ICODA and Grand Challenges are delighted to launch the new pilot Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science grant programme that will focus on addressing major questions about how to reduce the harm of COVID-19 and future pandemics. The programme aims to unite data and develop processes, analytical tools and infrastructure to achieve rapid scientific progress and impact.

ICODA – the International COVID-19 Data Alliance – is partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges programme to pilot the Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science initiative, supported by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.

This initiative seeks to support projects that harness the power of health data in a safe and trusted way to respond to the current COVID-19 pandemic and have impact, as well as to enhance global health data responses to health challenges of the future.

Proposals may focus on one of a range of COVID-19 research areas, including:

• natural disease history, epidemiology and transmission;
• vaccines and prophylaxis;
• infection, prevention and control;
• therapeutics;
• clinical management.

During this pilot, grantees will have access to the COVID-19 Workbench, a digital research environment to which researchers can bring their own data and work in a safe and trustworthy space to collaborate with others to answer research questions of interest.

Proposals should:

• Be driven by a shared commitment to open science, data sharing, and building collaboration and analysis infrastructure to enable discoveries that will benefit people everywhere
• Seek to strengthen global communities and multi-disciplinary collaboration, particularly from researchers in LMICs, and involve patients and the wider public
• Have access to the datasets needed to address their specific research questions
• Be legally permitted to contribute data and build on ICODA’s portfolio of Driver Projects, helping to build infrastructure, processes and governance that are fit for purpose for a wide range of research challenges.

Funding Information

The Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science grant programme will provide awards of up to US$100,000 for studies lasting for between 6-12 months, starting in mid-March 2021 onwards.

Eligibility Criteria

ICODA is seeking grant proposals that meet the following criteria:

• Have the potential to be enabled and contribute to the preparation of the 2021 Data Science-focused Global Grand Challenge
• Address research questions that can deliver insights on COVID-19 within 6-12 months of the grant award being made, be scalable and bring demonstratable benefits to patients and populations
• Use clearly defined datasets, with a commitment to providing access to data and all research products (methodology and reproducible results), whilst ensuring appropriate information governance
• Have the potential to be enabled and accelerated by the COVID-19 Workbench, and a commitment to helping develop processes, tools and governance to maximise the impact of data-focused research studies
• Demonstrate a commitment to involving patients and the wider public in design and governance of research studies

Applications are invited from researchers working in healthcare, academia, industry or research foundations, and will be welcomed from any geography, with priority placed on proposals that involve researchers from LMICs.

For more information, visit ICODA.