Innovation Challenges

Challenge Owner(s)	Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI), Sidra Medicine
Industry Types(s)	Digital/ICT, Electronics, Healthcare & Biomedical

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Monitoring and Evaluation of Shaken Baby Syndrome

QRDI and Sidra are driving healthcare innovation within Qatar to address significant unmet global challenges, including evaluating potential “Shaken Baby Syndrome” cases.
Sidra invites proposals from Startups, SMEs, and Corporates for technologies that provide a diagnostic monitoring device for child abuse via Shaken baby syndrome events. Sidra is looking for easy-to-use devices with software support to enable, rapid patient assessment, and recommended interventions to reduce long-term complications related to Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is a form of child abuse that often occurs when a frustrated parent or caregiver shakes a baby when it will not stop crying. Triggers for the abuse include money, relationship problems, or drug/alcohol usage.

Increasingly, the abuser claims the injuries presented by the child are due to “playing with the baby” or “rough-housing” activities. However, while these activities (tossing the baby in the air / bouncing him on your knee) is risky, the injuries observed are not consistent with those observed during Shaken Baby Syndrome abuse. Often, there are no obvious external signs such as bruising, bleeding etc, common with risky activities.

Immediate symptoms of SBS include tiredness, vomiting, non-responsiveness, difficulty swallowing, and staying awake. Often there is historical evidence of shaking incidents amongst high-risk adults. Due to underreporting or lack of diagnostics, the scale of the abuse is unknown, but every year in the USA, up to 3000 children are admitted to hospitals with SBS. These cases lead to a 25% mortality rate or significant long-term medical conditions such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy, costing up to $16bn per annum in continuing care.

Monitoring of at-risk patients and potentially early intervention can significantly reduce the physical damage to the baby and subsequently reduce required medical care.

What We Are Looking For

Sidra and QRDI are looking for a non-invasive diagnostic device that can monitor and evaluate the forces generated during a potential Shaken Baby Syndrome incident. The software should be able to record measure parameters described below and ideally notify authorities via wireless networks enabling rapid emergency response.

*Deadline: 17 May 2023*

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Challenge Owner(s)	Hassad Food
Industry Types(s)	Agri-tech, Sustainable Energy

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Reducing Humidity of Cooling Air Within Greenhouses

Currently, Hassad Food grows 19,000 tons of crops across the country, where outdoor temperatures can rise to 50°C with humidity levels of 90% RH, significantly impacting the growth of food crops. Hence, these vital resources must be grown in greenhouses with controlled environments.

Cooling air is vital for crops to grow efficiently within greenhouses. Still, current pad & fan-based technologies do not reduce the humidity of the ambient air below 90% RH, which is restrictive in providing a cooling effect for the crops. The primary objective of the current challenge is to identify, validate and integrate technologies or equipment that can reduce the humidity of cooling air below 70% RH as a minimum. The greenhouses vary in size (270 m2 up to 5000 m2), producing up to 65 kg/m2 of crops per annum. Current fan technology can move up to 41,000m3 /hr of air, and previous developments utilizing commercially available air-conditioner or chiller units have proven insufficient in meeting both the technical and cost requirements of Hassad Food.

The proposed technologies must work in stipulated temperature ranges, and be compatible with current power sources and NOT require major design reconstruction of the local power supplies or farms. Ideal scenarios would enable easy future integration with renewable energy sources including solar panels etc.

Hassad Food is open to all solutions from startups and industry, as long as a clear understanding of the method and requirements for upscaling are detailed, and the proposed technology is currently at minimum TRL=3.

What We Are Looking For

Hassad Foods are looking for low-cost, low-energy innovative solutions that can reduce the humidity of the cooling air in greenhouses below 70% as a minimum. Innovations must work in the stipulated temperature ranges, be compatible with current power sources and not require significant design reconstruction of the local power supplies or farms. Ideal scenarios would enable easy future integration with renewable energy sources, including solar panels.

*Deadline: 15 May 2023*