Establishing a Network of Permanent Observatories for Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Diseases in East and Southern Africa (VectorGrid-Africa)

The Ifakara Health Institute is partnering with the University of Glasgow and leading research institutions across Africa and Europe in VectorGrid-Africa, a groundbreaking initiative to establish the continent’s first interconnected network of permanent observatories for mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases. Funded by the European Union’s HORIZON/EDCTP programme, the five-year (2025–2030) project will initially focus on Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, and Madagascar.

The project will set up locally managed monitoring sites in each country to collect continuous, standardized data on mosquito species, population densities, pathogen circulation, insecticide resistance, and genomic changes. Environmental, climate, land-use, and socio-economic factors will also be tracked to understand disease dynamics.

VectorGrid-Africa will build local scientific capacity, enabling African researchers to perform advanced entomological and genomic analyses without sending samples abroad. This will generate the first large-scale, open-access dataset on mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases in Africa, supporting rapid detection of invasive species, emerging pathogens, and genetic shifts—including potential future gene-drive technologies.

The project will strengthen vector control, One Health security, and disease-risk forecasting, while providing critical data to assess the impact of climate change, land-use alterations, and public health interventions on disease transmission.

Participating institutions include: Ifakara Health Institute (Tanzania), Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Wits Health Consortium/South Africa, Fundação Manhiça & University of Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique), Kenya Medical Research Institute, University of Nairobi, Technical University of Kenya, Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK), Biogents AG (Germany), and the University of Glasgow as coordinator.

VectorGrid-Africa represents a transformative step towards sustainable, high-quality surveillance of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases across Africa, creating a powerful platform to safeguard human and animal health.

Ifakara Health Institute will play a key role in providing scientific leadership thorughout the project implementation period.