The U.S. Agency for International Development will invest $30 million in a competition for innovators worldwide to help create approaches and technologies to stop the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said Wednesday the agency will seek ideas on how healthcare organizations can stem the Zika outbreak and better prepare for public health threats through Combating Zika and Future Threats: A Grand Challenge for Development.
The challenge aims to encourage innovators to identify vector control, diagnostics, surveillance community engagement and personal and household protection strategies.
Interested parties can submit their Zika mitigation ideas to USAID from April 29 through May 20 and proposals for the management of future infectious disease crises through June 17.
USAID will facilitate the contest to support President Barack Obama’s Global Health Security Agenda and to complement the agency’s mosquito control, preventive education and maternal and child health programs.