A Dutch company has a key role in a malaria prevention project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the tune of €9m.

Wageningen-based In2Care is involved the five-year project, which is being coordinated by Penn State University researchers. The aim is to investigate a new method for preventing the transmission of malaria.

The method involves keeping mosquitoes out of homes by screening windows and installing tubes under the eaves that contain a unique type of insecticide-laced netting developed by In2Care.

The beauty of the technology is that the people living in the house don’t have to do anything. ‘It is passive technology,’ In2Care director Bart Knols said. The netting in the tubes requires replacing every few months, but the system is low cost and suitable for most types of African houses.

An earlier project funded by the EU showed the tubes cut mosquito numbers indoors by up to 90%.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Institut Pierre Richet in Ivory Coast are also involved in the project.