Deadline: 23-Jun-2020
The Government of Canada has announced a call for proposals for Covid-19 Challenges, it is an invitation to innovators to submit innovative science and technology (S&T) proposals in support of Canada’s defence, security and public safety.
As part of Strong, Secure, engaged: Canada’s Defence Policy, the Department of National Defence (DND) has launched the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program. The IDEaS Program supports, increases and sustains S&T community capacity external to DND that can generate new ideas and formulate solutions to Canada’s current and future defence and security Innovation Challenges.
DND is looking for novel ideas and innovative solutions to resolve S&T challenges under the following areas:
Rapid response: Real-time insights for pandemic decision-making
Challenge Statement: Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in collaboration with Canada’s defence, security and public safety communities are looking for innovative epidemiological and healthcare solutions involving data gathering and data analytics technologies to support the early detection and community-based surveillance of outbreaks of contagious diseases. The goal is to provide actionable insights and to permit rapid decision-making with respect to the full emergency preparedness spectrum.
Outcomes: DRDC is looking for innovative research, design concepts and technologies solutions that will help Canada to improve its management of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and similar public health emergencies in the future. Solutions are sought that address, but are not limited to, one or more of the following:
Essential Outcomes
- Improve Canada’s response to the pandemic by use data of gathering and data analytics to, identify patterns and make critical community-based healthcare decisions at different stages of the emergency management spectrum;
- Develop real-time indicators of community-level disease transmission, and other indicators that would assist officials to detect an emerging threat to public health, and provide actionable intelligence for use by local first responders in local operational contexts;
- Innovative ways of automatically gathering, extracting, sharing and analyzing real-world data to improve Canada’s response to the pandemic. Data sources must be reliable and be of sufficient quality for analysis. Proposed solutions will be evaluated based on their creativity in using or collecting data to accurately estimate rates of disease transmission, including in difficult to reach locations;
Desired Outcomes
- Ability to do community-level geo-spatial mapping of patterns and clusters of symptoms, and of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases, in near real-time in order to support decision-making;
- Data analytic capabilities and algorithms, tools and methods for data mining, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data visualization, predictive and inferential analysis for short- and medium-term projections.Supplementary Information Proposals involving individual-level contact tracing will not be considered for this challenge.
Scrubbing your scrubs: Finding ways to re-use COVID-19 protective gear
Challenge Statement: Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in collaboration with Canada’s defence, security and public safety communities is looking for innovative material and design solutions, as well as rapid and effective decontamination strategies and solutions, for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), operational clothing and equipment for personnel responding to events involving biological hazards.
There are two objectives of the innovation challenge. The first involves the development of innovative material and design solutions for medical PPE, operational clothing and equipment that meets or exceeds all current functional and performance requirements while being adapted to frequent and rapid decontamination procedures and reuse. Additionally, consideration must be given to employment of these items by personnel who are sleep deprived and under stress and conducting highly dynamic tasks in austere and remote environments.
The second, are solutions for rapid and effective decontamination of PPE and operational clothing and equipment that will not degrade the performance of these items and the protection they afford to biological hazards.
Essential Outcomes
DRDC is looking for innovative research, design concepts and technologies:
- For Objective 1: A rapid and effective decontamination protocol and technologies that: (a) will not degrade medical PPE or operational clothing and equipment when applied repeatedly over the course of days, weeks, or months; (b) allow the PPE or clothing and equipment to be re-worn after a short period of time following decontamination protocols; and (c) minimize the amount of time required of a single operator to process multiple items of clothing and equipment;
- For Objective 2: Availability of material and design solutions for PPE and operational clothing and equipment that meet or exceed the current functional performance requirements which also permit repeated and/or easier disinfection without compromising functionality, performance or lifecycle and ensure continued compliance with performance standards after an established number of cycles.
Desired Outcomes
In addition to the above essential outcomes, solutions are sought that address, but are not limited to, one or more of the following desired outcomes associated with decontamination:
- For Objective 1
- Decontamination solutions for operational gear and equipment having a small physical footprint for ease of deployment using standard transportation equipment;
- Decontamination solutions for medical PPE that have not been designed for re-use that will allow the PPE to be reused while ensuring compliance with the originally designed protection standards.
- For Objective 1 and 2
- Solutions that are suited to operations in remote or austere locations and harsh operations that minimize the use of expendables; are safe to use, store and dispose of; minimize the need for external connections (e.g. power, water).
- Solutions that are suited to protecting users operating in close quarters, including living and training quarters.
Super sanitize: Cleaning sensitive equipment and workplaces
Challenge Statement: Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in collaboration with Canada’s defence, security and public safety communities are looking for viable and effective processes and methods for safely and rapidly decontaminating enclosed work environments (e.g., buildings and modes of transportation) containing sensitive equipment.
Outcomes: DRDC is looking for innovative cleaning and decontamination solutions, at all stages of Research and Development (R&D), that are suited to work environments and/or specific modes of transportation, including rail, land, air and sea transport, and especially in instances where patients are being transported with infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Research, design concepts and technologies are sought that will address the following:
Essential Outcomes
- Viable and effective solutions for decontaminating surfaces and spaces that are proven to kill/reduce the number of bacteria and viruses present on those surfaces by 99.9 percent (3 log10), which must include coronaviruses; specifically, the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.
- Quick solutions that will greatly reduce the time that is necessary to sanitize and disinfect a work environment, specific indoor location and/or mode of transportation; and
- Be safe to use with no harmful residues or toxic off-gassing that might affect human health.
Desired Outcomes
- In addition to the above essential outcomes, solutions are sought that address, but are not limited to, one or more of the following desired outcomes associated with decontamination:
- Mobile solutions for the decontamination of the types of surfaces that exist within different modes of transportation (e.g., land, air, rail and sea) that will not interfere with (e.g., cause corrosion or degradation) or have a negative impact on medical, electronic, or operational and navigation equipment;
- Ability to decontaminate varied surfaces by type, e.g., solid (e.g., square, flat), soft and porous, as well as hard-to-reach surfaces, including the underside of exposed surfaces, etc. Examples can include, but are not limited to, stretchers, medical and flight equipment;
- Mobile, aviation-approved solutions for decontaminating the cockpit and rear compartment of an air ambulance that will not damage or have a negative impact on the aircraft’s electronic equipment, and that will not require that the aircraft return to its home base of operations;
- Ability to easily decontaminate surfaces while meeting quality assurance standards;
- Automated solutions for easily decontaminating surfaces within modes of transportation;Solutions for different modes of transportation will not be considered that require either a centralized cleaning facility or the transport of items to another location or base of operations.
Funding Information
- Competitive Projects using Contributions is divided into two phases: Phase 1 that awards up to $200,000 for a period of 6 months, and Phase 2 that awards up to $1,000,000 for a period of 1 year. For both Phase 1 and Phase 2 for the S&T Challenges of this CFP, the Department expects to set aside an initial estimated total of $15M (the amount can be modified).
- All proposals must be in Canadian dollars.
Eligibility Criteria
This CFP is open to individuals, academia, not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, and provincial/territorial/municipal governments.
For more information, visit https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/programs/defence-ideas/understanding-ideas/sandbox/covid19-challenges.html