UNSW Building a Pandemic Early Warning System

Last week it was announced that the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney has received the largest known cryptocurrency donation to an Australian higher education institution, to support an open-source tool providing pandemic early warning signals.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has gifted USDC$4M to UNSW’s Kirby Institute. The gift, which converts to $AU5.3 million, will support the further development of EPIWATCH, an open-source intelligence (OSINT) tool developed by the Kirby Institute’s Professor Raina MacIntyre to provide pandemic early warning signals.

EPIWATCH development began in 2016 and is underpinned by extensive research and testing. It harnesses open-source data and uses artificial intelligence to create early warnings. The tool works by scanning millions of items of publicly available online data, such as social media and news reports, for early signals of epidemics. It uses vast amounts of data in real time, detecting changes to what is considered 'normal' reports about health concerns. This is much quicker than waiting for formal reporting through doctors and laboratories. EPIWATCH does not replace formal reporting, but allows earlier warnings of epidemics that can be formally investigated by health authorities.

The gift will allow the team led by Prof. MacIntyre to make EPIWATCH accessible to low-and middle-income countries.

“Imagine if someone had detected COVID-19 before it spread around the world: that is our vision,” said Prof. MacIntyre.

“Using AI and real-time open-source data, EPIWATCH does not depend on people making reports. It is a great equaliser and can overcome weak health systems and censorship.”

EPIWATCH has been developed so far thanks to grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), but the Ethereum gift will enable it to be used in low and middle-income countries where Prof. Macintyre says it is needed most.

“To be most effective, it needs to be accessible in local languages and used widely at the grass roots level down to villages and small towns around the world. This will give us the best prospect of preventing pandemics,” said Prof. MacIntyre.

Professor Attila Brungs, Vice-Chancellor and President of UNSW Sydney said, “We have seen the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world in the past two years. By making EPIWATCH accessible in lower income countries, [we have] the potential to avert future world crises like pandemics. It’s a powerful opportunity to drive meaningful social change and far better health outcomes, not just for the people in those countries but for everyone globally.”

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