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Appendix I Selected Foundations Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is a major supporter of global health programs working with organizations throughout the world and using innovative approaches to improve health conditions in developing countries. Programs target HIV/AIDS, polio, diarrheal disease, tuberculosis, and various vaccine- preventable diseases. Its Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative funds research on major health issues. One of these challengesâmeasuring health statusâincludes a component to develop technologies for assessing multiple conditions and pathogens at the point of care, which will allow for the detection of emerging pathogens, better detection and management of outbreaks, and quantification of disease incidences in endemic countries. (www.gatesfounda- tion.org/global-health) Google.org Foundation One of the five major initiatives of the Google.org FoundationâPredict and Preventâis designed to help prevent local outbreaks of emerging dis- eases from becoming pandemics. Through October 2008, the foundation had committed more than $30 million in grants to help identify potential disease hot spots, detect new pathogens and outbreaks earlier, and facilitate rapid response to prevent local threats from becoming global threats. For example, the foundation works with partners to develop systems for community-based and cross-sector reporting using mobile phone technologies. It is committed to building laboratory capacity and epidemiology training programs. It will also support improved data collection, sharing, visualization, and analysis to strengthen vulnerability mapping and predictive modeling of weather and 173
174 APPENDIX I climate patterns that affect disease emergence and thus provide early warning of disease outbreaks. The initial focus of the program is Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. (www.google.org/predict.html) Nuclear Threat InitiativeâGlobal Health and Security Initiative The Global Health and Security Initiative promotes the safe and secure practice of the life sciences by encouraging the safeguarding of access to dan- gerous pathogens, the prevention of misuse of technology and information, and the improvement of global capacity for countering biological threats through enhanced disease surveillance, in particular through early detection and response. (www.ghsi.org) The initiative also provides support to the International Council for the Life Sciences to establish regional and national networks on best practices, standards, and training in biosafety and biosecurity. It has helped establish two regional disease surveillance consortiaâthe Middle East Consortium for Infec- tious Disease Surveillance and, in cooperation with the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance Network. (www.ghsi.org) Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is providing support for regional disease sur- veillance networks by building human capacity and promoting collaboration across countries and regions, as well as with global monitoring programs. It has supported the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance Network (described in Chapter 4 in the section on the Nuclear Threat Initiativeâs Global Health and Security Initiative) and the East African Integrated Disease Surveillance Network. Several grants have also been provided to ministries of health in the Mekong Basin region. The foundation has provided grants to the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya to strengthen animal disease surveillance. (www.rockfound.org/initiatives/initiatives_dev/pandemics.shtml) Sloan Foundation The Sloan Foundation supports a range of small projects to address the threat of bioterrorism, including work on citizen preparedness, incentives for business, pandemic preparedness, and dangerous research. Examples of their work include citizensâ guides, efforts to enhance building security and improve heating and air conditioning systems to reduce possible exposures to aerosols, and work with WHO to develop avian influenza preparedness guidance for health workers. (www.sloan.org/programs/pg_national.shtml#bioterror)
APPENDIX I 175 Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom The Wellcome Trust supports biomedical research in the United Kingdom and internationally. In recent years, it has supported policy debates examin- ing the risks associated with life sciences research and its potential use for the development of biological weapons. In 2003, it published a position statement on bioterrorism and biomedical research. In September 2005, the Wellcome Trust published a joint policy statement on managing risks of misuse associ- ated with grant-funding activities. This statement, issued in conjunction with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Medi- cal Research Council, identified a series of actions to raise awareness and to ensure that potential risks were clearly identified in grant applications. (www. wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/index.htm)