By breaking the reactionary cycle of panic and neglect, science philanthropists can play a visionary and crucial role to mitigate and possibly prevent, future pandemics 

Funding Priorities

Philanthropic support for emerging infectious disease research & development can catalyze our ability to understand, communicate, and effectively address large-scale disease threats associated with severe health and socioeconomic consequences. Below are ways philanthropy can support pandemic prevention and preparedness.  

Advance Fundamental Research In the wake of COVID19, funders are prioritizing research that explores the fundamental biology of emerging pathogens (see HHMI’s Emerging Pathogen Initiative) and their relationship to changing environments (see Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Climate and Health Program and Wellcome’s climate-sensitive modeling program). 

Build Next Generation Tools New technologies are needed to study biological phenomena that unfold at different spatial and temporal scales. To advance our ability to track and respond to disease outbreaks, philanthropic funders are leveraging rapid advancements in computational power to facilitate pathogen diagnostics (see CZI’s cloud-based metagenomics platform) and disease surveillance (see Rockefeller’s support for global.health).  

Develop Therapeutics Vaccines and drugs that can limit infection, disease severity, and pathogen transmission can be preemptively developed to mitigate outbreaks before they become pandemics. In preparation for the next emerging disease, funders like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Open Philanthropy Project, are investing in multiple vaccine platforms (see Alvea and CVR) and antiviral therapeutics that can be deployed to manage multiple emerging disease systems.   

Increase Research Capacity Considering pathogens do not respect geopolitical boundaries, there is an urgent need to build global research capacity that enables prompt and effective response no matter the location. Currently, funders like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative are building trans-national scientific partnerships (see Pasteur Institute and UCSF) and establishing top-class disease surveillance outposts throughout the world to detect and study infectious disease dynamics (see CZ ID). 

About the Underfunded Areas in the Research Enterprise Series

The Science Philanthropy Alliance aims to increase philanthropic support for basic scientific research. Drawing on the expertise of its philanthropic advising team, distinguished external science advisors and a membership base of leading science funders, the Alliance provides curated advising services and learning opportunities to help philanthropists expand the world’s knowledge and lay the scientific groundwork for lifesaving, economy-changing breakthroughs. This post is part of a series on underfunded areas where philanthropy has the opportunity to catalyze scientific research.

How We Define Underfunded

Our definition of underfunded has three aspects and one or more can be used to characterize a field or area of research as such:

• Funding is insufficient for the need, i.e. the amount of funding is too small for the scope of the problem.
• Ineligible for other sources of funding, e.g. too risky for public money or other funding sources, or not commercially viable.
• High potential impact of funding; a breakthrough discovery with highly significant implications for a question or field.