Google.org has announced grants totaling more than $8.5 million to thirty-one nonprofits, universities, and other academic institutions in support of efforts to use artificial intelligence and data analytics to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on communities.
Part of the organization’s $100 million commitment in support of global COVID-19 relief efforts, the grants are focused on four areas where new information and action is needed to help mitigate the impacts of the virus: monitoring and forecasting disease spread; improving health equity and minimizing secondary impacts of the pandemic; slowing transmission by advancing the science of contact tracing and environmental sensing; and supporting healthcare workers.
Grant recipients include Tokyo-based Keio University, which will use the funds to investigate the reliability of large-scale surveys in modeling the spread of COVID-19; the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Satcher Health Leadership Institute, which is working to develop a public-facing COVID-19 Health Equity Tracker; the University of Washington, which is investigating environmental SARS-CoV-2 detection and filtration methods in buses and other public spaces; and C Minds, which is creating an open-source AI-based support system for clinical trials related to COVID-19. Three grantees also will receive pro bono support from Google.org Fellowship teams.
Google.org awards $8.5 million in COVID-response grants
