How do you advance in combatting the coronavirus crisis? Looking at the following example, the answer is clear: through collaboration and joining resources! 

A group of five citizens in Spain managed to bring four robots from China to Spanish hospitals in order to rapidly analyse the mass testing samples of COVID-19. Each of these robots is capable of processing 2,400 test samples, which can result in nearly 70,000 analysed tests per week. For the robots to reach the hospitals that mostly needed them, Rocío Martínez, researcher at King´s College London, Andreu Veà, professor and internet pioneer, Javier Colàs, Chief Innovation Officer of Esade, Sandra Figaredo, senior consultant of Llorente & Cuenca, and María Parga, Directive of BME, worked closely together, identified companies to help them with their resources and organised the collaboration between these big companies.

The steps they took are: 

• identifying the robots produced by Opentrons and locating their manufacturing side in China
• achieving private funding given by Merlin Properties
• bringing the robots from Shenzhen, China, to Spain with the help of Inditex´s logistic network
• obtaining computers to operate the robots, which were donated by Apple 
• getting engineers for programming the robots and paying their salaries, with the support from Manpower and Telefónica
• installing the robots and computer equipment in the hospitals in Barcelona and Madrid, with help from IKEA and Renfe

In a nutshell, the team managed to activated a powerful support from companies who immediately offered their help: Opentrons provided the robots, Merlin provided funding, Inditex used its logistics, Apple and Telefónica their computer systems and resources, IKEA provided tables, Manpower recruited engineers, and Renfe gave logistic support in Spain. 

The whole project was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of the Interior. 

Read the full story here (in Spanish): https://www.elconfidencial.com/empresas/2020-04-11/increible-historia-amigos-que-han-traido-espana-robots-anticovid19_2543860/