One year after the dissolution of USAID, the agency’s pioneering research and development lab is now back as an independent nonprofit. | Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Every great new discovery has to start somewhere.

Penicillin was born out of moldy petri dishes followed by years of experimental testing. The Spice Girls started with an open audition, months of rehearsals in a shared house, and demo tapes stolen in the name of girl power. When it comes to US foreign aid, the engine behind new discoveries tackling enormous global challenges was a tiny program called Development Innovation Ventures, or DIV.

Like the rest of the US Agency for International Development, DIV — which cost less than 12 cents per American per year to run — was dismantled within the first few months of the second Trump administration. Many vital projects, like a new low-cost, electricity-free respiratory kit for helping babies breathe, were cut off from support even as they “were moments away from the finish line,” said Sasha Gallant, who led DIV under USAID.

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