can lead to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as mental health conditions, cancers, diabetes and heart and respiratory diseases.