Data Snack

Crunching Digital Resources to Strengthen Global Health Research and Action

Project lead: Juliane Bönecke (Health Sciences), Jonathan Ströbele (Computer Sciences)
Associated groups: Lab Group Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Data Management, Interdisciplinary Academy of Competence & Education for Global Health

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 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/.

PARTNER INSTITUTIONS	GERMANY
Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine	Department Infectious Disease Epidemiology
	- Lab Group Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics
	- Data Management
	- Interdisciplinary Academy of Competence & Education for Global Health

SUPPORTING PARTNERS	GERMANY
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences	Department of Computer Sciences / MARS Group
	Department of Health Sciences
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Institute of Virology / Charité Center for Global Health

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.