International COVID-19 Data Alliance
The International COVID-19 Data Research Alliance (ICODA) provides a co-ordinated international platform for researchers to discover and request access global data, helping to drive rapid insights into COVID-19 and speed up the development of treatments.
Convened by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), ICODA is an independent consortium of leading life science, philanthropic and research organisations uniting to respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic. ICODA is funded by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator Program.
The purpose of ICODA
ICODA’s aim is to empower researchers to access health data from around the world, to address key research questions to help tackle COVID-19. Too often, data is siloed and difficult for researchers and innovators to find, access and use effectively. By working together and building a trustworthy approach, we can help overcome the challenges of data sharing.
How ICODA works
ICODA offer data contributors a streamlined process to facilitate access to data, with rigorous data governance based on the ‘five safes’ framework – Safe projects, Safe data, Safe people, Safe settings, and Safe outputs. Importantly, data contributors can retain control of decisions about how the health data they hold can be accessed and used via ICODA. We are also prioritising “Driver Projects” – specific research questions that bring together a range of datasets for researchers to analyse to deliver health impact.
