$290 Million Global Health Fund Opens for Early Outbreak Response Projects

The 2014 Ebola outbreak wiped out an estimated $2.2 billion in economic growth across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. SARS cost Asian economies nearly $40 billion in 2003. Then COVID-19 brought the global economy to a standstill.

The lesson is clear: responding early to disease outbreaks is far cheaper and more effective than managing full-scale global crises. According to the World Economic Forum, investments in surveillance, containment, and rapid response remain the most cost-effective tools in global health security.

That urgency is now shaping the U.S. Department of State’s latest funding initiative.

$290 Million Global Health Funding Opportunity

The Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy is inviting Statements of Interest for projects designed to help countries detect, contain, and respond to infectious disease threats before they escalate.

Under the new Advancing Global Health Annual Program Statement addendum:

• 10 awards will be issued
  • Total estimated funding stands at $290 million
  • Individual grants range from $500,000 to $250 million over five years

Priority will be given to scalable, rapid-response interventions focused on the earliest stages of outbreaks, including:

Emergency technical and logistical deployment
Disease surveillance and laboratory strengthening
Community-based detection systems
Infection prevention and immunization response
Border screening and point-of-entry health measures
Coordination among national, regional, and global actors
Transition planning from emergency response to long-term resilience

Applicants must demonstrate strong operational capacity in high-risk and outbreak-prone environments.

Deadline to apply: May 31, 2026