About Us
To accomplish this, the DS-I Africa Initiative aims to contribute to the development of the necessary expertise among African scientists, and to establish networks of African investigators.
The vision of DS-I Africa is to create and support a robust pan-continental network of data scientists and technologies that will be equipped to apply advanced data science skills to transform health.
Funders
- DS-I Africa is an NIH Common Fund Initiative
Contributing Institutes, Centres and Offices
- Fogarty International Center
- National Cancer Institute
- National Human Genome Research Institute
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- National Institute of Mental Health
- National Library of Medicine
- Office of Data Science Strategy
- Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)
Program Goals
To advance Data Science and related innovations in Africa to create an ecosystem that can begin to provide local solutions to countries’ most immediate public health problems through advances in research.
Create a pan continental network with broad academic, public, private and industry partnerships.
Enhance Data Science capacity through training toward developing a new generation of interdisciplinary African Data Scientists..
Develop new data collection and analytic systems, applications, and tools with attention to usages that are population-relevant, affordable, acceptable, and scalable.
Advances in policy surrounding ethical issues
Facilitate resource access to the global scientific community. Resources may include medical image repositories to be used as a basis for machine learning.
Establish recognized regional and continental DS Centres of Excellence.
Enable new interdisciplinary collaborations and new scientific knowledge.
Demonstration of the feasibility of advanced DS to improve health in Africa
Our Projects
On this page you will find a list of consortium projects. The consortium consists of a data science platform and coordinating center, seven research hubs, seven data science research training programs and four projects focused on studying the ethical, legal and social implications of data science research.
Working groups
On this page, you will find the list of Working groups, links to the minutes of their meetings and other documentation about the establishment of the working group and its purpose and function.
Training & Education Working Group
Data Management Working Group
Partnerships & Outreach Working Group
- Create networking opportunities with potential partners.
- Provide a forum for consortium members to discuss the challenges to partnerships and strategies for effective collaboration.
Data Governance Working Group
DS-I Africa Steering Committee
Membership
Principal investigators, project and data managers from each grant and NIH program staff constitute the Steering Committee membership. Participants are bound by policies and procedures developed by the Steering Committee.
Adoption of such policies and procedures requires a majority vote, each funded project has one vote. The Steering Committee chair and co chair are elected by majority vote, and together with the Coordinating Centre prepares meeting agendas and fulfills all related administrative and management tasks.
Chair: Dr Michelle Skelton
Co-Chair: Dr David Tumussime
TBA
Resources & OutputsDocuments - to follow
Meeting FrequencyOnline - monthly
In-person - Bi-annually rotating to various member countries
News & Events
Roger Glass: The people we fund end up on the front lines
Fogarty International Center director Roger Glass is in Cape Town, South Africa. He’s only recently resumed traveling to meet people in person since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and he’s enjoying it.
He’s here for the second meeting of the Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa), a US$75 million initiative to advance African data science, with a focus on health. The initiative’s first meeting, a year ago, was held virtually.
DS-I Africa was conceived before the pandemic hit, but Covid-19 has clearly illustrated the importance of what the initiative aims to do, Glass told Research Professional News on the sidelines of the meeting.
African data scientists gather in Cape Town at major networking conference
The Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I-Africa) is holding its first in-person Consortium meeting from 29 October to 3 November 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa. The event is taking place at the Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge and the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business on the V&A Waterfront.
The event has attracted over 200 scientists and stakeholders from across Africa and internationally to exchange ideas and showcase their work in data science and health.
NIH awards nearly $75M to catalyze data science research in Africa
Category
The National Institutes of Health is investing about $74.5 million over five years to advance data science, catalyze innovation and spur health discoveries across Africa. Under this new Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) program, the NIH is issuing 19 awards to support research and training activities. DS-I Africa is an NIH Common Fund program that is supported by the Office of the Director and 11 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices.
African data science research receives major funding from the National Institutes of Health
Several members of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium are among the beneficiaries of a $74.5 million investment from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop data science, innovation, and health discoveries across Africa. They are among the recipients of 19 awards under the NIH’s new Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa (DS-I Africa) program to support research, ethics, and training activities.
Community Engagement
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