The National Institutes of Health is asking scientists and inventors to compete in a $500 million challenge to develop rapid coronavirus testing technologies in a bid to scale up the accuracy and availability of tests across the country.

The technologies will be put through a competitive, three-phase selection process in the search for the best rapid test that can be deployed at home or in a care setting. The finalists will be matched with technical and business experts to accelerate commercialization.

The competition is part of a greater Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Initiative, or RADx, which received a total of $1.5 billion in funding from the federal stimulus package.

This challenge will bring together the skills, creativity and ingenuity of people from around the US to come up with innovative solutions to improve testing for COVID-19.

The National Institutes of Health, (USA)