In 2016, USAID launched Combating Zika and Future Threats: A Grand Challenge for Development. Twenty one projects were subsequently selected from over 900 submissions, in the fields of vector control, personal protection, vector and disease surveillance, diagnostics, and community engagement.
USAID contracted IVCC to undertake Programme Management of nine of these projects, to advise and support the research to proof-of-concept stage in the field. Project activities commenced in 2017 and ran through to the end of September 2019. The projects are directed towards novel ways to control and monitor the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is responsible for the transmission of a number of viral diseases including Zika virus, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.