Wellcome Data Prizes
A series of prizes that will use data to transform how science solves urgent health challenges.
A series of prizes that will use data to transform how science solves urgent health challenges.
The Wellcome Data Prizes will be an opportunity for multidisciplinary teams to receive funding and support to use existing data to answer important research questions. The challenges we'll be focusing on are: climate and health, infectious disease, mental health and discovery research.
Participants will co-create digital solutions such as new software packages, algorithms or scripts.
Data prizes are an open competition or challenge where participants use data to solve a societal problem.
They are increasingly used to find solutions to complex issues and can be especially powerful for areas blocked by siloed research fields, where funding is limited, or when there is a lack of motivation because progress has slowed.
We have designed the prizes to prioritise inclusivity, creativity and multidisciplinarity. Our goals are to:
Get the broadest range of people to contribute to and benefit from equitable solutions
Solving urgent global health problems requires a range of different perspectives. Yet, most health research happens in established research communities. We will reach out to people from beyond our usual networks and bring together ideas from people with a range of experiences and data-related skills. This will include researchers, people with lived experience, policy makers, community leaders and businesses in different parts of the world.
Put co-creativity at the heart
Our data prizes have been designed to make sure the participation of different groups is at the centre of the projects we fund. We will value lived experience and partner with the communities we’re working with.
Raise awareness around the health challenge and inspire solutions
We will talk about our work openly and share what we’re learning during this process. We want to inspire policy and decision makers to think about new approaches to developing digital tools to address global health challenges.
Request for proposals: scoping a Wellcome Data Prize on Pain
We are looking to commission a supplier to scope a Wellcome Data Prize (WDP) on Pain.
The data prize’s goal is to enable new teams of pain, brain, mental health, social and data scientists to ask novel questions of existing data that deliver conceptual leaps in our understanding of pain.
We’re looking for a supplier to carry out a three-month scoping exercise to:
- identify question(s) that will have the most impact in pain research for the WDP to address
- identify potential data sources, relevant geographies and data access requirements needed to address the WDP question(s)
- advise on the feasibility of running a WDP in Pain given: 1) the data available, and 2) the principles and aims of WDPs.
Next steps:
- Read our request for proposals [PDF 205KB]
- Submit a proposal by Monday 4 October (5 pm BST) to dataprizes@wellcome.org
- Selected suppliers will be asked to give a presentation on either Wednesday 27 or Thursday 28 October.
We’re currently working behind the scenes to prepare for the launch of the first data prize. It will focus on improving mental health interventions for anxiety and depression in young people in the UK and South Africa.
We expect to open applications in early 2022.
Who we're working with
We have commissioned Social Finance and DataKind to deliver the first data prize, working with Wellcome’s data for science and health and mental health teams. We’ve chosen these partners because they bring expertise in health and social care, data and digital technology, and involving children and young people.
Have a look at the lessons learnt so far.
With the prize, we want to:
1. Gain fresh insights from existing data
We will use data related to mental health to understand which ‘active ingredients’ prevent, treat, or help manage ongoing anxiety and depression in young people (aged 14-24). Throughout the set-up phase in 2021, we will identify and secure access to relevant data sources. We will prioritise datasets that could be used in new ways to offer insights into the social and environmental context of mental health.
This includes data sources created both inside and outside of academia, like data on medication use, access to green space, financial situation, cognitive processes, genetics and personal relationships.
2. Build a multidisciplinary mental health data community
We want to demonstrate how people with mental health research backgrounds, data expertise and lived experience can work together. We will involve people with lived experience because we value their important (and often missing) insight on mental health research priorities. Young people’s priorities will be at the heart of the data prize’s scope and design, as well as during the co-creation of digital tools.
3. Create trustworthy digital tools with tangible impact
Our goal is to create open source digital tools that really make a difference to youth anxiety and depression. We want to show how to build trustworthy digital tools for mental health, successfully balancing people’s privacy with the needs of open science.
What's coming up
Over the coming months, we'll be sharing more information about how you can participate in Wellcome's Data Prize in Mental Health. We'll publish details of the application process, upcoming Q&A events, and what funding opportunities will be available on this webpage.
Get in touch at dataprizes@wellcome.org if you think the objectives of the Wellcome Data Prizes are relevant to your network or if you know of data sources that fit with our aims.