Deadline: 1 June 2020
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking applications for a cooperative agreement from qualified entities to implement the Strategies To Prevent (STOP) Spillover program.
STOP Spillover will use existing and new evidence to develop, deploy, and evaluate interventions to reduce the spillover of emerging zoonotic viruses at high-risk animal-human interfaces and reduce amplification and spread of these threats at high-risk foci such as health care facilities. The goal of STOP Spillover is enhanced understanding and reduced risk of zoonotic viral spillover, amplification, and spread.
Objectives
- Objective 1: Strengthen country capacity to monitor, analyze and characterize the risk of priority emerging zoonotic viruses spilling over from animals to people
- Objective 2: Strengthen country capacity to develop, test, and implement interventions to reduce risk of priority emerging zoonotic viruses spilling over from animals to people
- Objective 3: Strengthen country capacity to mitigate amplification and spread of priority zoonotic diseases in human populations.
Focus
- The overall strategic focus of STOP Spillover will be on reducing spillover of emerging zoonotic viruses from wildlife to people and reducing amplification and spread of zoonotic viruses in people after they have spilled over from wildlife.
- STOP Spillover will focus on a number of prioritized zoonotic viruses including Ebola, Lassa, Marburg, Nipah, animal-origin coronaviruses (including SARS, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV2), and animal-origin influenza viruses. The selection of these viruses is based on: repeated, sporadic outbreaks with occasional epidemics or pandemics; the relatively low immunity and relatively high case fatality rates in human populations; the lack of specific and widely-available biomedical countermeasures (e.g. medicines, vaccines); and the inability of countries to reliably reduce spillover, amplification, and spread of these viruses.
- Note: the viruses to be addressed in each country will be determined through discussions with in-country counterparts (countries may opt to work on one or more of the priority viruses) and with the USAID management team reflecting evolving priorities and available funding. Since
- STOP Spillover will focus on specific viruses (which affect some countries more than others) and will be learning during the development and deployment of risk-reduction interventions, the project will work in a number of prioritized countries. The implementing partner will implement the STOP Spillover project in up to 20 countries across four specific subregions (see table below). Five of these countries will be mandatory and approximately five (5) additional countries will be selected by the implementing partner. If funding is made available the partner will work in up to 20 countries.
Expected Results
Overarching Expected STOP Spillover Results:
- Enhanced country capacities to assess risk and fill knowledge gaps associated with the prioritized emerging zoonotic viruses across animal, human health, and environmental sectors.
- Strengthened country capacities to develop, validate, and implement gender-responsive and culturally-appropriate interventions to reduce the risk of the prioritized viruses (see above) spilling over from wildlife (or intermediate animal hosts) to people.
- Strengthened country capacities to develop, validate, and implement gender-responsive and culturally-appropriate interventions to reduce the risk of the prioritized viruses being amplified and spread in people following their spillover from wildlife (or intermediate animal hosts).
Through STOP Spillover, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) seeks to reduce the vulnerability of high-risk/low-capacity countries in Asia and Africa to spillover of emerging zoonotic viruses from animal hosts (such as livestock or wildlife) to humans and amplification and spread of these viruses once they have spilled over to humans. For the purposes of the STOP Spillover activity “wildlife” shall include terrestrial species that may act as a host or reservoir for the transmission of zoonotic pathogens to humans, and does not include captive zoo animals, fish and aquatic species, insects, plants, or domesticated animals such as dogs or cats.
Funding Information
USAID intends to provide up to $100,000,000USD in total USAID funding over a five (5) year period.
Duration
The anticipated period of performance is five (5) years. The estimated start date will be upon signature of the award, on or around September 30, 2020.
Eligibility Criteria
USAID welcomes applications from organizations that have not previously received financial assistance from USAID.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=325046