C-CAMP, UNHIE & Social Alpha come together to push forward COVID-19 innovations for immediate deployment

Bengaluru: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms or C-CAMP in partnership with United Nations Health Innovation Exchange (UNHIE) and Social Alpha has announced an open call inviting innovators, startups and entrepreneurs with breakthrough innovations that are ready to deploy immediately or in the near future.

The special COVID-19 focussed Accelerator named as “COVID-19 Innovations Deployment Accelerator” or CIDA is an attempt to align near deployment-ready innovations with unmet needs and help them overcome last-mile gaps wherever and howsoever possible.

As COVID-19 pandemic marches on in India with over 800 positive cases and 19 deaths at the time of this article, there is an urgent need for deploying out-of-the-box innovations that can help curb this menace.

C-CAMP, India’s premier biosciences innovation hub and one of the largest bioincubators in the country has joined hands with Social Alpha and UNHIE to provide 360 degree acceleration support to such solutions. Through CIDA, innovators will be able to leverage the extensive ecosystem of scientists, regulators, investors and industry in closing last-mile gaps in commercializing their technologies.

Speaking about CIDA’s mandate Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, C-CAMP CEO and Director, has said – “Few key players from industry are in constant touch with C-CAMP to support COVID-19 Innovations. CIDA is a step in that direction to help with immediate deployment of solutions wherever we can.”

Based on a case-by-case assessment, CIDA will help in fast-tracking promising innovations for pilot scale deployment, scaling through industry partnership, facilitating regulatory pathway as well as connecting with investors. Selected innovations will also get fast track technology assessment or HTA and an opportunity for scale-up investment and implementation support as facilitated by UNHIE. Such an opportunity could be a potential ticket to expand beyond India.

C-CAMP which initiated the program, had opened the call on 26th March. Response has been excellent. As of now, C-CAMP has already received 150+ submissions and 4 innovations have been shortlisted after the first two days of assessment. More will be added to the list in the days to come. With Social Alpha and UNHIE on board, CIDA will be able to build upon this momentum.

CIDA itself is also evolving very quickly. There is an open call for more partners to join in so that the initiative will also do more.

Submitted innovations are being reviewed for market readiness, scientific validity, feasibility and impact. There is no specific last date to submit the applications and they are being assessed daily in batches.

Innovations can be under following categories: screening, diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines, containment strategies, public health & other categories including but not limited to focused technologies in mobile health technologies for screening and homecare, diagnostic kits and Point of Care tests, protective gear and sterilization innovations for care providers, digital triaging tools and risk stratifying systems, low cost ventilators and oxygen therapy units, AI systems to assist critical care, supply chain innovations, volunteerism and service innovations and scalable plug and play isolation units, treatment tents.

Application link – www.ccamp.res.in/covid-19-innovations-deployment-accelerator

Time is of the essence in the face of this pandemic and solutions that are stuck in the last-mile need to be jumpstarted now to create impact and prevent the outbreak from spiralling out of control. India with its huge population density is especially susceptible and CIDA by C-CAMP, UNHIE and Social Alpha is a solid collaborative approach by the Indian bio startup ecosystem towards this.