Swiss Re and Palantir Technologies put pioneering data and analytics platform at the service of global health and joins The Trinity Challenge

Updated 3rd June 2021

London, UK, 28 October 2020: Swiss Re, a world leading provider of reinsurance and insurance, and Palantir Technologies, a software company that specializes in data integration and analytics, are joining The Trinity Challenge. Swiss Re is giving selected Challenge Teams access to its Risk Resilience Center in kind. The Center, which has been developed in partnership with Palantir Technologies, integrates COVID-19 related health, economic and social data all to create a unique platform which participants can leverage to accelerate their research.  

The Trinity Challenge, which was launched by Dame Sally Davies last month, is now open for applications.  It brings the world’s best and brightest minds and global organisations together in a £6m Challenge, looking for new solutions that make the world better prepared for future health emergencies. Challenge Teams will be supported by Founding Members and Members to develop their idea, tool or approach. Data sits at the heart of the Challenge and the introduction of Swiss Re and Palantir Technologies as Member organisations will enable unprecedented analysis of how COVID-19 has impacted communities, medical systems and global economies. 

The other Founding Members are: Aviva, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Brunswick Group, University of Cambridge, Discovery Limited, Facebook, Global Virome Project, Google, GSK,  HKUMed, Imperial College London, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Internews, Legal and General, LSE, McKinsey and Company, Microsoft, Northeastern University, Optum, Reckitt Benckiser, Tencent, Zenysis Technology.

Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity College Cambridge, said:

“Having access to this wealth of data and analytics creates a tremendous opportunity for academics, researchers and analysts. It provides the basis for new modelling, ground-breaking analyses and actionable solutions.

We invite researchers and analysts from the public and private sector to apply to join the Challenge, work with Swiss Re, Palantir and other Members, and to make their insights available as global public goods.”

Ian Haycock, Chief Data Officer at Swiss Re, said:

“As one of the world’s leading tech- and data-enabled reinsurers we have been using data to make the world more resilient for more than 150 years. We are proud to build on this legacy by opening our pioneering Risk Resilience Center for the benefit of global health. It typically takes weeks to have data integrated and curated – our platform updates, checks and transforms datasets automatically and multiple times per hour, with a continuous flow of incoming data, allowing for cross-country comparisons and drilldowns on states and regions.

Equipped with these cutting-edge capabilities, The Trinity Challenge participants can analyse the spread of a pandemic, the economic impact of lockdowns or the success of behavioural changes like wearing a mask in limiting further infection.”

Louis Mosley, Palantir Technologies UK lead, said:

“We are delighted to be joining The Trinity Challenge today. Participants are seeking to make use of the most up-to-date information in order to collaborate in delivering critical public health outcomes. This is what Palantir Foundry does best. We are excited our technology will play a role in providing researchers with the tools they need to solve emerging global health challenges in the most effective, reliable, and responsible ways.”

About the Risk Resilience Center

The Risk Resilience Center is a collaboration between Swiss Re and the leading data integration and analytics company Palantir Technologies. Together, they have integrated data from over 100 publicly available sources to create the world’s most comprehensive data platform specifically targeting COVID-19’s health, economic and social dimensions (such as aggregated mobility and behavioural patterns).

Swiss Re’s Risk Resilience Center has already been put into practice successfully. The platform, for example, has the capability for Challenge Teams to evaluate how stretched a country’s medical system is at a given point in time and enables predictions by combining real-time hospital and ICU bed occupancy rates with model projections.

How to apply

Applicants can now apply or register their interest via the application portal on The Trinity Challenge website – www.thetrinitychallenge.org. The final deadline for supported applications or independent applications 15th April 2021 to be considered in the judging process.

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Notes to editors

Dame Sally Davies and other leaders from the Founding Members are available for interviews on request, please call 07525897441, Hebe Trotter, Brunswick Group

1. The Trinity Challenge is an initiative led by some of the world’s most prominent organisations from across the private, academic, and social sectors for the purpose of sourcing and scaling solutions that better protect one billion more people from future health emergencies.
2. It is a call to action for the world’s best and brightest minds to contribute ideas and innovations, with £6M in awards for the best Challenge Teams.
3. Questions cover economics, behavioural sciences, epidemiology, and many other disciplines.
4. Founding Members and Members will contribute their data, resources, and time to catalyse and support the work of Challenge Teams.
5. In order to realise the above, we (i) have launched a public Challenge on 14 September 2020 to generate, identify and recognise boundary-spanning insights across the categories of identification, response and recovery (ii) have opened the portal which is ready to receive applications, (iii) are convening high-impact collaborations, from diverse sectors and geographies, to drive action immediately (iv) are strengthening the data and analytics ecosystem in global public health, and committing to trusted data collaboration by promoting openness, privacy, security, empowerment, and usability.
6. Visit our website at https://thetrinitychallenge.org, follow up @Twitter @linkedin @facebook