Biological Preparedness and Resilience through Evolution and Innovation of Laboratories

BioPREVAIL is a One Health Security Innovation Initiative for Sustainable Laboratories

Diagnostic containment laboratories play a critical role in global efforts to prevent, detect and respond to dangerous pathogens. Frequently, when these facilities are constructed in resource-constrained settings, they are poorly suited to operate as intended and face constant challenges. When diagnostic containment laboratories fail to operate sustainably, they pose a multifactorial risk to global health security.

BioPREVAIL is revolutionizing the way that we design, build and operate diagnostic containment laboratories. We are driving an innovation movement focused on practical, scalable solutions that enable laboratories to function sustainably—rooted in local context, resilient to future challenges, and capable of supporting global biosafety and biosecurity over the long term.

Download Information Sheet
Get Involved

For too long, too little has been done. Let’s tackle the challenge together with new approaches for innovative outcomes.

Reimagine the Future of Diagnostic Containment Laboratories

The BioPREVAIL Built Environment Design Challenge is calling for bold, interdisciplinary solutions to transform how labs and health-related facilities are designed for safety, security, and sustainability when working with especially dangerous pathogens. Open to individuals and organizations across all sectors, this is your chance to help shape global biosecurity.

Apply by August 15 for priority consideration or submit by the final deadline on August 31. All applications must be submitted through the BioPREVAIL StartupTree platform.

More Information (PDF) | Questions? Check our Q&A Session Summary

The Built Environment Advisory Committee (BE-AC) is an expert group that advises BioPREVAIL on the Built Environment Design Challenge, drawing on diverse professional experience to provide independent guidance on the design, evaluation, and selection of innovative solutions. Learn more about the BE-AC members.

Apply Today

A neglected vulnerability of global health security

  • The COVID-19 pandemic, which claimed millions of lives and cost the global economy more than $12.5 trillion, highlighted the international community’s vulnerability to outbreaks of infectious disease.
  • Well-functioning, reliable and efficient diagnostic laboratories play a key role in the global campaign to prevent, detect, and respond to pandemics and other natural, accidental, and deliberate disease threats. However, inefficiency of such facilities in many parts of the world undermines global health security.
  • The lab sustainability challenge is not new. For decades, external partners have been working with countries that have especially dangerous pathogens (EDPs) in low-resource environments to improve lab capacity, often providing infrastructure and equipment similar to that used in countries that have ample access to resources due to location in a high-resource environment. While well-intentioned, this approach is often not well-suited to the operational, technological, environmental and budgetary challenges faced. As a result, many laboratory facilities in these areas are unable to sustain containment of pathogens or operate at all, posing threats to national, regional, and global health security.

Old problems demand new solutions

  • The BioPREVAIL initiative aspires to a fundamentally new approach to diagnostic laboratories that will end country dependence on outsiders and give them the functionality that is so desperately needed. Strengthening labs at the national level builds resilience across borders, contributing to broader biosecurity worldwide.
  • BioPREVAIL has sparked a paradigm shift in how the world approaches the management of diagnostic containment laboratories and especially dangerous pathogens.
  • The sustainable labs program that was reborn as BioPREVAIL began decades ago with substantial contributions from Global Affairs Canada, The Government of the United Kingdom, and The World Organisation on Animal Health (WOAH), which helped define the issue across laboratories worldwide. BioPREVAIL launched in 2023 at the General Assembly of WOAH.
  • BioPREVAIL has the potential to revolutionize global health security giving autonomy back to local communities highly impacted by especially dangerous pathogens (EDPs)
  • Funded and supported by Global Affairs Canada’s Weapons Threat Reduction Program, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and Global Health Security Fund, BioPREVAIL offers a platform for designers, thinkers, creators, and innovators across the globe to revolutionize the way we build and operate diagnostic containment laboratories.

A call to action

  • This new initiative, which builds on more than a decade of analysis and consultation with global leaders and stakeholders, aims to reimagine laboratory infrastructure and to discover and deliver a new type of diagnostic lab that is purpose designed for operation and maintenance in low-resource environments.
  • A new model for sustainable laboratories in low-resource environments promises to accelerate implementation of the IHRs and WOAH’s International Standards, support the objectives of the GHSA and eventual pandemic instrument and reinforce other global health security priorities.
  • It is of global significance that we work together to provide a sustainable laboratory design for diagnostics research of especially dangerous pathogens. This is a One Health initiative. Protecting and securing diagnostic laboratories in areas across the globe that are on the ground facing priority pathogens head-on is a priority for global security. It starts with us – together. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW.

Join the BioPREVAIL
Built Environment Design Challenge

Share your expertise and creativity to help improve the safety, security, and sustainability of laboratories worldwide. Your work can contribute to stronger global biosecurity.

Apply Today