African innovators called to fight COVID19 with low-cost ventilators

The Frontier Tech Hub, Global Disability Innovation Hub, UCL’s Institute for Healthcare Engineering and DFID are looking at ways to increase the production of the ventilators vital for treating people with COVID19 respiratory problems. 

They are seeking African and South Asian innovators who have made ventilators that could be scaled. “We are looking for technologies from across the globe, especially emerging markets, that can be rapidly adapted to be manufactured” shared Lea Simpson, organizer of the initiative.

The winning technology will be adapted for manufacture by a team at UCL through UCL’s Institute for Healthcare Engineering with GDI Hub and will receive a licensing fee.  The successful technologies will receive:

• Global exposure and recognition for your technology
• Support from a pop-up team of experts from University College London Institute of Healthcare Engineering to support technology to be manufactured
• A fee per ventilator or spare parts for the ventilator — to be determined