TELUS Data for Good program to provide de-identified network mobility data and insights to the Natural Sciences and Engineeri...
May 20 2020 - 11:49AM
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the
largest funder of natural science and engineering research in
Canada, and TELUS are working together to support government
efforts to flatten the curve and reduce the spread of COVID-19.
TELUS will share insights with NSERC researchers free of charge and
provide supervised and guided access to strongly de-identified and
aggregated network mobility data to be used by NSERC-eligible
researchers that are studying and assessing the COVID-19 crisis.
For research projects that qualify, NSERC will offer a $50,000
grant as part of their NSERC Alliance COVID-19 grants program.
“This data will help Canadian researchers to better understand
and measure various elements of our response to the COVID-19
pandemic, as well as a number of other factors that will inform our
efforts to keep people safe now and in the future,” said Marc
Fortin, Vice President of Research Partnerships at NSERC. “It is
also important from a privacy and trust standpoint that any use of
data analytics is done in a manner that is transparent and
respectful of Canadians’ expectations about their personal privacy,
and we believe this collaboration with TELUS achieves exactly
that.”
The partnership with NSERC will allow Canadian researchers
supervised and guided access to rigorously de-identified TELUS
network mobility data so that it can be aggregated, extrapolated
and then analyzed in conjunction with other data -- such as the
number of positive diagnoses in a region -- in order to find
correlations that could help governments and health authorities
develop public policy and determine where to allocate much-needed
resources.
“As a leading communications and healthcare technology company,
we have a responsibility to help keep Canadians safe and well. By
leveraging de-identified and aggregated data responsibly, while
protecting the privacy of all Canadians, we have a unique
opportunity to detect trends and patterns that will assist in
improving the coordination of healthcare and contribute to studies
that could prevent or mitigate future phases of COVID-19 or other
pandemics,” said Pam Snively, Chief Data and Trust Officer at
TELUS. “We believe there is a very clear and strategic benefit to
our society that can be achieved by using depersonalized data to
help researchers to make more informed and strategic decisions as
they and governments, healthcare authorities and public agencies
work tirelessly to stem the spread of COVID-19.”
TELUS is the only telecommunications company in Canada to
achieve Privacy by Design Certification through the Professional
Evaluation and Certification Board (PECB) for our Insights
platform. In keeping with our mandate to be transparent with
customers about how TELUS handles, uses, and protects customer
information, we published a data sharing commitment as part of our
Data for Good program. The program leverages the TELUS Insights
platform, which uses an advanced approach to data analytics that
can help all levels of government and government agencies make more
strategic and informed decisions based on real-world information.
Using industry-leading privacy standards, TELUS de-identifies this
information, combines it into large aggregated data sets to further
ensure privacy, and then extrapolates this data to reveal trends
and patterns about how devices move around the TELUS network. The
extrapolation methodology takes a representative sample and models
it to represent the total population.
About Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
of CanadaNSERC aims to make Canada a country of
discoverers and innovators for the benefit of all Canadians. The
agency supports students in their advanced studies, promotes and
supports discovery research, and fosters innovation by encouraging
Canadian organizations to participate and invest in postsecondary
research projects. NSERC researchers are on the vanguard of
science, building on Canada's long tradition of scientific
excellence.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NSERC is leveraging the
expertise of researchers in natural science and engineering and
their partners across Canada to address this unprecedented
crisis. NSERC is providing up to $15 million in total support
to stimulate collaborations between academic researchers and the
public and not-for-profit sectors, and industry to address
pandemic-related research. Support for up to $50,000 for one-year
projects is being made available immediately to NSERC-eligible
researchers. NSERC will process these applications in an
accelerated fashion. More information is available
here.
About TELUSTELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is a
dynamic, world-leading communications and information technology
company with $14.7 billion in annual revenue and 15.2 million
customer connections spanning wireless, data, IP, voice,
television, entertainment, video and security. We leverage our
global-leading technology to enable remarkable human outcomes. Our
longstanding commitment to putting our customers first fuels every
aspect of our business, making us a distinct leader in customer
service excellence and loyalty. TELUS Health is Canada's largest
healthcare IT provider, and TELUS International delivers the most
innovative business process solutions to some of the world’s most
established brands.
Driven by our passionate social purpose to connect all Canadians
for good, our deeply meaningful and enduring philosophy to give
where we live has inspired our team members and retirees to
contribute more than $700 million and 1.3 million days of service
since 2000. This unprecedented generosity and unparalleled
volunteerism have made TELUS the most giving company in the world.
For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com, or follow
us @TELUSNews on Twitter
For media inquiries, please contact:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada Media Relations Christine
Seguinchristine.seguin2@NSERC-CRSNG.gc.ca
TELUS Media RelationsRichard
Gilhooleyrichard.gilhooley@telus.com(778) 868-0235
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