HIEX (Health Innovation exchange) hosted by UNAIDS has successfully fostered the collaboration with the international solar alliance and the Health startup eco-system. By setting up a similar ecosystem for health-related applications with HIEX and ISRO, could boost testing speeds and make these life saving technologies mainstream years earlier. By having dedicated startups to focus on each of these projects individually, we could do them much faster. There are already many smaller companies that produce parts for boosters and satellites.
The current issues with technology transfer
Most of the companies working on the application of space technology in health are large organisations like NASA, ESA and Roscosmos. But these agencies are largely focused on their larger missions. Many of these experiments have been under testing for years now. This is partly due to the fact that these experiments are usually the victims of budget cuts. Tech- transfer gets put on the back-burner in favor of more glamorous projects.
The current eco-systems have not been able to transfer space technologies to the startup eco-system efficiently. Involving startups for technology transfer is a proven model and there is a need for a collaboration to bridge the gap between big space organizations and health startups . This will ensure at space research does not happen only in ivory towers.
This diagram shows how investment in space has boomed after the involvement of startups. We could expect similar results by incorporating startups in the health ecosystem.