Date: 08 July 2021

Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science pilot initiative:  Grants Awarded

Today, the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) and the Grand Challenges initiative announce ten global projects that will accelerate knowledge of COVID-19 through data science. These projects will address urgent research questions relating to the ongoing pandemic using innovative data science approaches and seek to have rapid impact on the health of communities across the world.

The projects address a range of critical COVID-19 research questions from exploring the effectiveness of vaccination programmes, understanding disease transmission, the impact on different vulnerable patient groups and populations, and the impact on health services delivery. The goal is to find new ways to prevent and treat the disease across communities and countries globally in ways that will transform outcomes.  Outputs from their research are expected within 12 months.

These projects were identified following a global funding call launched at the end of 2020 with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Minderoo Foundation and Microsoft’s philanthropic AI for Health program.  More than 400 applications were received from 69 countries. The projects were selected after a rigorous review process involving an international panel. They have global reach and involve researchers in 19 countries with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries including Brazil, Colombia, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. 

Steve Burnell, COVID-19 Response Lead, Minderoo Foundation said:

“Minderoo Foundation is pleased to support this Grand Challenge initiative focused on critical COVID-19 related research questions. The selected projects, leveraging high quality data and evidence with support from ICODA all have the potential to progress innovative, scalable solutions to these challenges and accelerate impact.”

 Steven Kern, Deputy Director of Quantitative Sciences, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said:

“This cohort of research projects will take forward the core aims of the Grand Challenges initiatives, using innovative, collaborative approaches to address urgent research questions on the current pandemic.  The wide geographical scope and engagement will help build a global community of researchers focused on global health and data science.”

As well as the direct research benefit of these projects, this programme will contribute to the development of a global community and ecosystem to support health data science research coordinated by ICODA.

ICODA is a globally coordinated data-led research response to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, convened by Health Data Research UK, the UK’s national institute for health data science. In addition to funding to support their research, award holders will have access to resources, technology and processes from the ICODA team and its partners, as well as opportunities for collaboration across a global research community.

Professor Andrew Morris, Director of HDR UK and Chair of ICODA, said:

“The scientific quality and relevance of the Grand Challenges ICODA research projects are exceptional, and they have the potential to have a fundamental, global impact on the current pandemic.  This is a significant step forward for ICODA, and I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to the development and roll out of the pilot initiative.”

 To read summaries of all the grants awarded for this pilot initiative, please see the attached pdf - information will also be available at: www.icoda-research.org

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Note to editors

For further information, media enquiries or requests for interview, please contact: Media@hdruk.ac.uk

Here you can read the grant summaries of each GC ICODA COVID-19 project.

Project Title

Lead Institution

Geographical Scope

Effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination in Brazil using mobile data

Fiocruz, Brazil

Brazil

Impact of COVID-19 on health service delivery and institutional mortality: a multi-country consortium

Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, USA

Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Laos, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa - KwaZulu-Natal province only, USA

Addressing Critical COVID-19 questions through Research using linked population Data (ACCORD)

University of Cape Town, South Africa,

South Africa

Characterizing COVID-19 transmission chains for precision mitigation, using epidemiological survey data

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

China - with potential for wider collaboration

Data descriptor, reference coding and characterization of the systemic complications of critical care patients included in the ISARIC COVID-19 dataset

Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia

Global scope including UK, Australia, Malawi, Malaysia, Russia, S Africa

Evaluating social inequalities effects on the COVID-19 pandemic in a LMIC country

Fiocruz, Brazil

Brazil

Incidence and risk factors for COVID-19 amongst pregnant and lactating women and their infants in Uganda

MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Uganda

Uganda

Routine assessment of infections, prevention and control of SARS-COV-2 on unequal populations.

Fiocruz, Brazil

Brazil

The impact of COVID-19 on chronic care patients’ health care utilization and health outcomes in Haiti, Malawi, Mexico and Rwanda

Partners in Health, USA

Haiti, Malawi, Mexico, Rwanda

The PRIEST (Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage) study for low- and middle-income countries.

The University of Sheffield, UK

UK, South Africa, Sudan

About the International COVID-19 Data Alliance

The International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) brings together an international coalition of partners to enable discoveries that benefit everyone, everywhere, by reducing the harm of COVID-19, and to enable an efficient data response to future pandemics and health challenges.

ICODA offers data contributors a streamlined process to facilitate access to data, with rigorous data governance based on the ‘five safes’ framework: safe projects, safe data, safe people, safe settings, safe outputs. Importantly, data contributors can retain control of decisions about how data they hold can be accessed and used.  ICODA’s secure workbench environment includes a wide range of analytical tools and fosters collaborations between researchers and data scientists, to support high quality science.  Where data cannot be transferred, ICODA is pioneering the use of federated analysis across data repositories.

ICODA is funded by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, a large-scale initiative initiated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, Mastercard with additional support from Minderoo Foundation, Microsoft’s philanthropic AI for Health program, and other donors to speed the development of and access to therapies for COVID-19.

To find out more about ICODA, including its partners, please visit www.icoda-research.org

About Health Data Research UK

Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the national institute for health data that includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Its mission is to unite the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. HDR UK is a registered charity funded by UK Research and Innovation, the Department of Health and Social Care in England and equivalents in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and leading medical research charities.

For more information, please visit www.hdruk.ac.uk

About Grand Challenges

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recognizes that solving the most pressing challenges in global health and development requires more of the world’s brightest minds working on them. The Grand Challenges family of initiatives seeks to engage innovators from around the world to solve these challenges. Grand Challenges initiatives are united by their focus on fostering innovation, directing research to where it will have the most impact, and serving those most in need. To learn more, please visit grandchallenges.org.

About Minderoo Foundation

Established by Andrew and Nicola Forrest in 2001, Minderoo Foundation is a modern philanthropic organisation seeking to break down barriers, innovate and drive positive, lasting change. Minderoo Foundation is proudly Australian, with more than AUD $2 billion committed to 10 key initiatives spanning from ocean research and ending slavery, to collaboration against cancer and building community projects. At the height of the pandemic, Minderoo Foundation made available up to $320 million to assist Australia’s effort in fighting COVID-19, including the purchase of millions of items of PPE equipment and quadrupling Australia’s daily testing capacity. Minderoo Foundation is a founding partner of the International COVID-19 Data Research Alliance.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.