UKZN School of Law raises R18m in research funding
An innovative legal research project, led by Professor Donrich Thaldar, has been awarded R18 million in funding by the US National Institutes of Health. The National Institutes of Health is the world’s biggest public funder of health-related research, supporting research worldwide that has an impact on our knowledge of health and medicine.
The project will focus on the legal aspects of the use of data science for health innovation in Africa and aims to provide legal clarity and practical guidance on issues that are critical for scientists.
“The law can often be multi-layered, complex, and may differ between jurisdictions,” comments Thaldar. “To facilitate health discovery and innovation that uses data science, we need to provide scientists with legal clarity on issues such as the use of persons’ geospatial data, cross-border sharing of data, and the use of data to train artificial intelligence.”
The project will also make recommendations for inter-jurisdiction harmonisation through the lens of decolonisation and Africanisation. This will involve 12 African nations and will be driven by a project team of leading law academics from different regions in Africa.
“Our objective is to empower policymakers all over Africa to make the law more attuned to the needs and expectations of the people of Africa,” says Thaldar.
*The content of this is article is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.