Our Work
The IEF is committed to advancing progress against the Women’s Health Innovation Opportunity Map – to move agenda into action. Our initiatives focus on leveraging the collective knowledge of our global community to drive impact in women’s health.
Our member-led Working Groups are shaping innovative solutions for the field.
In 2025, the IEF launched a series of member-led Working Groups aimed at addressing key opportunities identified in the Opportunity Map. In 2026, we are focusing on launching these concepts through targeted partnerships and pilots across the broader ecosystem.
Women's Health Workstreams
Innovation Equity Forum Workstreams
Explore the current initiatives driving progress against women’s health.
Innovation Fund Working Group
Launched in 2025, the Fund Working Group set out to develop recommendations that address common “valleys of death” in the women’s health ecosystem, including: (1) the discovery-to-development gap, (2) the preclinical-to-clinical gap, (3) the approval-to-market-launch gap, and (4) the investor-entry gap. The final white paper outlines three concepts designed to channel more strategic investment toward innovations that improve equity and impact for women globally: a catalytic fund-of-funds, a scaffolding facility, and a women’s health innovative revenue-sharing model—all intentionally embedding women’s voices throughout.
Innovation Accelerator Working Group
Launched in 2025, the Accelerator Working Group defined a precompetitive Discovery and Development Network model for women’s health designed to close persistent early-stage R&D gaps. The model aims to advance promising science from discovery through early development—the stage where innovation most often stalls. The final concept proposes two networks, each focused on globally high-burden conditions that remain underfunded and underprioritized in current R&D pipelines: cardiometabolic conditions and gynecological conditions.
Data Harmonization Pilot Working Group
Launched in 2025, the Data Harmonization Working Group was established to design a pilot that tests and institutionalizes mechanisms for collecting and using sex-intentional data. The proposed pilot will involve a small number of funders who would require researchers to articulate how and why sex is incorporated into clinical trial design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. The pilot also includes targeted trainings for funders, applicants, and reviewers to strengthen the consistent application of these practices.
Women’s Health Innovation Knowledge Hub Working Group
Launched in 2025, the Knowledge Hub Working Group was established to scope and launch a digital platform designed to support researchers, funders, and innovators with targeted tools and insights designed to encourage and accelerate investment in women’s health. The complete concept outlines a suite of modular insights and tools that will ultimately be built and housed on the IEF website. The beta Resource Library is now live, with further products likely to launch in 2026.