Native Scientists Lead $9 Million Research Project on COVID-19 in Indigenous Communities

Last week, the National Institute of Health announced $9 million in funding for the creation of a repository of Indigenous Tribal data for research on COVID-19. The hub will be led and monitored by Native scientists, with the goal of ensuring responsible data collection and sharing among scientists working with indigenous communities.

The project addresses the lack of stated rules in the access of indigenous health data, a longstanding issue for research focusing on a segment of the population that already tends to be neglected in public health. For instance, when it comes to COVID-19 data, researchers would have to negotiate data access with each individual tribe, which would add significant hurdles to data collection. Now, all tribal COVID-data is available in one place, available to all researchers. Read more from STAT News here.