Under Notice F2, Digital Square is accepting applications for existing digital health software tools (with a strong, but not exclusive, focus on point-of-care tools) that meet the definition of global goods and / or are existing approved Digital Square global goods. The goal of this is to improve their ability to be viewed as well founded as stand-alone, interoperable, open-source software product, and become “shelf ready” (see Appendix A: Shelf readiness). A key focus is on developing and strengthening local implementation teams and partners of the global goods.
Applications are expected to align and strengthen the shelf-readiness aspects of the technologies and are encouraged to focus on strengthening capacities of new implementers/innovator groups in working and advancing global goods.
Technologies and software being proposed in the applications must meet the following three minimum requirements to be seen as a global good.
- Be an existing software that has been deployed in three or more low-resource contexts.
- Be a global public good. Software tools will be considered a global public good if either:
- The source code is made available under an Open Source Initiative–approved software license; or
- The software is freely accessible and adheres to the Open Definition for access to data; and
- Software has been applied to a health domain to manage, analyze, or transmit health-related data.
- Content may be considered a global good if it is a resource, toolkit, or data standard that is available under an open license and that is used to improve or analyze health data management processes.
Applications must align their solutions to be part of the Instant OpenHIE project and initiative to ensure harmonization and leveraging of work undertaken in that project.
Applicants are required to segment the applications into work packages modelled around the identified aspects of “shelf readiness.” Care must be given to clearly indicate the gaps, activities and expected outputs/deliverables that the requested funding will go towards and how these would advance the software towards shelf readiness. Applicants should ensure that the work packages are self-contained and not overly reliant on another. If there is a reliance this must be clearly called out and justified.
Examples of investments that will be made available through this call for applications can be found below.
- Aligning a solution to leverage key metadata / registry interoperability workflows.
- Aligning technologies to the DevOps guidelines and containerization deployment that is illustrated through use within the Instant OpenHIE project.
- Improvement for quality assurance and testing to improve data captured in the software tool.
- Development of quality assurance and testing frameworks and strategies for interoperability workflows and contribution to the OpenHIE Testing Framework.
- Enhancements of installation functionality to better support implementers as well as focused sets of key documentation updates and deployment and implementation strategies.
- Aligning of technologies to be better framed within the OpenHIE architecture and supporting the required workflows as per the OpenHIE architectural specification (as well as the associated test cases).
The following will be considered out-of-scope, and therefore make the concept note ineligible for funding.
- Investments in country implementations or adaptations intended for country-specific deployments.
- Investments that are not applicable outside of a single health program area.
- Investments in new functionality that are not justified in making the tool a shelf-ready solution.
Local capacity development
Digital Square is committed to enhancing and expanding the capacities of local enterprises and new team to support the development, enhancement, and deployment of global goods. Applications are strongly encouraged to leverage this opportunity to propose innovative capacity building models where new and local teams are active members and part (if not leading) the development and strengthen of shelf-ready activities. Historic global good organizations are actively encouraged to identify and engage with new and interested local teams to build local capacity in local teams and new innovators and expand the global good communities through this opportunity.
Open source and global access
Work proposed in the applications must align to global access principles and be made available under an appropriate open-source license. Applications must clearly outline the licensing of proposed work items in the application.
Click here to access: Notice F2 (RFA #2021-057) | Shelf readiness with a focus on building local capacity and new teams
Notice F2 Modification #1: Click here to access the modification
- November 3, 2021 - December 1, 2021: Concept note development and community review
Digital Square issues a call for applications, and applicants upload concept notes to Digital Square's public-facing open application platform. In the first few weeks, as outlined by the solicitation, applicants will submit concept notes. Before the final submission other applicants and/or other stakeholders in the community may provide feedback, comments, and suggestions, as well as identify potential areas for collaboration if the early draft of the concept note is published on the platform. Digital Square encourages an agile approach of development with early publication of draft concept notes to the platform and applicants are encouraged to edit and respond to community feedback, on their concept note, during this time Following this the final version of the concept note must be submitted and applicants must use the concept note template.
- December 2, 2021 - December 15, 2021:Digital Square review of concept notes
Following the concept note review, Digital Square (comprised of the technical and operational team representatives) assesses concept notes to ensure alignment with the initiative vision and funding objectives identified in the open application process. Digital Square eliminates concept notes that are not strategically aligned with the above.
Digital Square identifies a set of short-listed concept notes based on the open application process criteria and emails applicants who are eligible to advance to the application phase.
- December 16, 2021 - January 12, 2022: Technical application co-creation, comment period and application finalization
Using feedback received in the Concept Note Phase, applicants will begin preliminary application development.
Applicants must use the technical application template and post an application iteration on the open application platform in the first 2 weeks.
Applicants will be able to request interim reviews of their applications. Only one review may be requested from Digital Square, and unlimited reviews from the community are allowed.
Using feedback, applicants revise the technical application, develop a budget and budget narrative, and submit these to the Digital Square open application platform. Applicants must use the provided technical application, budget, and budget narrative templates.
The budget and budget narrative are not shared publicly on the platform. Commenters see only the high-level summary budget provided in the technical application.
At the conclusion of this step, Digital Square will restrict the ability to upload new content to open application platform.
- January 13, 2022 - February 2, 2022: Peer Review Committee (PRC) review
The PRC reviews applications according to the Prioritization Framework, notice scope of work technical requirements and evaluates applications as green-, amber-, or red-lit per the PRC Membership Policy. Green-lit applications are recommended for funding immediately; amber-lit applications are recommended for future funding or further exploration; red-lit applications do not fully meet the selection standards/criteria.
The PRC sees only the high-level summary budget provided in the technical application. Proprietary information including salaries, indirect rates, or other factors are not shared with anyone outside of the investor and Digital Square.
- February 3, 2022 - February 9, 2022: Digital Square OAP recommendation
Digital Square compiles the evaluation provided by the PRC by clustering the applications according to the Prioritization Framework for Investment Review Committee (IRC) review, and assigning values based on green, amber, or red light scoring.
Digital Square creates an investment package recommendation of the highly scored applications, as collated from the PRC reviews and synthesized into a single scoring metric that assigns numerical values to the color associated to the proposals, for the Investment Review Committee based on the funding round objectives, investor priorities, and Digital Square vision.
- Feb 10, 2022 - Feb 23, 2022: Investment Review Committee (IRC) review
Digital Square presents the applications, high-level budget summary, PRC feedback within the Prioritization Framework, and Digital Square recommendation to the IRC.
The IRC evaluates whether to approve the funding packages and reserves the right to modify the recommendation at their discretion. The recommendation is made to the Digital Square board for ratification and final approval.
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On behalf of Everwell Health
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