Get Involved in the Beyond Covid-19 Global Open Innovation Challenge

Do you want to get involved in making positive change in your community and beyond? Join the Prepr Network and explore the four open challenges in the areas of Business, Prevention, Education and Community. Through this initiative, we are bringing together students, startups, employees, and citizens. Learn, get inspired, take action. Create an account to get started:

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Overview

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Timeline

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Challenge Details

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Partners & Mentors

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Related SDG & Criteria

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Join Challenge

Announcement of Winners

Welcome to the Beyond COVID-19 Challenge

This global open innovation challenge, is a Call To Action for all communities to collaborate and take action in order to create innovative solutions for the Covid-19 Challenge.  Team up with your colleagues, friends and family, or find a team virtually through the Prepr Network and use this time of social distancing to challenge yourself and help create the future you want to live in.  Get creative with your team, solutions can be local or global, small business or industrial, preventative actions or treatment actions, creative or data-driven. This is a global crisis that is affecting every community around the globe, and it is going to take input and action from every community around the globe to solve it. Every solution is a building block to a better future for all.

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How to Get Started

  1. Join the Prepr Network at PreprLabs.org
  2. Explore and join the four Open Challenge areas: Community, Prevention Business, and Education
  3. Explore projects, build a virtual team, and create a project to showcase your problem and solution which you will submit to the Beyond Covid-19 Challenge you selected
  4. Register for the daily webinar to gain knowledge, insights and more

Timeline

April 30, 2020

Challenge call

May 10, 2020

Open Forum – Challenge – AMA

June 24, 2020

Project Pitch Deadline

July 1, 2020

Challenge Voting and Feedback Discussion(Challenge Closed)

July 24, 2020

Project Winner Selection

Open Labs

Community Lab

Community Lab

Prevention Lab

Prevention Lab

Business Lab

Business Lab

Business Lab

Education Lab

Prizes

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Global Recognition & Trophy by over 30 Organizations

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Most Innovative

Best Design

Recognition will be awarded in each of the four Challenge areas

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Cash & Prizes from Prepr Partner Network

$5,000 in AWS Credits for all Successfully Completed Projects

$25,000 in AWS Credits for Top projects per category (up to 20 awarded with $500,000 total value)

$3,000 Cash from Coast Capital, BEST Lassonde, & City of Brampton to cover business setup expenses

Up to 4 placements in FASKEN’s Startup Program ($2,000 per category for a total for $8,000 in total value)

Advisory & connection to most applicable investment/funding opportunities to help commercialize top projects by PyCap Ventures & Prepr

Individual & Team Learn Lab Kits (up to $499 per Project Team) by Prepr

Complimentary 1 hour consulting on the business model for the top projects on each challenge plus providing longer term commercialization support for the grand award winner by BEST Program at Lassonde School of Engineering

Beyond Covid-19 Consortium Partners

Logo: Mitacs.
Logo: The Linux Foundation
Logo: African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. (AIMS)
Logo: AWS.
Logo: Magnet.
Logo: Lassonde School of Engineering.
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Logo: Global Minded.
Logo: IN BIA.

Beyond Covid-19 Expert Network

Balaji Gopalan

Co-Founder and CEO at MedStack

Balaji Gopalan is the Co-Founder and CEO at MedStack, an-out-of-the-box privacy compliance solution for digital health startups. Prior to that, he launched the BlackBerry BBM service and led platform strategy at D2L, Nymi and EventMobi. Balaji is an expert in product management and software platform ecosystem design, and a well-respected startup educator, advisor and mentor. He is an advocate for the role of ecosystems in industry transformation and in tackling tough problems like improving healthcare.

Éliane Ubalijoro

Deputy Executive Director (Programmes), GODAN

Dr. Éliane Ubalijoro is GODAN’s Partnerships and Research Lead. She is the founder and Executive Director of the International Development consulting group, CLEAR. She holds the post of Professor of Practice for Public and Private Sector Partnerships at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development and has contributed to and authored numerous academic publications.

Dr Ubalijoro is a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She is a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council, having been a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a member of the Board of Trustees of WWF International, the International Digital Monetary Council and the Ducere Global faculty.

Éliane is passionate about the question of gender equality in STEM subjects. She has been named Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the Next Einstein Forum 2020, is a member of the 2020 Gender Summit Advisory Committee and sits on the Advisory Panel of the open-access Scientific African Journal published by the NEF. Dr Ubalijoro is also widely experienced in the health and nutrition sector, having acted as final paper advisor for the International Masters for Health Leadership, and been heavily involved in the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. She project managed a Gates Foundation project in Global Health, after which she was invited to act as reviewer for the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Global Health programme. She also held the position of Chair of the International Advisory Board of the African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology.

Howard Manis

Partner at Macdonald Sager Manis LLP

Howard F. Manis has been practicing bankruptcy and insolvency law (creditors’ and debtors’ rights) and commercial litigation since his call to the Bar in 1993.

He provides legal advice to trustees in bankruptcy, receivers, banks and other financial institutions, landlords, trade suppliers and debtors (both corporate and individuals) in all aspects of insolvency law, including bankruptcy, proposals, reorganizations and restructurings, enforcement of security, and in protecting rights outside of insolvency proceedings. His practice also comprises secured and unsecured debt enforcement for private and institutional lenders and manufacturers and distributors in the sporting goods industry.

In addition, Howard has a strong commercial litigation expertise where he regularly acts for both plaintiffs and defendants on behalf of corporations and private individuals in a wide range of sophisticated commercial disputes, including but not limited to, securities issues, shareholder disputes and interpretations of business agreements.

Howard regularly gives seminars on a wide range of topics in his areas of practice.

Howard has three daughters and loves spending quality time with his family. He is actively involved in many sports including spinning, baseball, and hockey, and recently competed in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, where he won a Silver Medal with Team Canada. Having been born and raised in Montreal, Howard is also a lifelong, die-hard Habs fan.

Solina Teav

Investment Manager at Grand Challenges Canada

Solina is an Investment Manager at Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) where she guides investments through the funding cycle. Prior to joining GCC, she worked with Akipeo to develop a fund targeting sustainable agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has also advised a number of Toronto based impact start-ups including Tickit Health and Ulula. Ms. Teav transitioned to impact based work from her role as an Associate Director in Debt Origination at Scotiabank where she led and supported the sourcing, structuring and execution of private and public debt offerings across multiple sectors. She spent her early career in capital markets working across multiple asset classes with a focus on origination.

Ted Fujimoto

Founder and president of Landmark Consulting Group

Ted Fujimoto is the founder and president of Landmark Consulting Group since 1994. Landmark clients are leadership teams in the entertainment, healthcare, education, insurance and real estate sectors representing a mix of some of the top worldwide recognized brands and emerging companies. Landmark helps these clients redesign their organization to be prepared for moments of opportunity or crisis. Over the decades, Landmark has worked with teams from LVMH, Remy Martin, Air Touch Communications (now part of Verizon), General Motors, Sony, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Walton Family Foundation, among others.

Landmark’s driving motivation is the level of impact clients have been able to achieve directly from the assistance provided with $500 million in philanthropy awarded to clients, over $1.5 billion in investment capital deployed, over 700 public schools redesigned representing 350,000 students, deployment of new mobile phone networks in 58 countries, launch of insurance captives that outperformed their peers and a job creation plan that resulted in 100,000 new jobs in 10 years for an island. Ted is an entrepreneur at heart and at age 18 founded his first company that began by designing and implementing logistics, customer relationship management and financial systems.

Shortly thereafter, Ted sold his first company and became an equity partner in a consulting firm that had a 35+ year track record of redesigning the customer retail network experience for 11 automotive and hospitality brands worldwide. The magic in the firm’s methodology was how organizations can systematically create, replicate and sustain a completely different culture by changing the mindset of team members and the motivational drivers from extrinsic to intrinsic.

He serves on the board of the California Credit Union, a $3 billion credit union which recently completed the largest merger of equals in credit union history.

Wayne Fromm

Inventor and entrepreneur with patents

Wayne Fromm is a successful inventor and entrepreneur with patents in the U.S. and other countries to his credit. Included among his creations include Disney’s Aladdin Magic Lamp”, “Crayola’s Colour and Show Projector”, “Saban’s Power Ranger Room Defender” and “Nestle’s Nesquik Magic Milkshake Maker” and what is now known internationally as the "selfie stick".

Wayne speaks at a number of colleges and universities, including participant for four years at the MIT Endicott campus Birthing of Giants program sponsored by INC Magazine and the Young Entrepreneur's Organization.

Fromm's business enterprises and associations have been reported in the media including Entrepreneur Magazine, Inventor's Digest, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Daily News, CNN, Business Week, Toronto Star, Financial Post, Globe and Mail, New York Post and CTV Biography. Fromm has licensed to many global companies including Nestle Foods, Crayola and the Walt Disney Company. Wayne was mentored by the late Jack L. Kamin, co-founder of the multi-billion dollar company Cadillac-Fairview.

Dr. Peter Szyszlo

Independent consultant and scholar

Dr. Peter Szyszlo is a seasoned practitioner and scholar in the field of international higher education. He holds a PhD from the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. Furthermore, he was the first candidate to successfully complete the doctoral program in the inaugural cohort. His research and professional interests include: globalization, the knowledge society/economy/diplomacy, academic internationalization, education for development, innovation transfer and mapping institutional change.

In addition to holding senior advisory positions at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences - Next Einstein Initiative and the University of Ottawa, Dr. Szyszlo was a visiting scholar at the University of Bologna, a consultant for the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, a NATO research fellow and a visiting faculty fellow at the Soros Foundation. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Scientific African journal.

Ilona Dougherty

Managing Director of Youth & Innovation Project at University of Waterloo

Ilona is the Co-creator and Managing Director of the Youth & Innovation Project at the University of Waterloo. She is an award-winning social innovator and a regular voice in the Canadian media advising business, civil society and government on how they can tap into the value and unique abilities of young people. She has extensive leadership and governance experience having co-founded several successful organizations. In 2004, she Co-founded Apathy is Boring, a non-partisan social enterprise that educates Canadian youth about democracy and encourages them to vote. Ilona was named an Ashoka Fellow in 2009, was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network in 2015.

Siddharth Vishwanathan 

Digital Marketing Expert

Siddharth is a digital marketing expert who has managed large scale budget, teams and campaigns across financial services as well as retail. He has also managed a digital marketing agency in Canada. He has also spent a portion of his career as a software developer as well as a product director in the cyber security space. He spends a lot of his time amping up his skills (machine learning), working on new projects like app development and advising start-ups on their goto market strategies. He also takes a keen interest in connecting teaching people digital marketing. Areas where he can provide expertise: digital marketing, analytics, persona development, goto market strategy.

Andre Garber

Partner and Co-Chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies Group in Toronto

Andre maintains a broad corporate law practice, advising venture capital firms and emerging and high growth companies across Canada. Andre is a recognized leader in Ontario’s technology ecosystem and a tireless advocate for clients. Andre is also passionate about innovative technology and service offerings that are reshaping the global legal industry. Andre has advised companies throughout their lifecycle from formation to exit. Andre has cultivated relationships with emerging growth companies and venture capital investors from around the world. Andre often acts as the go-to external counsel for all legal matters around the world. Andre has also acted as a strategic advisor to venture capital funds focused on investing in legal tech startups. Andre also serves as a founding board member of Skate to Great, a charity designed with the mission of providing every child in Canada the opportunity to skate, regardless of their economic or physical circumstances.

Mr. Dat Le Viet

Project Director of Arkki ASEAN, Assistant to Chairwoman, Vietnam Angel Network

Dat holds a Bachelor in Corporate Finance from National Economics University in Hanoi. His experience spans over 8-year working in the Innovation and education ecosystem in Vietnam.

He is Project Director of Arkki ASEAN, the official Finnish STEAM education and 21st-century skill training program for children 4-19 years old, and Innovation training program for adults and corporates. His job focuses on supporting country partners to adapt, operate and develop Arkki in the local market. Arkki ASEAN is now in Thailand and Vietnam, and expanding soon to Indonesia, Malaysia and The Philippines.  

Dat was Program Director of Saigon Innovation Hub, and Innovation Specialist of the Vietnam – Finland Innovation Partnership (IPP) Program. He was also Co-founder of HATCH! VENTURES - a startup incubator and catalyst of the Vietnam startup & innovation ecosystem.

He also worked as an Associate Director of Robin Hood Camp, 90-year-old Summer Camp in Maine (U.S.), and worked as an advisor, speaker and operator for various organizations, summer camps and educational projects related to children and youth: UPSHIFT Vietnam, AIESEC Hanoi, AIESEC FTU Hanoi, RMIT Hanoi, RAECP, etc.

Mdm. Phi Van Nguyen

Steering Committee, Project 844, Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam

Nguyen Phi Van holds an MBA from Australia majoring in marketing communication. Her experience spans over 20 years as a senior executive in brand, retail, and franchise development across global emerging markets in Asia, The Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe.  

She is board advisor at the Asia Pacific Chief Marketing Officer Council (CMO), advisor to the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam on startup & innovation, chairwoman of Vietnam Business Angel Network, chairwoman of Open Innovation Vietnam, and chairwoman of Saigon Innovation Hub. 

Phi Van is 2015 award winner of Retail Leadership presented by Asia Retail Congress, and 2017 & 2018 award winner of 100 Top Great Retail Minds presented by World Retail Congress. 

Phi Van is the author of five books, “Franchising – The Short Route to Global Markets”, “Cross The Rice Field, Reach The World”, “Go Global: An MSME’s guide to global franchising”, and “I, The Future and The World”, and “Searching for yourself”.

Enis Erkel

Enis Erkel

Visiting lecturer at Koc University

Enis has been a visiting lecturer at Koc University Graduate School Of Business teaching Technology Project Management in the MBA program since 2017. Previously he was Koc University’s R&D&I consultant, and also the Executive Director of KWORKS, Koc University Entrepreneurship Research Center. During his tenure, KWORKS became one of Turkey's top technology accelerators. 

As a Senior Key Expert, Enis participates in a UNDP Project aimed at increasing innovation in three key regions of Turkey. 

Since 2010, Enis has been a CEO-in-Residence for several technology startups. He has been an advisor to the board of ARDIC (Istanbul, Turkey) which is a leading end-to- end IoT platform provider and intelligent-edge services SaaS company. 

Between 2010-2013, Enis was the Head of R&D for Turk Telekom (TT) Group and he was was granted a design patent during this period. Served on the boards of two Eureka clusters in Europe: Eurogia2020 and Celtic Plus. Eureka Clusters catalyse the generation of innovative, industry-driven, near to the market and pre-competitive R&D projects in their respective domains as intergovernmental organization. 

Previously, Enis was one of the founding managers of LG-Nortel, established in 2005 in South Korea. As a joint venture telecommunications equipment/solutions company between LG and Nortel, the JV gained 60% telecom market share in Korea, while achieving annual revenues of up to 1.4B USD. For four years, Enis held key executive roles in the company including Vice President of Business Development, and VP of Technology providing leadership for a 1000-staff Technology organization. 

Between 2000 and 2005, Enis was Vice President of Nortel in charge of Carrier Solutions business in Asia, and later in Eastern Europe/Russia/CIS. 

Enis joined Bell-Northern Research (BNR) in USA in 1985 and held successive R&D leadership positions with increasing responsibility. BNR was acquired by Nortel in 1996, and Enis joined Nortel technology as R&D Director. 

Mr. Hyunh Cong Thang

Co-Founder & CEO at InnoLab Asia

Thang is an entrepreneur from Vietnam who has influence startup, innovation in ASEAN especially Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and Chile.

Co-Founder & CEO at InnoLab Asia (the implementation partner of Open Innovation Vietnam initiative from the Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology for Open Innovation and Innovation in Vietnam and South East Asia)

Mentor at Start-Up Chile ( an initiative of the Chilean Government to attract early stage, high potential entrepreneurs bootstrap their startups using Chile as a platform to go global) International Adviser at Orphans' Futures Alliance Vietnam (ORFA)

Founder at Lead The Change ( youth and startups which empowers them to step into the world with essential entrepreneurship training, mentorship and networks )

Co-Founder & CEO - VICGO (a management consulting company for corporates & government) Over 10 years experienced, Thang is engaging and consulting actors in several industries, including start-up mentoring. With high communication and leadership skills, he is also leading young Vietnamese communities from various backgrounds: Education, IT, Innovation, Business & Marketing.

He received the Edutech Leadership award 2017 at Global Edutech Congress and Award 2017 at Mumbai, India thanks to his contribution to education and technology.

Edward Dieterle

Executive Director of the Center for Strategic R&D Alliances at ETS

In the Research & Development (R&D) Division of Educational Testing Service (ETS), Ed Dieterle leads the Center for Strategic R&D Alliances. In this role, he and other members of his team work closely with R&D's leadership and scientists to develop, deepen, and sustain strategic alliances with like-minded foundations, companies in the educational technology sector, member organizations, universities, and US and international NGOs and education agencies to help advance quality and equity in education. In addition, he oversees ETS's externally- funded research portfolio and R&D’s merger and acquisition activities to expand R&D's ability to conduct innovative and impactful educational research and contribute to new product development.

Before coming to ETS, Ed was most recently the Director of a Commercial Data Science practice at Summit Consulting in Washington, DC. He and his team of statisticians and data scientists specialized in litigation analytics and program evaluation using administrative data. Before that, he was a Senior Program Officer for Research at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he developed and administered the Foundation's personalized learning research portfolio. From 2008-2011 he was a researcher at SRI International, with expertise in educational technology, including cross-disciplinary applications of statistical, computational, and machine learning tools. At SRI he served as a PI or co-PI on research projects for organizations such as the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Early in his career, Ed was a high school chemistry teacher, an instructor at Johns Hopkins University, and a curriculum developer for Public Television, and the National Park Service. Throughout his career, he has served on the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Improving Learning with Information Technology, New York City Public School's iZone Research Advisory Council, Microsoft Corporation's Partners in Learning National Projects Advisory Board, and Learning Forward's Professional Development Redesign Technical Working Group.

Ed holds a doctorate in Learning and Teaching from Harvard University, a master's degree in Technology for Educators from Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He, his wife, and their two teenage boys live in Washington, DC.

Changiz Sadr

P.Eng., FEC, CISSP

Director on Board of Engineers Canada

Changiz Sadr is a Telecommunications Engineer and a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario. Prior to his recent assignment as the Directoron Board of Engineers Canada, he was practising in areas of Communications Infrastructure Engineering and Cyber Security for several years and has been recognized with many prestigious professional achievement awards, such as the Most Dedicated Communications Engineering Consultant in Ontario (Corporate Vision Magazine's Canadian Business Awards 2019) and Industry Excellence Award Finalist for Telecom Professional of the Year in 2008 (Authority of Telecom Management Practice).

Changiz Joined the Emerging Disciplines Task Force of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) in 2008 as the industry Subject Matter Expert (SME) and led the Communications Infrastructure Engineering (CIE) group of this task force as the vice chair until 2011. During this time, he and his team created the Core Body of Knowledge (CBK) for CIE and presented to PEO Council. As its result, CIE became the 32nd engineering discipline in Ontario. Changiz has served PEO for over 20 years including PEO Council from 2013 to 2017, Executive Committee, Chair of Regional Councillors Committee, and also on chapter and several different committees such as Finance, Audit, Discipline, Experience Requirements Committee (ERC). He has also served 4 years on Council of Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT).

He has received numerous awards including the Canada Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers, two PEO Order of Honour Awards, and five Ontario Volunteer Service Awards.

Foteini Zampati

Data Rights Research Specialist, GODAN

Foteini Zampati is a legal professional with over 15 years of experience. She works for KTBL as a data rights research specialist, advising the GODAN initiative on the ethical and legal aspects of open data. Ms Zampati is responsible for research into and analysis of legislation, on both a national and international level. More specifically, her areas of specialisation are Open Data and Intellectual Property, ownership issues and data rights, compliance and best practice across all aspects of national and European privacy and security, as well as data protection law and regulation (GDPR) in the agricultural sector.

Suchith Anand

Chief Scientist, GODAN

Dr. Suchith Anand is the Chief Scientist and Adviser at GODAN, currently representing GODAN on the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) Programme Board. He also oversees and facilitates GODAN’s sizeable Partnership Network.

Dr. Anand is an internationally recognised expert in geospatial science, having authored a wide range of publications; from journal papers, scientific reports and book chapters, to keynote presentations and international strategy documents. He has done a lot of work around open principles in the fields of science and education, aiming to help bridge the digital divide, and has served as an invited speaker at the United Nations.

Blaise Aboh

Lead partner at Orodata Science

Blaise Aboh is lead partner at Orodata Science, an organization democratizing public data through augmented storytelling and reporting leveraging frontier technologies. As Innovation Architect at AI Envoy Robotics (AIER), Blaise creates value and attempts to solve real world complex challenges using Automation, Natural Language Generation and data. He is an Obama Foundation Leader-Africa, a Code for Africa Innovation Fellow, and a recipient of the Quartz Atlas for Africa Award.

Ganesh Ramachandran

Experienced Humanitarian, Mentor

Ganesh has over 20 years of Global Operational leadership work experience with UN Organization and INGO’s. He has lead complex humanitarian operations in Balkans, Afghanistan, Asian Tsunami, South Sudan Crisis (2015), Sudan (2015) to name a few. He brings in significant Operational experience, coupled with Change management, staff engagement, and bottom-up the approach in complex organizational structures (Country, Regional & Global structures). He was honored “Chief Happiness Officer” in 2016 & 2017 by staff for development staff engagement, developed innovative approaches to keep staff excited, involved, and being part of the growing organization. Ganesh currently works for Unitaid/WHO supporting innovations in Global Health to fight HIV, Malaria, TB, and co-infections.

Hailing from Madras (Chennai) southern India has lived in over 15 countries, traveling to 60+ countries, currently commutes between Geneva and London.

Ganesh is also a mentor, supports startups involved in impact fundraising, enjoys working with young people, and looking for innovative solutions to solve global issues by promoting out of the box thinking. Holds an Executive Certificate program I Organisational Change Management from MIT Sloan Executive Education.

Anastasios Avranas

Founder and Director, Interfima

Anastasios has initiated his career in the fund management industry as a back-office and a dealing room employee for Intertrust, a mutual funds management firm. Later on, he co-founded and ran as one of its four directors a financial consultancy firm, where he managed corporate finance services, leading in public and private restructuring projects, financing and refinancing schemes. Following that role, he got associated with Esthlos business boutique, an advisory firm in Athens engaged with corporate finance activities.

In 2007, he initiated financial training activities before initiating Interfima in 2010, a professional organization based in Luxembourg, with offices in the UK, the US and the UAE. Between 2007 and 2010 he was member of the board of directors for IMG marine builders a maritime design company with its HQ in Cyprus. He’s also an active specialist for EBRD and a mentor for its Startup Programs in Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. In general Anastasios has engaged with a series of startups in the tech industry, either as an external advisor or as a member of the management team.

Anastasios possesses knowledge for a series of different industries and holds an MBA from the University of LaVerne and an MSc in Corporate Finance from SDA Bocconi. He has presented to professionals in topics such as financial management and planning and tutored young entrepreneurs on International Business and Finance.

Stuart Browne

CEO of Pycap Venture Partners

Stuart Browne is the CEO of Pycap Venture Partners, a corporate finance and venture capital firm, and an Investment Committee Member of OCE, a $350M Ontario Government backed venture fund. Stuart is also an Instructor for York University's Schulich School of Business MBA and MFIN programs as well as the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies, where he teaches courses in Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital and Private Equity. Stuart has been featured on numerous news outlets including BloombergTV, BNN, Financial Post, Toronto Star and itBusiness.ca, and published 5 articles on Techvibes related to investing in the technology sector.

Maureen Young

Maureen Young

Director, Community Leadership

As Director of Community Leadership, Maureen provides strategic leadership of Coast Capital’s corporate social responsibility and community investment programs, which see 10% of Coast Capital’s bottom line invested into local communities with a goal of giving youth a hand up on their journey to financial well-being. She leads a team responsible for Coast Capital’s social impact programs (grants, sponsorships, community partnerships, corporate campaigns, education awards, youth work experience program, Youth Community Councils, disaster relief and employee volunteer programs). She also oversees the credit union’s corporate social responsibility strategy, initiatives, reporting, and B Corp certification.

Maureen Co-Chairs the credit union’s Youth Affinity Network and serves as Chair of the Youth Futures Education Fund, an initiative she helped found, focused on ensuring youth from the foster care system have the opportunity to achieve their post-secondary education. Prior to joining the credit union, Maureen held senior positions with the Fraser Basin Council, Nelson & District Economic Development Commission, and Tourism Action Society in the Kootenays. Maureen lives in Victoria with her husband and four children.

Dr. Natalie Pankova

Chief Operating Officer at Metadvice

Dr Natalie Pankova is the Chief Operating Officer at Metadvice, a digital health startup building AI-driven clinical decision software to enable doctors to combine the avalanche of newly available medical information into their clinical practice, while enabling patients to retain access rights to data using distributed ledger technology (DLT). Dr Pankova holds a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and has worked as a scientist and executive in pharma, biotech and healthtech companies. She is currently on the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Blockchain Journal, and on the WHO Digital Health Expert Roster. She has mentored startup Founders through Women In Tech Revolution and Hatch Enterprise, and is on the advisory board for several tech startups.

Mustafa Al-mosawi

Head of Concept Lab, Namecheap

Mustafa is currently Head of Namecheap's Concept Lab. With the help of a team of talented UX, Technology, and Marketing, Mustafa has helped define and refine the process of brining new products to market at Namecheap. This includes research, conceptualization, value proposition design, build, launch and post launch support. With 15 years of product experience in a variety of industries and business models, including B2B, B2B2C and B2C, Mustafa has learned through experience some common reasons for stumbling as well as succeeding on new product launches. Always learning and exploring, Mustafa is passionate about building a culture of understanding customers deeply in order to build great products that are both great to use, sell and support

Explore Related SDGs

With the world coming together in this global crisis, the worst pandemic of its kind in 100 years, it’s easy to get disheartened or stressed with the negativity and fear in communities, governments, and businesses. With that said, out of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, there are 7 Global Goals that we feel align with the crisis the world is currently facing. These 7 global goals impact everyone on earth, and at no time in history has there ever been a better time for people to come together virtually in the digital age and work together to create meaningful real-world solutions. 

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Conflict and insecurity were the main drivers in 18 of the countries where about 74 million people are in need if urgent assistance. Ending world hunger is a challenge that effects us all. Solutions to combating hunger seems relatively simple and has worked in the past- get food to the people in need, when they need it. Humanitarian initiatives have answered the call for hunger time and time again, delivering food to the places in need, but this doesn’t necessarily mean there is now food security.

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

We are spending an astonishing amount of money, and exhausting exponential resources, treating illnesses that are easily preventable. Promoting and educating a healthy lifestyle, putting in place preventive measures, and modern healthcare is at the forefront of ensuring our future is a bright, healthy, and sustainable one.

Goal 4: Quality Education

Education is at the centre of solving global challenges. A meaningful education equips children with the skills needed to be responsible citizens and care about the economy, health, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Investing in education is crucial to the overall development of any country and its people.

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Over the past 25 years we have seen tremendous declines in workers living in extreme poverty. Even with these progressions, we are observing larger economic inequalities, slower growth, and a surplus of labourers to job opportunities. Increasing productivity, reducing unemployment, and increasing access to financial services and benefits are key components for sustained and inclusive economic growth.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Successful communities are based on the foundation of sound, efficient, and resilient infrastructure. It’s imperative that we promote, invest, and upgrade cities globally. Innovations in infrastructure development are crucial drivers of economic growth. With half of the world now living in cities, we need to promote sustainable technology for mass transport, renewable energy, increasing populations, and an ever-connecting world.

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

An estimated 5 billion people, 54% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030. With an increasing world population, it’s important to accommodate everyone in a modern, sustainable way. For all global citizens to survive and prosper, we need new and intuitive urban planning that creates safe and affordable cities. Urbanization has brought enormous challenges, including growing numbers of slum dwellings, increased pollution, inadequate sanitation, sewage systems, and inadequate infrastructure to support new technologies. Better urban planning and management is necessary to have inclusive, safe and resilient communities.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Our planet has provided us with an abundance of natural resources, however we do not utilize them responsibly. We must learn how to produce and use in sustainable ways that will reduce and reverse the harm we continue to inflict on the planet. Achieving this goal requires a strong national framework for sustainable consumption and production that is integrated into all business practices. We must come together and adhere to international norms on the management of hazardous chemicals and general waste. Disconnecting economic growth from the use of natural resources is fundamental to sustainable development.

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Criteria for Project Submission

Icon: P.I.E.®logo

You will be required to follow the PIE framework as you develop and submit your project. Visit the resource section to learn more about each of the steps by watching a series of short videos. Use the following pitch prompts to get started:

  • Identify The Problem/Opportunity (Innovation)
  • Show the Solution (Innovation)
  • Demonstrate Solution-Market Fit (Entrepreneurship)
  • Chart Competitive Landscape (Entrepreneurship)
  • Key Metrics and Traction (Entrepreneurship)
  • Introduce The Team (Project Leadership)
  • Show Product Road Map (Project Leadership)
  • Additional Information (Optional)

Projects will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Alignment – Does the project address the challenge outlined above?
  • Potential for Impact – How will this project help move the world towards achieving the Zero Poverty Global Goal?
  • Feasibility – Can the proposed solution be implemented? Are there any critical barriers?
  • Innovative approach – How does the project differ from existing solutions?
  • Scalability – Can this solution be used to impact a large number of people?

 

Full challenge contest details and agreement can be found here. All submitted projects to this Open Innovation Challenge must agree to an Open Covid License

Join the Covid-19 Challenge