In August 2022, USAID launched the Supporting, Mobilizing, and Accelerating Research for Tuberculosis Elimination (SMART4TB) Consortium. SMART4TB, a five-year cooperative agreement, will invest up to $200 million to identify more effective methods and tools for finding, treating, and preventing tuberculosis (TB) with an emphasis on locally driven research and capacity building in USAID priority countries. Ultimately, the goal of this effort is to see a decline in TB incidence and mortality and to help prepare priority countries for managing the disease.
Progress towards achieving the End TB targets will require research to fill critical knowledge gaps and to develop and evaluate new tools, approaches, and technologies for detecting, treating, and preventing tuberculosis. SMART4TB will strengthen research capacity in high TB burden countries and support studies that evaluate novel approaches, interventions, and tools to combat TB, including diagnostic tests, new regimens for treatment and prevention, socioeconomic and health system interventions, methods to interrupt TB transmission, and TB vaccine readiness and delivery. The Consortium has five primary partners organized around seven technical areas (TAs) to address the key objectives identified by USAID as having the potential to transform global TB prevention and care and accelerate progress towards the End TB targets.
