The Amazon Web Service (AWS) Diagnostic Development Initiative (DDI) provides support for innovation in rapid and accurate patient testing for 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and other diagnostic solutions to mitigate future outbreaks. Although vaccine and treatment development research are generally funded by private foundations and government agencies, fast and reliable diagnostic techniques are slow to be developed. Accurate testing and diagnosis at point-of-care or regional locations for patients with COVID-19 are critical to early intervention and treatment.

AWS is offering technical support and providing AWS promotional credits to support the use of AWS services to advance diagnostic research for selected institutions and companies. It supports AWS customers who are working to bring better, more accurate diagnostic solutions to the market faster. The program will support research-oriented workloads for the development of point-of-care diagnostic (testing that can be done at home or at a clinic with same-day results) and other diagnostic techniques.

Eligibility

• Research institutions.
• Research consortia, and private entities that are AWS customers.
• Individuals who apply must apply on behalf of their organization and not in their personal capacity.

Benefits

• It provides $20 million over the next year to accelerate research, innovation, and development to speed the collective understanding and detection of COVID-19 and other innovative diagnostic solutions to mitigate future infectious disease outbreaks.
• Funding will be provided through a combination of AWS in-kind credits and technical support to assist AWS customers’ research teams in harnessing the full potential of the cloud to tackle this challenge.

Application process

Required documents:

You should briefly address the following topics:

• A short description of the diagnostic problem to be solved.
• Research abstract.
• The types of technical support for AWS services that would be useful in your research.
• How you plan to use AWS services to support your COVID-19 diagnostic research.
• An estimate of the AWS promotional credit requested to support your COVID-19 diagnostic research.
• Any plans for sharing research outcomes (tools, data, and/or resources) created during the project.
• List of anticipated Principal Investigators for your COVID-19 diagnostic research.
• Provide links for up to three publications related to your COVID-19 diagnostic research.

For the application form click here.