What’s worse: a poorly fitting face mask or an anti-masker? The answer is surely the latter, but a wearing an ill-fitting face mask definitely sucks. In the past year, it seems no one’s been able to make a perfect mask. From fogged-up glasses to constant slippage (or just straight up not offering solid protecting from COVID-19), poor-fitting masks can be annoying as hell.
So if you think you have a better idea for a mask, President Joe Biden‘s administration may have $500,000 to give you.
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The Department of Health and Human Services‘ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has just launched the Mask Innovation Challenge, in order to find an innovative mask design to make mask wearing more tolerable. Some things the mask design should address, according to the contest: minimizing contact dermatitis (a.k.a maskne); improving speech intelligibly; and reducing physical discomfort, among other pain points.
The Mask Innovation Challenge is broken up into two phases. The first is mask design, which itself has two tracks: improving upon existing mask designs and introducing new technologies and materials into masks. Phase one of the contest will have up to 10 winners, who will split a $100,000 prize pool.
The second phase will test proof-of-concept, and requires entrants to submit a prototype of a totally new mask design that will be tested for their effectiveness. Up to five winners from phase two will split a $400,000 prize.
All entries into the competition are due before 5 p.m. on April 21. And if you’re having trouble coming up with any good ideas, these five masks might serve as good inspiration.
