Opioid Data Challenge
In collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada (funder and principal partner) and Statistics Canada (supporting partner) MaRS is engaging Canadians to identify novel sources of data and analytical mechanisms to help the public health sector better understand the scope of opioid overdoses at the community level.
How is the Opioid Data Challenge structured?
Phase 1 – Propose and Develop:
Participants will identify and propose data sources and methodologies to measure opioid overdoses occurring in a Canadian community of their choice. In addition to providing the total number of non-fatal and/or fatal overdoses, innovators will provide data on specific factors of an overdose (such as location and date).
Submissions will be evaluated by an external panel of expert judges. Up to five $10,000 awards will be given to each challenge finalist for use in the continued development of their concept during Phase 2.
Phase 2 – Extension:
Finalists will apply the data sources and/or methodology used in the previous phase to a different community in Canada to demonstrate wide-range applicability. A set of selection criteria will be provided to help guide innovators when choosing their second community.
Submissions will be evaluated by an external panel of expert judges. Up to two $50,000 awards will be available for each challenge winner. The winners will also have the opportunity to scale and integrate their concepts into existing public health surveillance systems.
