Swiss Re is making its data and analytics platform Risk Resilience Centre available to a global coalition that has been formed to better predict and prevent pandemics.

The Zurich-based global reinsurer joins the Trinity Challenge coalition members Google, Microsoft, Facebook, GlaxoSmithKline, McKinsey & Company, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

The group aims to collect and develop ideas and tools for tackling the three stages of infectious disease emergencies – identification, response and recovery. Successful submissions will compete for a prize of £10 million ($18.4 million), to be awarded in May next year.

Swiss Re says it will help participants to analyse previously fragmented data by integrating COVID-19 related health, economic and social figures in one platform, the Risk Resilience Centre, in collaboration with data analytics firm Palantir Technologies.

The platform provides access to the world’s richest data on COVID-19, integrating publicly available global data from more than 100 sources. It allows advanced analyses of COVID-19 metrics and their connection with the status of countries’ medical systems, business or travel activity.

Swiss Re Chief Data Officer Ian Haycock says it typically takes weeks to have data integrated and curated, but the Risk Resilience Centre 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,” Mr Haycock said.

The platform enables the analysis of infections, hospital stays, and mortalities for specific countries and Swiss Re is also offering governments and multilateral development banks access to the platform pro bono.