Data sharing in public health emergencies

Research is an essential part of being ready for and responding to public health emergencies. It’s critical that any new knowledge is shared in a timely manner in a way that’s equitable, ethical and transparent. 

Calling for change

Together with a range of partners, we’re calling on funding bodies, journals and research organisations to share research findings and data relevant to the COVID-19 outbreak. Read the joint statement.

This is an update to previous statements on the:

• Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (May 2018)
• Zika outbreak and future public health emergencies (February 2016).

We expect the principles set out in these statements to be applied to outbreaks in the future, where there is a global imperative to share research findings and data rapidly and widely.

Our article for the World Health Organization looks at the progress that’s been made since the 2016 statement, and at the key challenges posed by data sharing in public health emergencies. 

Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) network

We’re a member of the GloPID-R network and its data sharing working group.

The working group has developed:

• principles for data sharing in public health emergencies, which provide a framework for timely data sharing during an outbreak
• a roadmap for data sharing in public health emergencies, which looks at how research funders can improve grantholders' data sharing and advocate for increased data sharing more widely.  

• Our activities build on the work of the Public Health Research Data Forum and the goals in the joint funders’ statement on sharing research data to improve public health.
• If you have any questions about this work, contact Dave Carr d.carr@wellcome.org