Digital transformation presents powerful opportunities to advance infectious disease research through digital data practices and computational methodologies. Novel datasets and modern technologies enable more profound insights into infectious diseases, from understanding the pathogens themselves to decoding the complexities of global disease transmission. This is especially crucial given the persistent threat of severe endemic diseases and emerging zoonotic diseases with pandemic potential.

To harness this potential, integrating diverse, siloed data sources is key, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange among researchers and stakeholders. Realizing these opportunities requires collaborative platforms and tools that bridge fields and disciplines effectively. The Data Snack project is specifically designed to meet this need in collaboration with stakeholders from Global Health research, action and training.

• Data Hub:
  Our main activity is the development and enhancement of an open-source software data fusion framework that allows for the harmonization of diverse data inputs and data exploration in a user-friendly dashboard
   
• Software & Data Services:
  In addition, we seek to boost Data Literacy and foster Data Collaboration by offering tools, services and trainings for interdisciplinary teams
   
• Innovative Technology:
  Our core goal is to amplify research, action and training by harnessing digital innovations to power interdisciplinary collaboration in Global Health
   

For more information and to explore our work, visit https://datasnack.org/.

Data Snack builds on the pre-prototypical outputs of the ESIDA research network (Epidemiological Surveillance for Infectious Diseases in sub-Saharan Africa), which are licensed under CC BY 4.0 (concept: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.7322396) and MIT (software approach: ESIDA Module 4).

Over a period of two years, the team will be funded and supported by the Innovation Academy of the Joachim Herz Foundation in order to transfer the software approach into a sustainable application for applied infectious disease research. From the beginning, the project team is working closely with potential user groups, primarily stakeholders in global health research and outbreak preparedness and response.

For more details on the Joachim Herz Foundation's initiative visit their website.