On 17 November, a coalition of partners including the US Alzheimer’s Association, Gates Ventures and the Wellcome Trust launched the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (ADDI) and its AD Workbench. The AD Workbench and other ADDI initiatives aim to facilitate the sharing of dementia-related research data, empowering scientists and accelerating innovation in the AD field.
Designed as a platform for federated data sharing, the AD Workbench aims to facilitate interoperability across existing data platforms such as GAAIN, DPUK and CPAD, by enabling researchers to import, pool and analyse datasets in a secure, cloud-based environment. Alongside a number of synthetic and virtual cohort datasets, the AD Workbench houses a library of analytics tools and apps, whilst also providing the option for researchers to upload their own code or develop new tools within the platform. The overarching goals of the AD Workbench are to encourage researchers to share datasets and resources in a secure, transparent way, and also to foster the development of new, shared tools and analytics for the benefit of the whole AD research community. ADDI is also supporting a number of projects in their data sharing activities, including the European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) project, the World-Wide FINGERS network and the Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) initiative, which was launched by Alzheimer’s Research UK earlier this year.
