The next generation of entrepreneurs are stepping forward to tackle the challenges brought about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Two of these are Ronit Kanwar and Oliver Weller Davies who set up Fight Covid UK.
Fight Covid is a platform which allows professionals to volunteer their expertise and skills to help organisations and projects, with their efforts against COVID-19.
The platform caters for initiatives both those tackling COVID-19 directly and those which deal with its secondary impacts. For example, a project on the platform may ask for legal expertise to help launch their app which tracks the outbreak, or perhaps a local butcher might launch a project asking for help to design a new website to take his business online.
The platform's goal is to make sure that no initiatives tackling COVID-19 in the UK are left behind, just because they lack the expertise or support they need for their ideas to develop, grow and flourish.
Ronit Kanwar said: “I was helping a few initiatives tackling COVID-19 and realised that they lacked the support and expertise they needed to get their ideas going or to the next level.
"Frustratingly, it was often the case that the roadblock could be solved by a quick discussion with an expert. In order to do something about this, I decided to dive into the issue and build Fight Covid with Oliver. I was able to use a number of networks and skills I picked up from the Oxford Foundry, having been incubated by their programme whilst running my social enterprise.”
The Oxford Foundry (pictured above) looks to build a new generation of ventures that better society, and to nurture more ethical leaders who put people and planet first. It delivers practical learning opportunities and supports real businesses.
OxLEP have worked collaboratively with Oxford Foundry in recent times, including involvement in the shaping of the county's Local Industrial Strategy.