On Jul. 27, 2020, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a $58 million initiative to advance data science, catalyze innovation and spur health discoveries across Africa. The new five-year program, Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa), leveraged existing data and technologies to develop solutions for the continentﾒs most pressing clinical and public health problems.

“Data science drives scientific discovery and data sets are the currency of the future,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “Many years of investment in research infrastructure by NIH and other organizations in Africa have produced an opportunity for substantial technical innovation. By forming a robust network of public and private partners, we believe this initiative can transform the field and pay huge dividends—such as deploying low-cost technologies to improve health care in remote areas, and developing skilled scientists who can mine vast data collections to make discoveries that improve health for us all.”

In funding announcements, NIH was calling for applications in four areas: an open data science platform and coordinating center; research hubs; research training programs; and ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) research. The open data science platform will develop and maintain a data-sharing gateway for existing resources and new data generated by the DS-I Africa research hubs. The coordinating center provided the organizational framework for the direction and management of the initiative’s common activities. The research hubs were intended to become recognized centers of excellence in data science fields and will advance population-relevant, affordable, acceptable and scalable data science solutions that will improve health in Africa.

Research training programs included a strong foundation in rigorous research design, methods and analytic techniques, provide interdisciplinary research experience and enhance trainees’ ability to develop novel data science solutions. Finally, the program supported research into key ELSI issues such as data privacy and ownership, cybersecurity and sensitivities concerning the use of geospatial information for research or public health surveillance.

DS-I Africa was intended to encourage partnerships across sectors and engage private, government, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders in applications. In addition, interdisciplinary collaborations will bring together data specialists, computer scientists and engineers with biomedical researchers, clinicians and other health experts. The program aimed to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that will result in new software solutions and technologies, produce start-ups and spinoff companies, and partner with governments and businesses to reach scale and impact.

Potential research topics could include development of artificial intelligence tools to advance decision support for mobile and other point of care technologies, establishment and use of shared platforms to leverage large health datasets to reveal disease patterns and risks, and computational approaches and data sharing to accelerate discovery of new diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.

The program was targeting African academic and other non-profit organizations to apply in partnership with private sector, government and other research partners. Applications were due in late 2020 with projects slated to begin in September 2021.