Coalition Warfare Program Awards $1 Million for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Research
EIDB has won a $1 million award from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Coalition Warfare Program (CWP). The funds will support severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) threat characterization in military treatment facilities across the Kingdom of Jordan.
Among all awards, the proposal from EIDB is the only medical- or public health-related project ever selected. The CWP support will be matched by funds from the DoD Global Emerging Infectious Surveillance and Response System and in-kind services by the office of the Director General of the Jordanian Armed Forces Royal Medical Services (RMS).
The CWP provides funding on a competitive basis to DoD organizations to conduct cooperative research and development, test and evaluation projects with foreign partners. Among the goals of the program are to collaboratively address strategic technology gaps for current and future missions and strengthen current defense partnerships and developing new relationships.
The World Health Organization defines SARI as an acute respiratory infection with fever, cough, recent onset and hospitalization. Identification and characterization of cases through the CWP-funded research will eventually lead to the advanced development and testing of a vaccine in Jordan against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, a persistent threat in the Central Command region.
The SARI project will fall under EIDB’s Partnership for Research in the Middle East (PRIME) initiative. PRIME was founded on a military-to-military partnership between WRAIR and the Jordanian RMS, with preliminary program activities focused on training, improving biopreparedness and upgrading local laboratories and equipment.