Innovation Sandbox for Female Entrepreneurs in Health & Climate
Empowering Women Innovators. Advancing Health and Climate Resilience.
The Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx), in partnership with Bayer Foundation, is advancing an Innovation Sandbox initiative in Indonesia to help women entrepreneurs develop, test and scale solutions addressing critical challenges in health and climate resilience.
Working alongside Indonesia's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, the initiative aims to create an enabling environment where promising women-led innovations can be validated within real healthcare settings, supported by expert guidance and connected to pathways for sustainable growth.
Why the Innovation Sandbox Matters
Indonesia is home to a growing innovation ecosystem, with significant opportunities for technology and entrepreneurship to improve healthcare access and strengthen climate resilience.
Yet women entrepreneurs continue to face barriers that limit their ability to grow and scale, including access to investment, professional networks, family-support structures and opportunities to test their solutions in real-world settings.
The Innovation Sandbox aims to bridge this gap, bringing together innovation, public-sector collaboration and targeted entrepreneurial support to help women-led enterprises move from promising solutions to practical implementation.
What the Innovation Sandbox Aims to Achieve
The initiative focuses on creating stronger pathways for women entrepreneurs working at the intersection of health and climate.
Through a structured innovation and support platform, it aims to:
Accelerate women-led innovation by supporting promising, growth-stage enterprises with demonstrated impact.
Enable real-world testing of solutions within Indonesia's healthcare system to assess their effectiveness, scalability and potential for adoption.
Strengthen entrepreneurial capabilities through mentorship, expert guidance, strategic connections and investment readiness.
Create pathways to scale by connecting successful innovations with public healthcare systems, private-sector opportunities and potential investors.
Advance enabling policies that address barriers faced by women entrepreneurs, including workplace flexibility, childcare support and professional re-entry.
From Innovation to Implementation
What makes the Innovation Sandbox different is its connection between entrepreneurship, health-system innovation and policy development.
Rather than supporting innovators in isolation, the initiative aims to provide a structured environment where women-led solutions can be tested against real healthcare needs, refined through practical experience and positioned for wider adoption.
At the same time, the programme will explore approaches that make entrepreneurship more accessible to women, particularly those navigating family responsibilities, maternity-related career breaks and other social or professional barriers.
By combining real-world innovation testing with policy learning, the Sandbox aims to strengthen both the solutions women create and the environments in which their businesses can succeed.
Building a More Inclusive Innovation Ecosystem
The Innovation Sandbox reflects a shared commitment by HIEx and Bayer Foundation to advancing women-led entrepreneurship, healthcare innovation and climate resilience.
Through collaboration with government institutions, innovation partners and investors, the initiative seeks to create practical models that can improve healthcare access, strengthen innovation ecosystems and open new opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
The ambition extends beyond supporting individual enterprises. It is about helping build an environment where more women can innovate, grow and contribute to lasting change.
Empowering women innovators. Strengthening health systems. Creating pathways to scale.