Evidence for AI in Health (EVAH) initiative
Photo credit: Jahangir Alam Onuchcha, Shutterstock.com
The Evidence for AI in Health (EVAH) initiative generates evidence to help guide the responsible use of AI for health in low- and middle-income countries in Sub-Sarahan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
EVAH is supported by the Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation, and Novo Nordisk Foundation, and delivered in partnership with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).
EVAH is designed to address a critical gap in evidence on how AI performs in health settings in LMICs. While AI tools have the potential to enhance provider capacity, strengthen primary care, and improve community health, existing evidence is concentrated in high-income settings. This leaves governments and health systems in LMICs without the information needed to make confident decisions about adoption and scale, and risks promising innovations failing to move beyond proof of concept.
EVAH works to fill this gap by supporting rigorous evaluations of AI-enabled health tools ready for use in health systems in LMICs. EVAH generates practical evidence on where these tools add value and how they can be safely and responsibly integrated into health systems at scale—clarifying when and under what conditions AI can improve health outcomes, strengthen system efficiency, and reduce inequities in access and care.
EVAH is currently accepting research proposals for the Spring 2026 round. Applications are due on April 1, 2026 at 10:00am Eastern Daylight Time (4:00pm Central Africa Time; 7:30pm Indian Standard Time). For more details, please see the RFP webpage.
Key Facts
Sectors:
Office:
J-PAL Global
Co-Chairs:
Eligibility:
Open RFP, including to researchers not affiliated with J-PAL. Please refer to the Request for Proposals page and RFP Overview for additional details on eligibility.
Contact:
[email protected]
