It’s been nearly a year since philanthropist and entrepreneur Paul G. Allen pledged $100 million to help tackle the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the single largest private gift to fight the disease. While critical progress has been made over the past year, the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak exposed significant gaps in the world’s ability to effectively respond to global health crises. Past experience suggests that the world is likely to confront another major outbreak fueled by similar challenges confronted in this outbreak: gaps in infrastructure and logistics, a lack of data and coordination, and inadequate diagnostics.

Today — in response to Mr. Allen’s call to action for ideas on how to overcome these challenges and get ahead of the next outbreak — Vulcan Inc.’s Paul G. Allen Ebola Program is awarding seven grants, totaling $11 million, to organizations that are taking innovative approaches to tackling these gaps.
The grants, which are intended to disrupt the cycle of epidemics and shorten the time in which the world responds to health crises, are part of Mr. Allen’s efforts to help ensure that tools are in place to prevent future outbreaks from escalating into epidemics. READ MORE >>