The French Ministry of the Armed Forces has launched a call for projects seeking innovative solutions to combat the COVID-19 epidemic in France. These can include technological, organizational, or management approaches.
As of March 2020, France reported over 25,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,300 deaths. The Defense Innovation Agency (DIA) issued this call on March 23, 2020, with a €10 million budget to fund viable projects. Submissions are due by April 12, 2020.
Focus areas include individual and collective protection, innovative barriers, recycling techniques, maintaining safety distances, automating sampling and cleaning, and deploying field hospitals. The DIA also seeks new decontamination methods, scalable production, environmental virus detection, screening, and strategies to address psychological impacts on individuals and society.
Support for medical care, such as manufacturing essential equipment amid mask shortages, is encouraged. A key emphasis is on solutions to boost mask availability against the coronavirus.
The Ministry prioritizes proven, immediately applicable solutions over emerging innovations, given the crisis urgency.
Applicants must submit a dossier of up to 30 pages, including a technical solution description, use cases, development timeline, commissioning schedule, and cost breakdown.
Projects will be evaluated on three criteria:
– Impact: Benefits for the population, decision-making, healthcare workers, and more.
– Credibility: Scientific or technical evidence of feasibility.
– Schedule: Realistic implementation timeline.
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