Call for Ideas in response to Coronavirus

In April 2020, The EdTech Hub, mEducation Alliance, and Global Innovation Exchange (GIE) launched a call for tech-focused ideas responding to the learning emergency caused by COVID-19 school closures in low- and middle-income countries.

The aim was to accelerate the pace by which promising EdTech ideas could scale in response to the crisis in three ways:

• Identify promising ideas through an open call
• Act as a Hub for action by inviting others in the sector to hear from the most promising ideas at our EdTech Pitch Days
• Fund and support the implementation of selected ideas through sandboxes

You can find out more about this in our previous blog post about how we’ve been supporting innovation during COVID-19 since we launched the call.

We have run 3 Pitch Days, as well as several events to support the sector led by the mEducation Alliance, and we are delighted to showcase those who took part below and what we learnt from each event.

Details of each pitch day can be found here:

Learners with DisabilitiesOffline InnovationsAfrican Innovations

Thanks to the whole crew that made the pitch event happen. I loved the format!
All three pitches I listened to had interesting ideas and I appreciate the diversity in the types of initiatives pitched.

Mark Sorensen, USAID

What you can do

• Find out and get involved in the other mEducation Alliance events here
• Support any of the initiatives that took part in our pitch days by getting in touch with the EdTech team at covidcall@edtechhub.org

What we Learnt

From 371 applications, a rigorous evaluation process, and, 3 pitch days, we’ve learnt a lot about the way technology is being used in response to COVID-19.

To help others understand the landscape, we’ve crunched some numbers and organised some key themes.