Munich Re €1m technology challenge to help Covid-19 sufferers breathe
The call for ideas to identify designs for emergency ventilators and necessary equipment, to de-centrally treat COVID-19 patients in times of crisis.
In the face of the current crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, Munich Re and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has initiated a challenge for the purpose of pooling the most capable minds in order to alleviate the consequences for those heavily affected all around the globe.
They are looking for people and teams with any ground breaking ideas on how to develop a feasible and digitally distributable blueprint for emergency ventilation equipment (ventilators and consumables like masks, O2-tanks or valves) to enable the immediate and decentral production via global 3D-printing or other rapid manufacturing capacities, please submit and help to save as many lives as possible.
The equipment to be developed should only be used in state of emergency for the decentral treatment of non-intensive-care COVID-19-patients in order to reduce demand for hospitalisation.
The selected digital blueprints eventually selected will be provided to governments and states all around the world to enable them to start a decentralized large-scale production where needed the most.
The applications submitted will be reviewed by a panel of high-profile judges.
The selected ideas/teams will be awarded with individual prize purses of €400,000 in total. Further we will have a realisation fund of at least €600,000 (invitation to additional industry-supporters and donors) to enable the decentral production in countries and regions of need.
Judging Committee Board Members Munich Re:
- Dr. Torsten Jeworrek,
- Dr. Thomas Blunck
Judging Committee Board Members Fraunhofer:
- Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
- Prof. Ralf B. Wehrspohn, Executive Vice President Technology Marketing and Business Models
Further stakeholders of implementation partners and representatives of public institutions
The timeline for the challenge is:
