From the Nominator

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a post-graduate public health university. We are home to the largest group of epidemiologists in Europe. When the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the world, we felt compelled to bring together the specialist skills and expertise of LSHTM staff, students, and alumni to benefit the global response. 

Building on the experience of a smaller, London-based data project during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the Alumni Office joined forces with our mathematical modellers and GIS experts to launch an innovative new volunteer project. Since April 2020, the LSHTM Alumni Office worked with academics to establish a network of volunteers that can devote small amounts of time to crowd-sourced rapid data work for WHO. The volunteers and academics worked together to evaluate every COVID-19 intervention in the world, producing the WHO database of global interventions in response to the pandemic, allowing international comparisons and informing response efforts.

More than 1000 alumni in more than 40 countries joined forces with LSHTM experts to deliver this project and help governments around the world respond to the pandemic. As events unfolded, harnessing the power of our amazing alumni network helped save lives around the world. It gave volunteers a powerful way to develop and use their skills and give back to LSHTM and the global community. Volunteers told us this project helped give them structure and meaning during a very challenging year.

From the Judges

The enormous scope of the project, along with the sheer importance of the topic, made this a very impressive entry. The project offered worldwide impact while adding value to volunteers and building community connections. Anything that allows volunteers to feel like they have personally made a difference in the global community is not only impressive, but extremely meaningful.