What is COVIDaction?
*Your quick start guide to the programme*
How have pivots in local production and novel approaches met local needs?
What is the role of technology in building resilient health systems?
What are the best tools for using data to inform decision-making?
How can we get fit-for-purpose oxygen concentrators to low-resource settings?
In March 2020 we set out on a path to answer big questions like the ones above and uncover the roles that technology can play in the response to COVID-19. Since then we have launched four themes, Local Production & Local Solutions, Data, Resilient Health Systems and The Oxygen CoLab to find answers and support the innovations that help low and middle income (LMICs) countries make decisions and face the pandemic.
COVIDaction is a programme funded by UK Aid, that is building a technology and innovation pipeline to support the pandemic response and recovery — this means we scan the globe for promising innovation, rigorously evaluate COVID-19 pivots and solutions and work on sensemaking and sharing what we have learned. As a result, we work toward encouraging the very best ideas with grant funding and venture building support and share what we learn as a global good.
The programme is a partnership between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Frontier Technology Hub, Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub), UCL’s Institute of Healthcare Engineering along with other collaborators.
Four thematic areas
Working in agile and emergent ways, we have identified four thematic areas, informed by conversations with entrepreneurs, experts and innovators within the Africa tech ecosystems, FCDO/UK gov and actors operating on the ground. We are always open to fresh areas where we can bring an impact. Here’s a little about each theme:
Local Production Local Solutions — This theme addresses the need for shorter supply chains, mapping and crowdsourcing remarkable pivots and responses that deal with scarcity of goods. It highlights circular economy and distributed manufacturing as two emergent approaches to more resilient production.
Data — This thematic area explores the latest and best data tools that inform decision making. Data is vital in the response to the pandemic and the team investigates how it can be used efficiently, responsibly and where analysis can take us.
Resilient Health Systems — Here we focus on the role that technology and innovation can have in supporting countries to build and maintain resilient health systems. COVID-19 is having a massive impact on health systems, but regular health support is also vital for everyone and must be supported.
The Oxygen CoLab — Oxygen is critical for the treatment of COVID-19. This theme is working to map supplies, spot bottlenecks and explore the creation of oxygen concentrators to ease supply issues in low and middle income countries.
A blended package of support
Through our work it became clear that giving money to organisations working to respond to the pandemic was not enough. We set out to support the most promising ideas with a blended package of funding and non-financial support in the form of technical assistance with top class experts, peer-to-peer learning and connections to other investors and donors.
Non-financial support has no price-tag but it can be of huge value to growing innovation. We listen carefully to our grantees so we can connect them with the guidance they are asking for and truly need at a time when scaling, production and moving forward are vital.
🏆 Our investments: from clay pots to epidemiological models
We have built strong portfolios of investments across all thematic areas, investing in 30 remarkable innovations that support action related to the pandemic — from ancient clay pots converted into hand washing facilities in South Sudan, to established organisations forming new consortia to democratise healthcare in Kenya, and global epidemiological models from leading institutions. (Follow the links for each theme above for a deep dive into each portfolio).
What’s next for COVIDaction?
The past year has been intentionally emergent for the COVIDaction team. So far we have invested in exciting portfolios across the majority of our themes, and had the privilege to work with incredible innovators and partners across Africa and South Asia. Now that we have brought great minds together for the immediate response to C-19, our collective thinking is being shaped by signals we’re seeing of how the pandemic might serve as an inflection point for tech-enabled, longer-term resilience in LMICs. We’re seeing governments across the world striving to ‘build back better’, which is becoming one of the biggest and most wicked challenges of our time, the new ‘going to the moon’, if you like (reminding us of Prof. Mariana Mazuccato’s mission-oriented innovation). Building more resilient future systems will require cross-sectoral and global collaboration, boldness, experimentation.
For our next phase, we will work with ambitious partners across the globe towards futures where long-term resilience is enabled by technology, and where…
- access to local products and services is increased
- vaccines are distributed equitably
- vulnerable populations have access to oxygen
- health is democratised
We’re inviting anyone who has the same missions to get in touch — drop us a line here: COVIDaction@hellobrink.co.
Keep in touch!
We will continue to share what we learn along the way, so watch this space for more information, subscribe to our COVIDaction Friday Download newsletter, and if you are on Twitter, follow @COVIDactionTech.
