The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a $2.5 million grant to data.org in support of the data platform’s partnership with the World Health Organization Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence (WHO Hub) to drive the development and deployment of digital public goods for pandemic and epidemic intelligence.

The collaboration will build on data.org’s Epiverse initiative—funded and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, Wellcome, and IDRC—by bringing together a united global health intelligence community to foster greater adoption of accessible and powerful open-source tools to tackle global epidemic and pandemic threats. By leveraging WHO’s  existing network, data.org will enable the formation of the Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence (PEI) Collaboratory. This digital hub will be tailored for pandemic intelligence professionals and will make digital public goods more accessible for WHO country members and partners engaging on the platform. Across both the PEI Collaboratory and Epiverse networks, data.org aims to increase uptake of Epiverse digital public goods in low-to-middle-income nations to streamline the global public health tech arena, granting open access to epidemic intelligence resources for health institutions globally.

“During the COVID-19 crisis, experts worldwide developed numerous software tools to enhance outbreak modeling and analytics. Yet, many of these solutions remain isolated, leading to duplicated effort, lack of interoperability and poor documentation, support, and maintenance,” said data.org executive director Danil Mikhailov. “The opportunity for global collaboration and resource sharing remains largely unrealized. Through generous support from The Rockefeller Foundation, our partnership with the WHO Hub reinforces our commitment to leveraging data for social good and brings us closer to our long-standing vision of a safer, healthier global community.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/gorodenkoff)