UNICC is pleased to announce that the International Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) has been accepted as a new UNICC User organization. UNICC’s Business Relationship Manager for I-DAIR is Philippe Lothsavan.

The International Digital Health & AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) is a global platform to enable inclusive, impactful, and responsible research into digital health and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for health. It is being co-created with a diverse range of stakeholders from the public, private, and academic sectors.

I-DAIR takes inspiration from UNSG’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation on digital enabling of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and targets set by the World Health Organization (WHO) on universal health care. It can be visualised as a ‘distributed CERN for digital health.’

• Its long-term objective is to democratise the use of data & Artificial Intelligence to solve health problems, and promote diversity, collaboration and inclusiveness in research and development efforts. In pursuing this goal, they seek to:
• Define and develop global public goods & other enablers for research & development of digital health solutions; an example is our project to develop a Global Research Map.
• Achieve collaborative, distributed and responsible use of data and Artificial Intelligence whereby data and decisions on AI use stay local and there is no hoarding of digital assets for health;
• Promote collaboration and inclusiveness in scientific research and technology development through a “hubs and spokes” architecture where researchers across domains and geographies can come together in trusted settings;
• Build research capacity & related digital health infrastructure in Africa, Asia and Latin America;
• Solve health and Artificial Intelligence research problems through “pathfinder projects,” which also provide practice-rich feedback for governance of data and AI in health.

I-DAIR was first convened by the Fondation Botnar in September 2019 and is currently hosted at the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. Since August 2020, I-DAIR has entered its incubation phase with a view to formal launch in 2022.