The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Gates Foundation recently announced a new round of joint funding initiatives and invited innovative proposals in the fields of diagnostic technologies and outdoor malaria vector control methods.

The initiative for diagnostic technologies will target point-of-care or noninvasive diagnostics, as well as discovery of novel biomarkers and auxiliary technologies for specimen collection and processing.

"This initiative aims at developing low-cost, accessible and high-precision innovative diagnostic technologies and tools to help control high-burden diseases in low-and-middle-income countries, such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS," said the two foundations.

The other initiative covers innovative strategies and technologies for outdoor malaria vector control, with a focus on novel insecticidal active ingredients, formulations and delivery systems for outdoor vector control, novel endosymbionts that can block the transmission of plasmodium parasites in anopheles mosquitoes and next-generation methods and devices for vector surveillance and sample collection, and other outdoor vector control applications.

The foundations have partnered with each other since 2021 in the global health and development sector to tackle major challenges that affect impoverished populations in low-and-middle-income countries.

So far, they have jointly funded a series of international collaborative projects, covering areas such as malaria vector control, climate change adaptation solutions for smallholder farmers, development of regulatory science framework, tools and methodologies and innovative vaccine technologies.

More information about the new round of initiatives can be found at: www.nsfc.gov.cn/publish/portal0/tab621/info95005.htm.