Project Inspiration is an initiative of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The aim of the project is to develop a low-cost, easy to manufacture and easy operatable mechanical ventilator that can be rapidly build, anywhere in the world.
Driven by an impending shortage of ventilators, TU-researcher Gerwin Smit found inspiration in an English ventilator from the 1960s. Team Project Inspiration rebuilt the machine, keeping each part as simple as possible; the purely mechanical ventilator driver doesn’t require electronics. Smit thinks that hospitals in the Netherlands will not be needing this ventilator. But the publicly accessible specifications will allow people in low and middle-income countries to build ventilators locally.