Businesses the world over are retooling operations to help combat the coronavirus. Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron are racing to develop a vaccine. Ford Motor, Dyson, and Virgin Orbit are building respirators and ventilators. Apple is making face shields. IBM donated time on its supercomputer to U.S. government researchers evaluating anti-viral drugs. Distillers from France’s Pernod Ricard and Scotland’s BrewDog are using their expertise with alcohol to make hand sanitizers.
How else can businesses contribute? From the earliest days of the outbreak, Fortune has sought to highlight—in online coverage, on its new Leadership Next podcast, and in newsletters including CEO Daily, Outbreak, and Business x Design—the many ways firms are responding to the health crisis. Now it’s partnering with IDEO, a global design consultancy, to launch a three-week “COVID-19 Business Pivot Challenge” aimed at encouraging owners, managers, and employees from firms of all sizes to think creatively about how businesses can help and share their ideas and expertise.
From today through April 30, IDEO’s social innovation platform, OpenIDEO, is soliciting proposals for ways businesses can battle the virus in three broad “opportunity areas”: meeting demands for protective supplies, meeting needs for new services, and adapting to a new future.
At the end of the challenge, IDEO designers will synthesize suggestions, identify the most promising solutions, and explore options for putting them into action. Fortune, the challenge’s media partner, will co-host a webinar to review submissions and discuss the leading prospects.
Learn more about how your company can participate in the challenge here.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Everything you should know about mortgage forbearance and skipping payments
—Hong Kong airport is the first to test all arrivals for coronavirus
—What small businesses applying to the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program need to know
—Former Google CEO: The coronavirus pandemic will make Big Tech even bigger
—No, 5G does not cause or spread the coronavirus. What medical experts say
—JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon lays out a future worse than 2008 in his annual letter
—Companies are getting more comfortable hiring fully remote employees
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
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