The scale and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic have reiterated the need for access to and analysis of timely accurate health data to support the implementation of control measures and to guide health interventions and evidence-based practices. The supporting infrastructures and capacities through which researchers access and analyze these data, however, vary greatly. For several reasons, researchers in the Global South often are skeptical of broad calls for data sharing when they are left out of the analysis and results interpretation.
Data Science Approaches
The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Department of Science and Technology at the Secretariat of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs for Health (Decit/SCTIE/MS) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), launch this public Request for Proposals (RFP), and invite all interested parties to present their proposals on the basis of what is hereby established.
The International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges initiative, supported by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, are announcing an open funding call for research studies to accelerate knowledge of COVID-19 through data science: Grand Challenges ICODA COVID-19 Data Science.
Developing and validating approaches to foster maternal and child health is difficult due to the interaction of biological, environmental, and social factors. Furthermore, policy recommendations for such approaches frequently lack sufficient supporting scientific evidence, while clinical trials are expensive, time-consuming, and increasingly difficult to implement. There is now a key opportunity to accelerate research in this area by analyzing existing data arising from multiple sources in India and formulating public health recommendations that are data-driven and cost-effective.