From snorkel masks turned into protective gear for COVID-19 affected patients, to shipping containers repurposed as ICU pods, there’s no shortage of clever examples of human ingenuity in fighting the pandemic. And there’s actually much more, if you go beyond the headlines; so much more, in fact, that StartupBlink, a company specialized in tracking and geolocalizing innovation ecosystems, put together the Coronavirus Innovation Map, listing hundreds of innovations and solutions that help people cope and adapt to life at the times of the virus.
The map, which was put together with the help of UNAIDS’ Health Innovation Exchange and the Moscow Agency of Innovations, makes it really simple to see at a glance which countries and cities are innovating the most, and compare their efforts with what they are doing in ‘normal’ times.
Global Map of Coronavirus Innovations
StartupBlink assigns to each of country or city a score, based on its proprietary algorithm and on a number of parameters: among these, the quantity and category of the projects available (e.g. a treatment or diagnostics projects will get a bigger score than lifestyle adaptation projects) and presence of the so-called "champions", projects who have either made a substantial impact already or got their brand closely linked with the post Covid-19 world, or will hopefully have substantial impact, like vaccines and treatments now in testing.
Some patterns seem to emerge. Surprisingly, or maybe not, some cities that have been badly by the pandemic or that have been highly successful in fighting it, are over performing, compared to their usual score: Taipei City, Brussels, Milan, Antwerp, Toronto are among those that are better positioned.
Milan, which is normally ranked by StartupBlink at 62nd place based on the strength of its startup ecosystem, lands 13th in the COVID-19 response tracking. Antwerp goes from 317th to 12th, Toronto from 24th to 4th.
On the contrary, Berlin, which is usually considered one of top ten cities for startups, ranks only 31st in the Coronavirus Innovation Map. San Francisco, New York, Boston, London, Tel Aviv perform very well, on top of the pyramid, in both rankings.
Also interestingly, at country level, several unexpected players joined the top ten of the coronavirus innovation map. Estonia, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, punched well beyond their weight
Of course, numbers tell only a very small part of the story, and it’s important to put them in context.
Berlin’s low ranking does not correspond to a lack in creativity of the local innovation ecosystem: simply put, innovative coronavirus solutions are spread across several German cities, whereas in Italy, for instance, Milan acts as a magnet for healthcare entrepreneurs, attracting a significant amount of talent and financial resources.
Due to various factors, the pandemic also took a much smaller toll in terms of deaths and social restrictions on Germany than on other European countries, which might also perhaps translate into a weaker motivation to find innovative solutions against the crisis.
It’s also worth noting that not all "innovation" listed by StartupBlink are real, market-ready, products: pilot, demos, trials, or solutions "in preparation" also made the cut. This means that a certain city or nation might have a lot in the works, but then deliver very little, and the other way around.
Finally, how does StartupBlink make sure that there are no ‘false positives’ in the projects submitted for being included in the map, either solutions that do not exist, or that are too whimsical to have any chance of succeeding, do they check each one?
I shot the question at StartupBlink’s CEO, Eli David: "we do check each one, but we also know that just like any startup, they all have a substantial chance of failure. We celebrate the idea, and the execution achieved so far, and give them the benefit of the doubt, although we are aware that many of them will not be here in a year from now. This is what entrepreneurship is all about," he told me.
