Canada: Call for Prototypes to Help Combat COVID-19

Deadline: 21 April 2020

The Government of Canada’s Innovation, Science and Economic Development Department is seeking prototypes that can help combat current and future outbreaks of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and other similar threats.

Categories and Themes

Medical Category

The medical category refers to innovations that will directly support doctors, researchers, and healthcare workers in their efforts to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovations applying under the medical category should have a direct application towards the combating of the COVID-19 or be of direct use for healthcare professionals to assist and protect them in the course of their duties.

1. Theme: Prevention and Protection
   • Solutions under this theme could include, but are not limited to:
     • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
       • masks, gloves, clothing or other equipment that protects individuals from infection
       • solutions around the recycling and re-purposing of PPE
       • PPE manufacturing process improvements to increase the overall output of PPE
       • training solutions designed to assist personnel to work with PPE and/or deal with hazardous environments/materials
     • sanitization
       • sanitization agents or chemical protective measures to assist in combatting the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals, clinics, labs, or other medical facilities
       • automated cleaning/sanitization of PPE
2. Theme: Testing and Diagnostics
   • Solutions under this theme could include, but are not limited to:
     • rapid, portable, and/or Point-of-care (POC) testing methods and solutions
     • reagents solutions to improve diagnostic testing
     • laboratory equipment (both POC and non-POC) for research, study and development of treatments
3. Theme: Patient Monitoring, Tracking and Wellness
   • Solutions under this theme could include, but are not limited to:
     • patient monitoring, tracking, and management solutions and tools to support in-hospital/disease center, non-hospital or in-home health care and services
     • tracking, consolidating and acquisition of data from provincial health experts and authorities such as epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists
     • ventilators and other medical devices to address COVID-19 or other infectious diseases
     • solutions relevant to the assessment and improvement of mental health during public health emergencies mobile quarantine facilities

Non-Medical Category

The non-medical category refers to innovations that will assist Government of Canada departments and agencies, including through their partnerships with provinces, territories and municipalities, in addressing the challenges and impacts posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies in the future.

1. Theme: Surveillance, Tracking, Situational Awareness and Critical Response
   • Solutions under this theme could include, but are not limited to:
     • solutions or applications to support education, information sharing and guidance between public sector organizations and individuals/citizens
     • disease predictive modeling and tracking solutions that enable information sharing among public health professionals/medical service providers
     • solutions and tools that boost situational awareness and allow medical, public health, first responder and security personnel to coordinate, decide and respond to crisis initiatives in real-time
     • solutions that will assist with remote detection of infections and/or surveillance and/or enforcement of pandemic/crisis lockdowns
     • solutions and tools to improve planning, tracking and assignment of medical, first responder, and law enforcement personnel, and/or health supplies during pandemic responses
     • methods for analyzing information sources to understand how communities and public health agencies are responding to public health emergencies
     • food supply chain stabilization solutions that promote efficient and sustainable agricultural production to enhance food security
     • solutions that help address awareness, information sharing and mitigation of increased COVID-19 themed (or like public health emergencies) cyber threats and online scams
     • solutions or tools to support impact analysis and decisions regarding economic recovery
2. Theme: Sanitization
   • Solutions under this theme could include, but are not limited to:
     • sanitization agents or chemical protective measures for a variety of applications or settings to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 or other infectious diseases
     • automated sanitization and remote sanitization tools

Funding Information

Under COVID-19 call for proposal:

• Innovators can receive up to $550K for their innovation
• In particular cases they may provide up to $5M in funding if an innovation demonstrates significant potential in meeting the Government of Canada’s efforts in combating COVID-19, and similar outbreaks
• Innovators who received an initial contract for their innovation under ISC may be eligible to receive additional sales with other federal organizations

Eligibility Criteria

To be considered, you must meet all of the following eligibility criteria:

• Canadian Bidder: The Bidder must meet the definition of a Canadian Bidder. A Canadian Bidder is defined as a Canadian person or entity submitting a proposal on its own behalf and having a place of business in Canada where the person or entity conducts activities on a permanent basis that is clearly identified by name and accessible during normal working hours.
• Canadian Content: 80% of the financial proposal costs, the total proposal price to Canada stated in “Section Four – Financial Proposal”, must be Canadian goods or Canadian services, as defined in the Canadian Content certification.
• Ownership: The Bidder must be the owner of the Intellectual Property (IP) for the proposed innovation, or have a licence to the IP rights from a Canadian licensor for the proposed innovation and not be infringing on any IP rights.
• Pre-Commercial Status: The proposed innovation must not be openly available in the marketplace, and must not have been previously sold on a commercial basis as of the date of this bid submission.
• Previously Pre-qualified Innovation: The proposed innovation or any other versions of the proposed innovation must not have been previously awarded a contract in the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP) or its predecessor, the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP), nor in the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Challenge Stream, and it is not currently active in a pool of pre-qualified innovations.
• Maximum Funding: The Bidder’s Financial Proposal must not exceed $550,000 CAD, not including applicable taxes, shipping costs, and travel and living expenses, where applicable.
• Program Eligibility: The Bidder’s proposal must be aligned with the mandate of the ISC Testing Stream where Canada procures, through a Contract, the Bidder’s Innovation with the purpose of testing it in an operational environment.

For more information, visit https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/101.nsf/eng/00101.html