Sentinel program among finalists for the $100 Million 100&Change competition

The MacArthur Foundation and its nonprofit affiliate, Lever for Change, have announced the Sentinel program as one of five finalists in the 100&Change competition.

100&Change is a global competition awarding a single $100 million grant to help solve one of the world's most critical social challenges. The competition has influenced the philanthropic sector by encouraging funders to adopt large-scale, collaborative approaches to problem-solving.

The Sentinel program, led by Pardis Sabeti at the Broad Institute and Christian Happi at the Institute for Genomics and Global Health (IGH) at Redeemer’s University, Nigeria, is a pandemic prevention system that deploys cutting-edge genomic and data technologies to empower communities to stop epidemics through pathogen surveillance and outbreak response. Launched in 2020 thanks to support from Flu Lab and a cohort of generous donors through TED’s Audacious Project, including the ELMA Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, the Skoll Foundation, and Open Philanthropy, it was piloted in West Africa where it has already had a huge impact, helping frontline workers respond to COVID-19, mpox, Marburg, Ebola, and Lassa fever.

“We say ‘detect, connect, and empower,’” explained Sabeti. “Detect any pathogen anywhere around the world, connect that information so it can be shared and acted upon, and empower every actor in the system — every frontline worker, every citizen  — to work collectively towards stopping outbreaks from spreading.”

Sentinel aims to transform outbreak detection and response in Africa and around the world by training thousands of health workers, achieving national-scale disease surveillance programs, and enabling rapid outbreak detection and response scale-up, thereby profoundly impacting millions of lives and strengthening global health security.

“We are at a critical inflection point in our ability to prepare for and respond to future deadly epidemic and pandemic threats,” said Happi. “The Sentinel program will help build a resilient infectious disease surveillance response network, codify and scale our training programs for local scientists and public health workers, and ensure sustainable outbreak response capacity throughout Africa and across the world.”
 

 
“Now is the time to dream big, collaborate deeply, and develop new solutions to change the world,” said MacArthur President John Palfrey. “Our 100&Change finalists want to scale ambitious ideas that will help millions of people. Today, we hope the sector finds inspiration in these important projects and joins us in celebrating this milestone in the competition.”

100&Change received more than 800 applications from organizations and collaborations worldwide, with each proposal identifying a problem and presenting a compelling solution that is impactful, evidence-based, feasible, durable, and just. The selected finalists represent transformative projects that have the potential to drive meaningful change on a global scale.

The final award recipient will be selected by MacArthur’s Board of Directors and announced later this year.