Deadline to present projects to “COVID, Collaboration and Life” fund is extended

The initiative of the Fundación Chile, which has the contribution of CMPC, will receive until May 3 the proposals of innovative projects that have solutions to the emergency of coronavirus.

Aware that the health and economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus context needs everyone’s contribution in order to overcome it, CMPC will support innovative projects that face the current situation.

Thus, the company joined as main contributor, along with Entel (and Sofofa and Corfo as promoters), to the competitive fund “COVID, Collaboration and Life” of Fundación Chile, a call that aims to collaboratively finance and deliver resources to entrepreneurs who have innovative solutions that help to cope with the crisis.

The contest that was launched on April 15 already has about 70 projects reviewed and about 130 in a state of analysis, so the deadline to present projects is extended to Sunday, May 3. 

The initiative has an initial fund of $ 40 million (which will be increased with contributions from other private companies) that will be distributed among the best innovative solutions that face the four main challenges identified in this crisis:

• Health: Investments will be made in innovations that can enhance health prevention in Chile and improve care and support for patients, health professionals, and health infrastructure.

• Community: Projects that face the social context as isolation, will be supported. For example, those that contributes to strengthening the sense of community by providing tools for a good mental health, or by strengthening citizen support networks.

• Economy and employment: Innovations that safeguard the care of:

a.- Small and medium-sized companies and allow continuity to their operations.

b.- Workers in their work spaces.

c.- The market and generate new interaction dynamics to boost the local economy.

• Education: Resources will be delivered to those projects that give access to education in a more massive way and that generate quality content allowing to reduce the gap between higher and lower income sectors.

The winners of the call will receive between $ 5 and $ 20 million, for the implementation of the innovation within a maximum period of two weeks, in addition to connections and alliances with the main actors, organizations and institutions in the market, and non-monetary contributions, such as infrastructure, tools, workspace among others.

Felipe Alcalde, Innovation Manager of Empresas CMPC, comments that “it is very important for us to be able to contribute to this great initiative. We want to support in mitigating this pandemic and we see entrepreneurs as having enormous potential to seek solutions to the various problems that the COVID-19 is leaving to all the society. We are very happy and expectant with this challenge that brings these two worlds together, and which tries to put all the creativity and capacity of entrepreneurs at the service of the country. We hope that disruptive solutions will emerge from here and be implemented in all kinds of companies, and that the entrepreneurship in general comes out stronger at this complex time. “

In addition, the Executive Director of Fundación Chile, Marcos Kulka, highlighted the open innovation model that the organization has created in recent years, which has allowed changing paradigms and facing the new challenges imposed by the VUCA world (variable, uncertain , complex and ambiguous) that has permanent change at its core. “Faced with the new questions, we articulate the private, public and entrepreneurial world in the search for new solutions and innovative answers that positively impact our society. In this case, it is about helping to face the health crisis and its economic consequences in the best possible way”, he asserted.

The executive was confident that “the union and collaborative work will give us the necessary strength to go through these difficult times.”

To apply, those interested must enter www.colaboracionyvida.cl, a site that will be open until May 3.