Fueling bold approaches
Flu Lab's mission is to eliminate the threat of influenza, a highly contagious virus that causes annual epidemics of disease and poses an ever-present risk of a catastrophic pandemic. To achieve this, Flu Lab finds and supports efforts that approach persistent problems in new and dynamic ways, with actionable results.
Awarded Grants
Flu Lab and the organizations it supports collectively work to enhance and expand the influenza ecosystem, and to stimulate and accelerate research and translation of discoveries into applied technologies, strategies, and medical countermeasures. We are pleased to showcase past and current grantees.
University of Oxford
Evaluating treatments for severe and complicated influenza infections in hospitalized patients with RECOVERY FLU, a cost-efficient, adaptive platform clinical trial.
£11,416,263 / December 2022
Kansas State University and Icahn School of Medicine
Establishing a swine herd model for assessing efficacy of broadly protective influenza virus vaccines.
$1,652,929 / December 2022
University of Auckland
Leads a multidisciplinary and collaborative effort to observe and examine the reintroduction and transmission of influenza in New Zealand and identify novel immunological markers to inform influenza vaccine development.
11,340,572 NZD / December 2022, May 2021
Aarhus University Hospital
Leads INVITED, a multicenter, prospective randomized clinical trial among Type 1 diabetes patients to improve our understanding of the protective effect of influenza vaccination.
2,382,555 DKK / October 2022
Protas
Reducing barriers to better treatments by designing and delivering high-quality, large-scale and global clinical trials at a fraction of current industry cost.
£5,000,000 / October 2022
NYC Virus Hunters
Creates an immersive approach to science education to unlock the potential of the next generation of influenza researchers in New York City.
$1,146,303 / July 2022, April 2020
Behavior Change for Good Initiative
Leverages the expertise of over 100 behavioral scientists to identify effective, scalable interventions for promoting immunizations.
$2,435,763 / March 2022, June 2021, October 2020
Virgina Tech
Leads the Multidisciplinary InvesTIGAtion of Transmission to Ease inFLUenza (MITIGATE FLU) study to transform our understanding of influenza virus transmission.
$8,792,291 / February 2022
University of California, Davis
Optimizing ventilation system operations to minimize airborne infectious disease transmission, pollutant exposure, and energy consumption.
$327,539 / November 2021
Center for Green Schools
Equips schools and education stakeholders with information and guidance to improve ventilation and air filtration in classrooms.
$855,710 / October 2021, August 2021
Center for Open Science
Leads multiple initiatives to promote open science and expand the publication of null and negative influenza research findings and replication studies.
$18,398,983 / August 2021, April 2020, August 2019
Influenzer Initiative
Brings diverse thinkers and disciplines together to identify big ideas and promote pathways to accelerating universal influenza vaccine development.
$8,900,000 / June 2021, January 2018
University of Cambridge
Pursuing a novel, host-directed approach to a universal influenza vaccine.
$904,384 / June 2021
Association of Immunization Managers
Brought together immunization managers and school nurses to identify replicable best practices for school-located vaccination programs.
$208,035 / June 2021
The Grand Challenge for Universal Influenza Vaccine Development
Supports eight teams developing novel, transformative approaches to universal influenza vaccines (in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
$6,215,453 / April 2021, January 2021, August 2019
Public Health Aerobiology, Virology, and Exhaled Biomarker Lab
Leads a research agenda centered on influenza transmission and the interplay between influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses.
$2,539,000 / March 2021
Sentinel Project
Develops ultra-sensitive genomic and CRISPR technologies to detect pathogens in multiple, connected settings to prevent pandemics before they start.
$5,000,000 / February 2021
Sentinel Project
Combines diagnostic technology and information-sharing platforms to connect early warning data to the public health community.
$11,250,000 / December 2020
Imperial College London and Princeton University
Assessing performance characteristics and market dynamics of universal influenza vaccines using mathematical modeling methods.
$381,199 / November 2020
Stanford Healthcare Innovation Lab
Demonstrated the utility of wearables for early disease signaling, before symptoms emerge.
$1,870,000 / October 2020, August 2020
Outbreaks Near Me
Provides a crowdsourced infectious disease surveillance system to provide early outbreak warnings for communities and local public health agencies.
$1,005,451 / August 2020
RECOVER Project
Developed and examined a novel strategy for disease surveillance that improves representativeness of population samples.
$230,000 / August 2020
Berkeley, Public Health
Evaluated the direct and indirect health impacts of a school-based seasonal influenza vaccination program in the Bay Area.
$278,422 / August 2020, February 2020, February 2019
Community Epidemiology in Action
Created an open source, anonymous, privacy-first symptom sharing and exposure alerting application to help communities of close contacts protect themselves.
$100,000 / May 2020
Venture Investments
Flu Lab invests in ambitious and innovative companies that are developing solutions to our greatest influenza challenges. For news and updates about our investments, visit News + More.
Detect
Develops fast, accurate, and affordable molecular tests for routine use by everyone including consumers in the home, employees in the workplace, and students at school.
GreenLight Biosciences
Offers an inexpensive, self-contained, and scalable mRNA manufacturing platform for vaccines targeting infectious diseases including influenza and COVID-19.
Kinsa
Leverages a network of millions of smart thermometers to provide infectious illness signaling capacity and data insights for schools, health systems, states, cities, and enterprises.
Covid-19 Giving
Flu Lab expanded our grantmaking to support efforts to respond to the profound health, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following organizations made a difference during this crisis.
C19 Coalition
Built an efficient and unified supply chain and financing opportunities for PPE and lifesaving medical devices.
$2,200,00
Fast Grants
Developed an approach to funding COVID-19 scientific research that values rigor, flexibility and speed.
$2,000,000
GiveDirectly
Built breakthrough approaches to delivering cash relief to vulnerable people in the U.S. and Africa.
$11,000,000
Heluna Health COVID-19 Response Fund
Supported population health programs across California working to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
$1,000,000
Next Door Solutions
Supported the expanded service needs of Bay Area domestic violence victims and survivors.
$75,000
Partners in Health
Expanded the capacity of local public health department contact tracing efforts.
$1,000,000
Project ECHO
Created clinical care knowledge exchange networks among global experts and frontline healthcare workers.
$3,000,000
Restaurants for the People
Provided food security for people in need and kept small restaurants and food businesses open.
$2,000,000
COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund
Supported WHO coordination of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
$10,000,000
Funding Opportunities
Flu Lab promotes innovation to speed the advancement of technologies and approaches for influenza, and we are open to receiving unsolicited pre-proposals at info@theflulab.org. See below for funding opportunities.
Call for Negative & Null Results and Replication of Important Findings
Description: Publication bias negatively shapes and limits our understanding of influenza and results in wasted resources, missed insights, and lost time. Flu Lab has partnered with the Center for Open Science and the Public Library of Science (PLOS) to expand the publication of null and negative research findings. Researchers are invited to submit proposals, and if eligible, proposals may be awarded up to $25,000 to support the research design, manuscript development, and publishing processes.