Imperial Launches J-IDEA Institute

Imperial has launched a new institute as part of the School of Public Health in White City this week, targeted at predicting and preventing global health crises.

The institute, dubbed J-IDEA for the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics, will utilise advanced mathematical modelling and data science techniques to research and understand the health and economic causes and repercussions of disease.

Over 200 researchers will work on J-IDEA projects, creating a world-leading centre in the field. A core focus of their work will be developing and implementing actual real-world strategies and policies out of the expertise available; in particular there will be emphasis placed on building local expertise in lower-income countries.

This diverse approach to tackling epidemics, uniting medics, statisticians, data scientists, and epidemiologists, will allow for an interdisciplinary approach to solving global healthcare problems – a core benefit of the College’s moves to White City in general. Rather than feeding information from one academic field to another, researchers from different areas will collaborate from earlier in the process, allowing for faster and more effective response.

Their research will also cover other areas, such as rapid response to natural and humanitarian disasters and extreme climate events. This further ties into the study of epidemiology – disasters often cause outbreaks of disease for various reasons.

The institute was opened with the help of £25 million of funding from Saudi-based charity Community Jameel, which is a consortium of philanthropies run by the international Abdul Latif Jameel conglomerate. This is their first project at a UK university, though they have also funded initiatives at universities across the globe such as MIT.