SUNY students that are working on ways to improve personal protective equipment with technology can now apply for grant funding. 

The SUNY Prepare Innovation and Internship Program will provide $10,000 for students and faculty looking to create alternative PPE, designs to reduce the use of “high touch areas,” environmentally sustainable sanitation, and more. 

Chancellor Jim Malatras announced on Monday that the program is now accepting applications through November 15. The first grants will be awarded December 15.  

“SUNY students and faculty have been among New York’s leaders in the production of lifesaving PPE and other technologies — keeping essential frontline workers protected through this pandemic,” Malatras said. 

“Now that we are in the fall and seeing what is happening across the nation and in certain hot spots across New York with a higher number of COVID cases, PPE and other innovations to combat COVID-19 continue to be in high demand. These innovations will help not only with combating COVID, but other future infectious diseases,” he continued.

SUNY campuses were producing 2,100 face shields a day during the first wave of the pandemic.