RFI Avian and Pandemic Influenza and Zoonotic Disease Program RESPOND

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health, Office of Health, Infectious Disease and Nutrition (GH/HIDN) anticipates awarding two (2) cooperative agreements, RESPOND and PREDICT, under its Avian and Pandemic Influenza and Zoonotic Disease Program. The goal of the RESPOND Project is to improve the capacity of countries in high risk areas to respond to outbreaks of emergent zoonotic diseases that pose a serious threat to human health. The intent of the project is to respond to outbreaks while they are still within the animal community, however, there may be occasions where a response is needed within the human population. At this time the Agency is requesting information/comments regarding the attached draft program description from potential bidders. Please note that the Request for Information (RFI) for PREDICT is posted independently. After receipt of comments and prior to posting the Request for Applications (RFA), USAID anticipates hosting a bidders conference. This conference is tentatively scheduled for April 29, 2009. Potential bidders should be U.S. based institutions of higher education, research institutions, for profit, non-profit, or private voluntary organizations with capacity and experience in wildlife surveillance, epidemiology, data analysis and reporting, modeling, threat detection and forecasting, and other related activities.