Coronavirus calls to action: how businesses can help the fight against COVID-19

If you are working on a project and would like some assistance from businesses in the Tech Corridor, email info@techcorridor.co.uk and we will promote it on this page and via our social media accounts.

• Equipment wanted for frontline workers: New Anglia Growth Hub is looking to source a variety of equipment for workers on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19. See a full list of what they’re looking for, here.
• Global call for creatives: The United Nations (UN) is calling for the creative industries to help with translating critical public health messages, into work that will engage and inform people across different cultures, languages, communities and platforms. Find out more here. Gather is co-ordinating a local response to this challenge, here.
• Call for rapid sanitising technology for ambulances: It can take up to 45 minutes to clean ambulances once they have transported a patient suspected of having COVID-19. The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is looking for rapid sanitising technology solutions that can be demonstrated in a live trial on an ambulance. More details here.
• Using transport data to measure social distancing?: The Department of Transport and Innovate UK are interested in hearing from you if you are currently working on a project that may be able to assist in gathering transport data to assess the level of successful social distancing. Contact Karla Jakeman for more details.
• Tech to support the elderly and vulnerable as they self-isolate: NHS innovation agency NHSX is calling on all innovators who can support the elderly, vulnerable and self-isolating during COVID-19 to apply for government funding of up to £25,000 to test their solution. See www.techforce19.uk for details.
• Ethanol and bottles for hand sanitiser: Technicians at University of East Anglia (UEA) are hard at work creating hand sanitiser gel for NHS partners and we’re still keen to hear from any organisations who can share ethanol or bottling containers. Email ueahscp@uea.ac.uk if you can help.
• 3D-printed ventilators: Dr Aram Saeed at UEA is mobilising a team to 3D-print ventilators and he needs help with various things, from 3D printers themselves, to software developers, project managers and funders. Find a full list of asks here, and express your interest in joining the  project here.
• PPE wanted in Cambridge: The Milner Therapeutics Institute is currently helping to coordinate donations of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Addenbrooke’s Hospital on behalf of the University of Cambridge team who are facilitating support for the NHS in Cambridge in their response to the Covid19 epidemic. Any organisations with PPE they can spare should contact Katie Hiscock at the Milner Institute on ksh35@cam.ac.uk.

• Readiness to supply ventilators and ventilator components: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has put our a nationwide call to enlist the support of businesses in the supply of ventilators and ventilator components across the United Kingdom. Get in touch via this online form.
• Engineers for Doctors: Engineers for Doctors is gathering resources and building open-source tools and equipment to help Doctors survive and tackle coronavirus. The initial focus is on ways to tackle the private protection equipment (PPE) mask shortage.
• Royal Academy of Engineering call for expertise: The Royal Academy of Engineering wants to draw on the expertise and capability among its Fellows, awardees and partners to support both the response to COVID-19. If you are in a position to contribute, please get in touch via their online form.
• Donate your unused computational resources to the Folding@home Consortium: You can donate your unused computational resources to the Folding@home Consortium, where researchers working to advance our understanding of the structures of potential drug targets for 2019-nCoV that could aid in the design of new therapies.
• #projectopenair by Helpful Engineering – this project is working on medical devices, such as open source ventilators, to provide a fast and easy solution that can be reproduced and assembled locally worldwide.
• Open Source Ventilator:  A website for engineers, designers, medical professionals, and communities to generate and validate ideas for open source designs of ventilators that can be produced at scale and made available for use by clinical staff to save lives and aid the recovery of COVID19 patients. Click here to learn more.