WASHINGTON, D.C. - On April 3, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah unveiled the U.S. Global Development Lab. The Lab will foster science-and technology-based solutions to help end extreme poverty by 2030. The Lab and its 32 inaugural Cornerstone Partners will support breakthrough solutions in water, health, food security and nutrition, energy, education, and climate change. In the next five years, scientists and technology experts at The Lab will create a new global marketplace of innovations and take them to scale to reach over 200 million. A global community of inventors, academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate leaders celebrate the launch of the Lab and USAID’s leading role in international development, here:

Jim Borel, Executive Vice President, DuPont
“Science and innovation bring an intrinsic value to efforts to solve the world’s biggest challenges such as food insecurity and poverty. We at DuPont are excited to join the USAID Global Development Lab as a part of our commitment to collaborating to deploy global science and local solutions to these challenges.”

Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Worldwide Education, Microsoft Corp.
“Microsoft has a vested interest in ensuring today's students are prepared for tomorrow’s workforce: they are our future employees, customers, and partners. Education is a pivotal step on the path to eradicating extreme poverty. It is a privilege to partner with USAID as we work together toward a world in which every student has the opportunity to realize their full potential.”

Congressman Joaquin Castro, U.S. Representative (D-TX):
“World-class research institutions and a collaborative private sector have made the U.S. the preeminent science and technology innovator. USAID continues to leverage our science and technology expertise and entrepreneurial spirit through the U.S. Global Development Lab to develop and grow innovative products that will help bolster the global economy and end extreme poverty. This model of public and private sector collaboration has proven effective. For example, USAID’s collaboration with Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine has produced a much-needed infant respiratory device that will now be accessible to the developing world. I look forward to continuing to work with the USAID team to ensure that the U.S. Global Development Lab has the tools it needs to maximize its reach and make our global community a more healthy and prosperous place.”

Shelly Esque, Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Intel and Chair, Intel Foundation Board of Directors
“Science and technology is a game changer in solving the largest global challenges. Intel has been working around the world in partnership with USAID for nine years and is a steadfast believer in harnessing the power of innovation for creative solutions. The U.S. Global Development Lab brings together essential elements to develop impactful and scalable solutions for economic and social development.”

Julie Monaco, Global Head of Citi’s Public Sector Group, Citibank
“Citi is proud to support the formation of the U.S. Global Development Lab, At Citi, we have a long history of innovation and of providing creative solutions for our clients and the communities that we serve. We look forward to working with the U.S. Agency for International Development through the Global Development Lab to find innovative ways to eradicate poverty and support sustainability and advancement of the world’s most vulnerable populations.”

Hannah Jones, VP Sustainable Business & Innovation, NIKE, Inc.
"We know that no single company, government or organization alone can help solve the systemic challenges that continue to hinder development in communities around the world. The innovations and initiatives required to create a positive future need new, often unconventional, models of collaboration. Working with USAID and the Global Development Lab can provide new opportunities to identify and foster bold ideas that will lead the way for breakthrough solutions for global development."

Kathleen McLaughlin, President of the Walmart Foundation & SVP of Sustainability
“Walmart is excited to be a part of the Global Development Lab, and we’re pleased to take this groundbreaking step forward in our longtime partnership with USAID. The world is growing to nine billion, and we need to unlock innovation faster to solve global challenges. As the world’s largest grocer, we see food as one of the biggest opportunities to make a difference for millions of people. How will we produce enough safe, affordable, and nutritious food, in a way that is environmentally and socially sustainable? By collaborating through the Lab, we can build a more resilient food supply chain, from the farm and oceans to customers’ kitchens all around the world.”

Jonathan Seabrook, Head of Corporate Affairs, Syngenta International AG
“Syngenta shares USAID’s ambition to help improve the lives of millions of people in rural communities through partnerships focused on technology and innovation. We are confident that the Global Development Lab will play a transformational role in overcoming critical barriers to development by leveraging a variety of talent and resources to invent, test and apply solutions at a global scale.”

Senator Chris Coons, U.S Senator (D-DE)
“We live in a remarkable age of invention, innovation and discovery, where the pace of technological advancement is breathtaking," U.S. Senator Chris Coons said. “Through the Global Development Lab, the folks of USAID can help harness the power of technology and innovation to ensure that our dollars go farther, and that our impact in development is bigger, broader and bolder. We can work collaboratively with technology leaders, the private sector, and with innovators all over the world in a way that can tackle and solve the great challenges of development. Administrator Shah and the amazing folks at USAID have a compelling vision for the next chapter of the agency's great history, and I'm excited to see it take shape with the launching of the Global Development Lab." Senator Coons chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs.

Sir Andrew Witty, GlaxoSmithKline CEO
“I am delighted that GSK is supporting the US Global Development Lab as an inaugural Cornerstone Partner. This kind of innovative partnership holds great promise for helping to improve health around the world. We will explore ways to collaborate with USAID to use science, technology, innovation and partnerships for solving global development challenges in a way that could potentially benefit millions of people.”

Matton Ash, Center Director for Social Entrepreneurial Accelerator, Duke University
“Duke University is pleased to be a part of this bold new effort to international development using advances in science, technology and innovation. We’re mobilizing Duke’s strengths in global health, medicine, business, public policy and engineering toward accomplishing the important goal of ending world poverty.”

Bish Sanyal, Comprehensive Initiative on Technology and Evaluation (CITE) Director and Principal Investigator, Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Director, Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies; and Humphrey Fellows Program at MIT.
"The newly established Global Development Lab will serve as a catalyst facilitating a synergistic relationship between technological innovations, rigorous evaluations and commercializations of products which will enhance the quality of lives of people around the world. Well utilized funds can indeed serve as a glue in holding up a new architecture of developmental efforts! MIT is proud to participate in this bold new effort."

Lou Anna K. Simon, President, Michigan State University
“MSU is excited to partner with 29 other organizations to tackle extreme poverty around the world,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. "As a top research institution, we look forward to empowering our stakeholders and citizens around the world with the skills and knowledge they need to solve some of the world’s most complex problems. Working together through a strong international collaboration, MSU and its partners will combine technological prowess and research breakthroughs to address global challenges such as food security, health and climate change.”

Taylor Reveley, President, The College of William and Mary
“William & Mary’s partnership with USAID is truly wonderful news. Our faculty is leading the way in aid policy, practice and research among U.S. universities. Mike Tierney, Brad Parks and their interdisciplinary team of faculty, staff and students have helped put the AidData initiative, and the university, at the forefront of the aid transparency movement and the global development research community. Our partnership, in addition to providing better data and evidence to policy makers who make decisions with far-reaching consequences, will dramatically increase our capacity to engage students and faculty in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research geared toward solving real world problems."

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and William and Mary Chancellor In response to the news of the USAID and W&M partnership (when W&M received the HESN award), he stated:
“I am very proud of William & Mary’s leadership in this important international endeavor. AidData is fundamentally improving the way the U.S. development and defense communities track the distribution and impact of their overseas investments. The AidData Center for Development Policy at William & Mary will play a key role in ensuring that limited foreign assistance resources are put to more effective use.”

Dr. Trevor Mundel, President of the Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
“At the Gates Foundation, we believe that by focusing on priority global health and development goals and working with our partners on innovative solutions, we can help ensure every person has the chance to live a healthy, productive life. USAID has been a key partner in many of our efforts to remove barriers for the world’s poorest. We are excited about our continued work together and our new partnership with the U.S. Global Development Lab.”

Carolyn Miles, President and CEO of Save the Children
“It is our collective responsibility to find the innovative solutions that will transform lives now and for generations to come. By joining with USAID and our other global partners, we can invest in new ways to tackle the challenges that our most vulnerable children and families face – for the sake of their future and ours.”

Helene D. Gayle, President and CEO of CARE.
“CARE is pleased to join USAID in this ground-breaking partnership to develop, test and scale up sustainable technologies to end global poverty,” said Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE. “Around the world, we have seen the incredible benefits of integrating modern technology into our work with women and girls—from furnishing mobile software to obstetric health care providers in Benin, to using cloud-based databases and GIS tracking to aid small farmers in India. By bringing our best ideas together, the innovative partners in U.S. Global Development Lab are sure to make a lasting impact.”

Tessie San Martin, PLAN, President and CEO
“Plan shares USAID’s commitment to solving global development challenges through innovation and partnership,” said Tessie San Martin, President & CEO of Plan International USA. “There are very few silver bullets in development. Technology alone cannot solve the world's problems. But leveraged effectively, it can, among other things, greatly improve how we collaborate, learn, continuously adapt and ultimately scale effectively. We look forward to working closely with USAID's own innovative initiative, the Global Development Lab, to make real and sustainable impact.”

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Chairman of Yunus Centre and Founder of Grameen Bank, Dhaka, Bangladesh
“We have to redesign, reinvent donor institutions because the world has changed so much. This is a good time in the 21st century, there is enormous technology available and expanding so fast. We will have a world where there are no poor people 25 years from now, it is possible.”

Joyce Banda, First Female President of the Republic of Malawi
“We are currently working with USAID in using the prevalence of cell phones for a variety of social innovations. These [technological] systems have the ability to reduce fraud, create cost savings for the government of Malawi and ensure timely distribution of subsidies to their beneficiaries.”