Ebola_BAA_Addendum_10-8-14_FINAL.pdf

Personal Protective Equipment and Infection Treatment and Control

Addendum 01 to

The USAID Development Innovation Accelerator Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for

Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development

I. Background

The spread of Ebola in West Africa continues at a rate that is outpacing efforts to isolate and care for those infected. In response to this unprecedented outbreak, the United States is rapidly expanding its efforts to address this global health crisis. In light of the persistence of the outbreak and the demands it has placed on global infection containment resources and processes, the federal disaster response community has recognized an opportunity to use open innovation to make significant strides in advancing our ability to combat Ebola.

Every day, in extreme heat and humidity, health care workers in Ebola-affected countries are performing life-saving tasks to prevent the spread of the virus. On the front lines of the Ebola epidemic, health care workers face many obstacles in providing the timely care to patients that is required to prevent the virus from spreading—from heat stress caused by the personal protective equipment (PPE) they wear, to lengthy infection control measures that leave no room for error, to communities reluctant to seek care.

USAID in partnership with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Defense seek to harness the power of crowdsourcing, competition, and breakthrough innovation to address specific barriers faced by efforts to combat the current Ebola epidemic and better prepare us for future outbreaks. In this addendum USAID and its partners are looking for immediate, short-term and longer-term solutions addressing the problem and challenge statements identified in Section III.A of the BAA that can help healthcare workers on the front lines provide better care and stop the spread of Ebola now and in the future.

II. Solutions Sought

For the purposes of this Addendum USAID and partners specifically seek solutions that address the two focus areas below.

1) STRENGTHEN HEALTHCARE CAPACITIES: Approaches to enhance the protective equipment, care setting and tools used in the field to empower and protect healthcare workers

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Developing, testing, and scaling entirely novel PPE or modifications to current PPE that address issues of heat stress and comfort for healthcare workers

• Care Setting: Accelerating the development and scale-up of approaches to enhance the physical and procedural care environment relating to heat stress, comfort and the safety of healthcare workers and patients

• Health Care Worker Tools: Accelerating the development and scale of tools that improve the delivery of care to patients (e.g. rapid, point of care diagnostics or more efficient ways of moving samples and communicating results back to health care workers quickly)

2) CARE-SEEKING: Approaches that ensure communities receive and respond to timely, accurate, and actionable information about Ebola prevention and treatment

• Developing and scaling behavior change approaches to encourage— and dispel myths and misconceptions that discourage—care-seeking or interacting with health care authorities

• Improved information management and communication to the community on availability of beds in community care centers or emergency treatment facilities

USAID and its partners seek both innovators with novel solutions and resource partners with the ability to test and scale up innovations. We are particularly interested in partners with, but not limited to, the following capabilities:

Ability to rapidly prototype and produce manufacture-ready products

Ability to deploy solutions in contexts worldwide, particularly West Africa

Ability to produce or improve any existing technologies currently in use

Capacity and willingness to partner to test identified solutions

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Generally we are looking for expressions of interest that clearly demonstrate the following attributes:

Innovation, including creativity of the given approach and clear differentiation from existing approaches.

Low-cost and ability to be scaled rapidly

Strong likelihood of achieving a substantial impact.

Solutions that can be deployed and have an impact in the near-term (2-3 months of initial investment) or longer-term (within a year of initial investment), and improve the response to the current Ebola epidemic as well as future outbreaks.

Specifically with respect to personal protective equipment we are looking for expressions of interest that may include but are not limited to:

Solutions (new or modified PPE kit or other innovative solutions) that allow much longer work periods, use less PPE, require fewer removals, generate less infectious waste and offer enhanced protection.

New innovative barrier materials (e.g., antimicrobial treatments, nano-fibers, novel polymers and coatings, new finishing technologies, application of plasma processing and special reinforcements, using new nonwoven fiber bonding technologies, breathable membranes, etc.) that allow the same level of protection provided by the PPE today, but with higher levels of air and water vapor permeability, and breathability.

PPE that is fully reusable.

Low cost, next generation sensor technologies to seamlessly assess heat stress noninvasively when wearing PPE, including possible integration into the PPE to provide real-time monitoring and decision making on PPE use.

Modified PPE for use in non-health care settings (e.g. airport or security checkpoint screening, burials, etc.)

Portable personal cooling technologies that can be integrated into or compatible with existing PPE ensembles that are suitable for resource limited environments

Inexpensive, easily cleanable, and integrated powered air purifying respirators equipped with a hood or faceshield that can provide multi-functional protection

(facial barrier protection and respiratory protection), while simultaneously cooling the facial region.

WHAT WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR

Research that does not provide a clear path to development and testing of prevention and intervention strategies

Solutions that are less efficacious than current technologies or approaches

Proven approaches that are already in use in the field

Basic research or laboratory-intensive research. Basic research is defined as research directed towards fuller knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific applications towards processes or products in mind

Awards are planned to be in the range of $100,000 to $1M over a 1-3 year period.

III. Expressions of Interest

A. Please submit an expression of interest that identifies your group’s willingness to collaborate with the USAID Global Health Bureau, Ebola Response Team, and

Global Development Lab, describes your idea/approach, highlights your group’s value to the partnership, and discusses the potential of your idea to be rapidly deployed and have a substantial impact on the Ebola response.

B. Submitted expressions of interest will:

Be in English

Be submitted EITHER:

o Via email to SubmitEbolaEOI@usaid.gov before October 20th

OR

o Electronically using the link to the application platform found at ebolagrandchallenge.net after October 20th

Be up to 3 pages in length, no smaller than 12 point font;

Contain a header with the following information (included in the page count):

o Respondent Name/Group and Contact Information;

o Response Title;

o BAA Addendum Name/Number;

Contain one optional graphic that fits on an 8.5”x11” or A4 piece of paper

(included in the page limit);

Be in .pdf, .docx, or .odf format

C. Information Protection

USAID’s goal is to facilitate the activities that are required to lead to the development and scaling of innovative, and potentially commercially viable, solutions to address the Ebola crisis. Understanding the sensitive nature of submitters’ information, USAID will work with organizations to protect intellectual property.

Expressions of interest should be free of any intellectual property that the submitter wishes to protect, as the expressions of interest will be shared with USAID partners as part of the selection process. However, once submitters have been invited to mailto:EbolaEOI@usaid.gov engage in further discussions, submitters will work with USAID to identify proprietary information that requires protection.

Therefore, organizations making submissions under the BAA Addendum hereby grant USAID a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to use, disclose, reproduce, and prepare derivative works, and to have or permit others to do so to any information contained in the expressions of interest submitted under the BAA Addendum. As noted above, if USAID engages further with the organization regarding its submission, the parties can negotiate intellectual property protection for the organization’s intellectual property.

Organizations must ensure that any submissions under the Addendum are free of any third party proprietary data rights that would impact the license granted to USAID herein.

IV. Review of Submissions

A. Criteria

The following criteria will be applied to all expressions of interest:

1. Idea/Approach: Novelty, creativity and soundness of the idea/approach and its relevance to the Solutions Sought (Section II).

2. Partnership Expectations and Value: Strengths of your organization or consortium as a partner, including your ability to make a unique contribution to the Solutions Sought.

3. Impact: The likelihood of generating substantial impact for the current

Ebola crisis response and/or future responses.

B. Selection Process

USAID and partners will review and select expressions of interest submitted in accordance with the guidelines and criteria set forth in this Addendum. USAID and partners reserve the right to disregard any expressions of interest that do not meet the guidelines. USAID is not obligated to issue a financial instrument or award as a result of this Addendum.

Stage 1: Selected organizations or consortia will be invited, individually or in combination, to discuss their proposals with USAID and its partners, which may result in one or more applicants being invited to submit concept notes.

Stage 2: Concept notes will be submitted to USAID and reviewed for selection.

Approved proposals will proceed to an award process.

C. Timing

Submissions received by November 7, 2014 will be part of the first round of review.

Submissions received by December 1, 2014 will be part of the second round of review. Expressions of interest received after December 1, 2014 will be reviewed in subsequent rounds of review. USAID reserves the right to review submissions at time.

USAID intends to select grant recipients as quickly as possible.