IKP announces Second CFPs for COVID Fund (I-CO Fund)

Deadline: 25 May 2020

IKP Knowledge Park, along with IKP Trust, has launched the ICO-Fund, to nurture innovations that are ready for production to fight the COVID-19 situation. Through this endeavor, IKP and IKP Trust will be working with entrepreneurs, corporate(s) and government agencies to contribute in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They will enable the selected entrepreneurs too fine-tune their solutions for manufacturing, and connect with manufacturing facilities and supply-chain networks to help in the production, deployment and distribution of their innovations.

CALL 2 of the I-CO Fund has added problem statements from earlier call, to include the scope of maternal and child health. IKP expects that mothers and infants will face new challenges and difficulties because of the COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, and newer challenges in the post-COVID era. They need your help to address these unprecedented issues.

Areas

The real impact of COVID-19 on maternal health and child health will be felt in the following areas:

Issues of healthcare access
Constrained access to healthcare and a resultant increase in adverse health outcomes.
Issues of vaccine preventable disease
Gaps in meeting vaccination schedules and resultant increase in incidence of communicable disease.
Issues of malnutrition
Socio-economic pressures resulting in increase in malnutrition related adverse health outcomes
With the above-mentioned scenario in mind, it is imperative to develop solutions that leverage technology to pre-empt and address the forecasted challenges.

Proposed solutions should focus on one/ or more of the following areas:

Remote Pregnancy Monitoring
- Innovative technology-based solutions that help providers remotely monitor the health of pregnant women, and empower women to make informed decisions about their own care.
- Solutions should aim to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
  - Increase remote and virtual access to quality care for pregnant women
  - Improve communications among patients, providers and/or broader support networks
  - Empower pregnant women with knowledge and tools to monitor their health and care
  - Provide integrated management solutions for pre/ peri/ post-natal care
Maternal/ Child nutrition management and growth monitoring
- Addressing challenges in planning, monitoring and delivering maternal/ child nutrition to prevent growth abnormalities
- Solutions should aim to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
  - Establish planning solutions around nutritional management
  - Assess and Monitor nutritional status that that ties into integrated plans
  - Deliver affordable nutritional supplements
  - Pre-empt and/ or manage growth abnormalities/ development delays.
Universal vaccination delivery
- Increase efficiencies in immunization management and improve universal immunization coverage.
- Solutions should aim to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
  - Enable monitoring of neonates and infants with respect to immunization schedule
  - Improve scheduling and vaccination practice
  - Streamline vaccine delivery through addressing supply chain barriers
Mental Health solutions
- Addressing challenges in psychosocial development in pregnant women.
- Solutions should aim to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
  - Assess and Monitor mental health status and enable relevant interventions
  - eliver mental health counselling through user-friendly remote health tools

Funding Information

IKP plan to select candidates, who will be eligible for an initial rapid funding of up to INR 20 Lakhs each for a maximum period of 1 month to develop a solution that is ready for manufacturing/deployment.

Eligibility Criteria

This Call for Proposals is open to start-ups and SMEs.
Indian companies applying for the award should have Registration under Companies Act 1956/ 2013 and must have 51% equity or shareholding by Indian Nationals only, including NRIs. Non-Indian companies will need to partner with an Indian company, so that the Indian company can be the beneficiary of the Fund. They are looking for innovations that are getting into production within a month.
This is open to anyone working in India. You may be of any nationality, but they require that the work happen in India.

Selection Criteria