Vale has launched a challenge in Canada that will provide 1 million USD to expand solutions against
COVID-19 including Risk Monitoring and Prevention and Patient Monitoring. In addition, there is a
“Open Challenge” category, which covers other themes.
We welcome all those to participate who can ensure greater access for the population, companies,
startups, institutions, government, universities, and professionals that have low to zero-cost
solutions and can be deployed to the end-user within 15 (fifteen) days from the approval date.
We want to accelerate solutions that minimize the impacts of COVID-19 on our society
Know the challenges available
Risk Monitoring and Prevention
Patient Monitoring
Open Challenge
Risk Monitoring and Prevention
The current COVID-19 crisis has had a global impact caused by the virus quickly
contaminating and spreading around the world. Educational and preventive measures are
important ways to help contain and manage the spread of the virus. Doing this
effectively relies on identifying risk areas, educating the population, preventing new
contamination, and ensuring the safety of people working in essential services. An
important way to contain the spread of the virus is to act swiftly through educational
and preventive measures.
For this challenge, we are looking for solutions that can:
- Allow access to reliable information;
- Leverage existing data to improve what we know about the virus;
- Immediately help protect people involved in essential services;
- Help guarantee the supply of protective equipment;
- Allow basic access to sanitation and hygiene;
- Provide geographical reference of people affected by COVID-19;
- Identify risk zones; and
- Improve isolation areas.
Patient Monitoring
Physical and social isolation are important ways to help manage the spread of COVID-19.
However, these forms of isolation can cause irritability, depression and anguish, each
of which can be further aggravated by the uncertainty of the current economic situation
caused by COVID-19, as well as individuals’ underlying medical histories. Patients with
mild symptoms are being asked to treat those symptoms from home, to avoid taking away
hospital care for patients who are severely affected by the virus. This challenge is
focused on digital solutions that allow follow-up, monitoring and distance services both
for infected patients and people affected by isolation.
For this challenge, we are looking for physical, mental health and wellness solutions
aimed at:
- People who are in quarantine;
- People at-risk of contracting a severe form of COVID-19 (i.e., the elderly,
immuno-compromised people, and others);
- Professionals who work in essential services;
- Healthcare professionals;
- Bringing medicine to isolated communiites, regions, and countries.
Open Challenge:
In this challenge, we are looking for solutions that address problems in areas such as:
logistics, nutrition, health process improvements, information systems, connectivity and
exponential technologies, employment and income to minimize the impact of COVID-19, so
long as they are at a stage of maturity for immediate application.
Selection Criteria
The solutions submitted must meet the following requirements:
- Adherence to the challenges presented.
- Solution maturity and development stage.
- No hazardous exposure to a user’s health.
- Investment volume compatible with the bid.
- Accessible by the general population - free-of-charge or at a low-cost.
- Relevant impact on the community.
- Scalability potential and readiness.
- Entrepreneurial and Technical Capacity of the Team – multidisciplinary and complementarity.
Winning solutions
- Sterilizing Boxes (First Team 1305)
-
Location: Ontario, Canada
First Team 1305 is a student robotics team that competes in the FIRST Championship, the world’s
largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for students. Their
proposal consists of creating a UV sterilizer box that can be built by health centers (the kit with
the equipment and instructions is bought and assembled in the unit). The use of an open source
(unpatented) technology combined with the concept of "do it yourself" makes the solution accessible.
The funding will enable the production of 50 kits, which will be donated to small and
medium medical clinics in Canada.
Click here to access the website
- Hemodynamic Monitoring (FloSonics Medical)
-
Location: Ontario, Canada
FloSonics Medical is a start-up that develops and supplies wearable sensors that improve the
clinical management of critically ill patients both inside and outside the hospital. The
proposal consists of the production and donation of single-use, wireless and wearable
hemodynamic monitors that provide physicians simple access to information about the
cardiovascular status of a patient diagnosed with COVID-19, transmitted via Bluetooth to an iPad
or iPhone.
With the funding provided, the company will be able to scale up the production capacity
from 100 to 1,000 devices per week. The monitors will be donated directly to hospitals in
Canada and possibly to Brazil.
Click here to access the
website
- Mass Testing (Neoprospecta)
-
Company location: Santa Catarina, Brazil
Neoprospecta submitted a coronavirus mass testing solution that allows several people to be tested
simultaneously. This method is similar to the regular PCR* (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test. The
difference is that it allows 16 people to be tested at once by increasing the sampling rate,
reducing costs, and maintaining accuracy of the results.
With the funding provided by Vale, the company will be able to scale up its testing
capacity from 40,000 to 54,000 people/day. 1,500 tests will be donated to the public sector
in the states of Ceará and Santa Catarina. These tests will cover 24,000 people.
* Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a method widely used in molecular biology to rapidly make
millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small
sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail.
Click here to access company´s
website
- Face Shield (Compass 3D)
-
Company location: Minas Gerais, Brazil
Compass 3D is using industrial 3D printers to produce face masks to protect health care
professionals against the coronavirus The masks produced have already been approved by the
medical staff at Rede Master Dei de Saúde.
With the funding provided by Vale, the company will be able to scale up its testing
capacity from 2,300 to 9,200 units/day. 10% of the units sold will be donated to the public
sector for two months, benefitting at least 2,000 health care professionals in the city of
Belo Horizonte.
Click here to access company´s
website
- Air and Mask Disinfecting Devices (Biolambda)
-
Company location: São Paulo, Brasil
Biolambda submitted a solution to produce masks and recirculating air disinfectant devices for
hospital use. The solution consists of a container that disinfects masks and air through air
recirculation in a recommended area of up to 150 m². This system uses the UV sterilization
method.
With the funding, the company will increase its UVMask (mask disinfecting device) and
UVAir (air disinfecting device) production capacity from 200 to 300 units per day. A total
of 25 UVMasks and 10 UVAir will be donated to the public sector over the course of five
weeks.
Click here to access company´s
website
- Production of Face Shields and Alcohol-Based Sanitizers (UFAM)
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Company location: Manaus, Brazil
The Federal University of Amazonas (Universidade Federal do Amazonas, UFAM) will increase its
current production of face shields by 20 times and alcohol gel by five times. The 6,500
face shields that will be produced over the next 16 weeks, in addition to alcohol-based
sanitizers, will be fully donated to health care units in cities in the state of
Amazonas.
- Production of Face Shields (IFCE)
-
Company location: Ceará, Brazil
The Federal University of Amazonas (Universidade Federal do Amazonas, UFAM) will increase its
current production of face shields by 20 times and alcohol gel by five times.
The 6,500 face shields that will be produced over the next 16 weeks, in addition to
alcohol-based sanitizers, will be fully donated to health care units in cities in the state
of Amazonas.
Click here to access the
website
- Production of Face Shields (Delfino)
-
Company location: Minas Gerais, Brazil
Delfino’s solution uses 3D printing to produce face shields. The funding will enable the
company to increase its production capacity from 500 to 800 units/day. A total of 40,000
face shields will be donated to public hospitals over the course of 16 weeks.
- Production of face shields and acrylic boxes (Faceshield4Life)
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Company location: Bahia, Brazil
Faceshield4Life is an initiative developed by prototyping laboratories in Bahia. The proposed
solution comprises production of 40,000 face shields and 200 acrylic boxes to be used by health
care professionals over the next six weeks.
With the funding, the company will be able to increase its production of face shields
from 200 to 300 units/day and acrylic boxes from 10 to 50 units/day. All items will be
donated to public hospitals.
Click here to access the
website
- Ethanol purification kits (UFRJ)
-
Company location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) proposed
the development of six ethanol purification systems for production of 70% alcohol solutions. The
systems will be donated to six partnering institutions. UFRJ has processed more than 2,000
liters of ethanol using a simplified version of the proposed system – the content has been
analyzed and considered suitable for use in hospitals. The entire alcohol volume produced from
these kits will be distributed to health centers.
The funding will enable the production and donation of six systems to different institutions, allowing a total production of approximately 150,000 liters of alcohol monthly.
- Online Therapy Platform (OrienteMe)
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Company location: São Paulo, Brazil
The solution submitted by OrienteMe, a company based in São Paulo, consists of a platform that
offers online therapy services via video call or messaging. The platform is dedicated for health
care professionals and others working on the front lines against the COVID-19 pandemic, who find
themselves in situations of stress and vulnerability.
The funds will be used to hire more psychologists and staff to expand both the assistance
capacity and the infrastructure. This target audience will have access to 33,000 subscriptions
(each subscription includes a 30-minute session) and these licenses will cover the region for
approximately five months.
Click here to access the website
Phases of the Challenge
04/03/2020
1
Call for challenge
04/09/2020
2
Deadline for registration
04/17/2020
3
Deadline for evaluating solutions
05/08/2020
4
Winners will bes announced on the Vale's website
- SUBMITTING THE PROPOSAL
-
Proponents must submit their proposals on the challenge’s website. Proposal submissions will
be open from 04/03 onwards.
- SELECTION AND DISCLOSURE OF PROPOSALS
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The proposals will be selected by the bid’s technical evaluation committee, according to the
criteria set out in this regulation and announced on the challenge website on a weekly
basis.
- TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO PROPONENTS
-
The funds approved for each proposal will be transferred to the proponent upon documentary,
and legal validation and signature of the cooperation agreement, within 5 working days.
- IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULT FOLLOW-UP
-
Those whose solutions have been approved and have received funds – financial or other
resources as described in this regulation - must provide the proof of application of the
funds and results as intended in the respective cooperation agreement.
Benefits
- Up to US$ 200,000
(at the evaluation committee’s discretion)
- Access to other partners
- Access to Vale’s AIC (Artificial Intelligence Center)
Questions?
Check out the main questions about the challenge
- Is it necessary to have a business entity to submit the challenge proposal?
-
Yes. Only registered companies with a valid business entity number are allowed to submit
their proposals. Private and public companies that comply with item 2.2 of this call out are
welcome to apply. Individuals, associated or not with other organizations, other
associations that don’t have a valid business entity number won’t be considered in this
call.
- Is it possible to submit more than one project with the same business entity number?
-
Yes. If the applicant submits more than one project, they need to bring different
projects/initiatives. If one or more projects are selected in this call, it will not be
allowed to transfer funds from one project to another. If the applicant submits the same
project more than once, all projects will be disqualified. Projects from different business
entities that are considerably similar and with identical submissions will be disqualified.
- My project fits multiple challenges in this program, and I can’t select multiple options. What
should I do?
-
Select one of the challenges that you believe your project fits the most. You can add in the
observation field of the application all the other challenges that you think your project
might fit.
- Is it possible to change the submission form after submission?
-
No, it is not. It is not recommended to submit another form with the exact same solution, as
duplications and very similar – almost identical – submissions will be disqualified.
- Is my project / solution adequate for the challenge?
-
The team will not pre-evaluate your submission by any means. We recommend that you submit
your project and let the committees, partners and its representatives evaluate it during the
process of the program. Each submitted project will be evaluated. Vale and its partners will
not be giving feedback to the applicants.
- Is there a limit of length on the submission form?
-
No, there is no limit of characters. Please be as clear, direct and complete as possible, in
order to help us evaluate you.
- How mature does my solution / project need to be?
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It is a requirement that the solution be able to be implemented up to 15 days after signing
the contract with Vale. If the project requires any governmental certification or any other
authorization to be deployed, its approval could be impacted.
- Are there any restrictions on how to use the money?
-
Yes. It is required that the money be spent on the development of the submitted solution. It
is forbidden to fund any kind of administrative expenditures with the amount donated by
Vale. The evaluating committee will require details on how the money will be spent in order
to deliberate the amount that will be made available to the finalist solutions. The
submitted project will be audited and the company that submitted it will need to store and
share the related expenses records with Vale. If any expense is not evidenced, the
corresponding amount should be returned to Vale.
- Can I submit my project on April 9?
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Yes. You’re allowed to submit your project up to 11:59pm of the deadline date.
- Does Vale require exclusivity?
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No. There are no Exclusivity or Intellectual Property agreements in this program. Any
previous or subsequent IP owned by the project submitter will remain the property of the
project submitter. Vale requires only that the submitting company prove its impact and
development, as agreed on items 1.4, 7.5a and 7.5c of the program.
Do you have any questions about the process, challenge objectives or whether your
solution fits the required profile?
Send an e-mail to
info@valecovid19challenge.com.
Click here to learn more about all Vale's initiatives regarding Coronavirus
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