Innovation
Innovation
The Humanitech Innovation program harnesses technology innovation to meet social and humanitarian need.
Led by Australian Red Cross with the support of our scaling partner QBE Foundation and founding partner Telstra Foundation, we explore new approaches to harnessing technology for humanitarian impact.
We do this by partnering with start-ups using technology to tackle social and humanitarian problems and supporting them to validate, pilot and scale their impact. Through our Humanitech innovation programs, start-ups receive unique opportunities to access grant funding, network development and support to harness the opportunities provided by technological innovation to better serve humanity.
Organisations we've partnered with
Humanitech Lab Case Studies
AirSeed: Drone planting takes flight to promote reforestation in flood-affected NSW
AirSeed has developed a unique approach to tackle climate change and restore biodiversity by combining drone technology, machine learning, and seed pod biotechnology. To validate whether this approach could be delivered in partnership with disaster-affected communities to support local regeneration efforts, AirSeed collaborated with landholders impacted by landslides in northern NSW.
Climasens: Using technology to understand and respond to climate change
Climasens offers a location-based climate intelligence platform to identify climate risks on people and planet. Partnering with Red Cross, the organisatoins piloted a project to co-develop a mapping tool to identify exactly where particular people may be most at-risk during heatwaves in South Australia, overlaying climate data with population health and social information.
FloodMapp: Australia’s devastating floods inspire new warning systems
FloodMapp specialises in real-time flood intelligence and uses its technology to provide an increase in effective warning time through location-specific flood forecasting and flood inundation mapping. Learn about how Red Cross has been working with FloodMapp to pilot an approach that enables emergency managers to access scalable and real-time information to prepare and plan for emergency response activities to flooding.
Hold Access: Closing the gap on First Nations Australians digital identity
Hold Access is a First Nations-led company developing a digital wallet, WUNA, to empower First Nations Australians and digitally excluded people to hold, access and share their digital identity and verified documents. To validate their platform, they collaborated with education providers to assess its suitability in supporting young people transitioning from school to work or further learning environments.
Kara Technology: Pioneering new emergency announcement systems in sign language
Kara Technologies is using cutting-edge motion capture technology to create a sign language program with 'digital humans'. Learn more about their work validating the use of this solution with Australian Deaf communities and emergency management actors to increase access to fast, life-saving emergency information in sign language.
MamaTalk: Enabling access to multilingual healthcare
In Australia, research indicates that up to 50% of women and birthing people who require translation and interpreter services have been unable to access them during pregnancy for healthcare appointments. MamaTalk is a smartphone app that aims to increase access to culturally-informed and culturally-sensitive health information in languages other than English
Maya Cares: The chatbot supporting women of colour through racism
Maya Cares is a first-of-its-kind chatbot and wellbeing platform that aims to address racism through reporting, increasing access to wellbeing support, and connecting to mental health resources. Discover the process involved in developing it with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour over 18 months.
Performl: Using data to end disadvantage and improve lives
Performl has developed a platform that uses new technology to unmask hidden areas of inequality, such as the location of groups with particular disability support needs, by connecting millions of data points. Learn about their work validating their solution with service providers to improve lives while ensuring it is effective, ethical and safe.
She’s A Crowd: Using storytelling data to end gender-based violence
She’s A Crowd has crowdsourced the biggest location-based set of gender-based violence data in the world to provide insights and mapping tools on survivors’ experiences. She’s A Crowd completed validation with both users and customers to understand how to best present and package data insights to make the greatest social impact and to scale the organisation’s business model.