Innovation Action: a collaborative initiative to map global AT resources

Innovation Action is a collaborative initiative, launched by a consortium of partners brought together by innovation catalyst Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub), led by UCL Engineering and funded by UK Aid through the Frontier Technologies Hub and AT2030 programmes Our purpose is to bring people together to innovate on global challenges. We provide a space to enable people from all over the world to identify challenges and collaborate on solutions to help address some of the world’s most pressing problems.

We are beginning our journey with our COVIDaction Local Production, Local Solutions project to develop a technology and innovation pipeline to support action related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also addressing the barriers to manufacture, deployment and use of the UCL-Ventura CPAP in Africa, and helping the Kenyan government to strengthen the Kenyan assistive technology ecosystem. Central to our approach is mapping systems so that we can help people connect different elements of innovation together more easily. We have created an interactive map which you can explore below: click on a bubble and zoom in to find organisations linked to local production and innovation in your area or an area you are interested in. You can also filter for a specific technology, then click to get more information.

Kenyan Assistive Technology Ecosystem Strengthening

We are gathering information about stakeholders working in areas relevant to innovation, disability, and assistive technology in Kenya. This information is being collected by the AT2030 programme. The mapping is being led by GDI Hub with the University of Nairobi, and Maynooth University and on behalf of the Government of Kenya.

The data gathered from this survey will be mapped as a resource and will then contribute to improving assistive technology policies and systems in Kenya and contribute to the development of an Assistive Technology Hub.

In the future, we will use this dataset to work with the Local Production local Solution innovation action to develop new collaborations to accelerate assistive technology innovation.