Building scalable community-centered technology to solve
the world’s hardest problems with the people who live them.
a human-centered future
EXISTING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ISN’T A MATCH FOR THE WORLD’S HARDEST SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
IDEMS IS BUILDING THE GROUNDBREAKING DIGITAL INNOVATION THAT IS.
Around the world, communities need technology to benefit from transformative impact programs. But current approaches center one-size-fits-all technology solutions designed by remote experts on a narrow set of assumptions. When a digital program doesn’t match the realities of a local context, communities can’t change it. When it fails, they can’t fix it. When it introduces new harms, they have no recourse. And when funding runs out, it quickly becomes obsolete.
IDEMS is building a different model of technology that gives communities agency and ownership. Rather than being passive consumers of digital solutions, communities become active citizens, able to adapt, own and improve digital impact programs to meet the needs of their local contexts.
IDEMS makes this possible through pioneering technology that transforms impact programs into adaptable, swappable components. Transparent, bounded AI agents help non-technologists understand, adapt and combine these components to build applications that work in their own contexts. In contrast to existing solutions, community adaptations maintain a living connection with and contribute to a global program knowledge base, maintained by experts, that continuously improves for everyone. A community innovation in one place becomes something every community can benefit from.
The result is responsible, community-centered technology that scales impact through local ownership, trust and collaboration.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE FOR HUMAN FLOURISHING.
IDEMS innovation addresses an impact technology gap
Technology should help to affordably, sustainably scale impact.
Instead it fails the underserved communities who need it the most.
Technology should help to affordably, sustainably scale impact. Instead it fails the underserved communities who need it the most.
One-Size-Fits-None
Built to replicate, not adapt, there’s one tech solution for infinite realities.
Dependency Reinforcing
When tech doesn’t work, breaks, or harms, communities can’t fix it or seek recourse.
Tech-Centring
Remote experts design solutions that fail to harness essential community value.
There's a need for
Context-Adapted
Applications
One living program system with unlimited local app variants; no new forks or siloes
Community-Owned
Local Tech & Data
Local stakeholders adapt their apps, own their data, iterate their adaptations
Human-centred,
answerable Tech
Localised apps align with, support offline best practices; can be audited, improved
SHAPED BY GLOBAL EXPERTISE.
SUSTAINED BY COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP.
EVOLVED BY EVERYONE.
Impact scales sustainably and affordably when a range of experts and affected stakeholders are empowered to own, control and iteratively evolve impact programming, as relevant to their knowledge, expertise and social networks.
IDEMS develops community-centered innovation – both adaptive digital programs and enabling digital infrastructure – in applied R&D in our Impact Innovation Collaboratories. In this context, our impact-trained mathematical scientists, technologists and social scientists work in multidisciplinary partnership with field-leading experts and stakeholder communities to inclusively, sustainably scale proven social programs.
From our work across Collaboratories, IDEMS is uniquely positioned to identify, make sense of, and develop novel solutions to address common systemic gaps and impediments. The most urgent demand is clear: deep human-centred innovation that enables community-level adaptation and ownership of technology and unlocks “collective intelligence” by enabling multidirectional collaboration, sense making and iteration by global experts and local communities at scale.
THE IDEMS IMPACT
INNOVATION COLLABORATORY
IDEMS conceptualizes, develops, and pilots inclusive, adaptive digital programs in collaboration with experts and communities, with a focus on building out adaptive capabilities and validating impact. IDEMS Collaboratory innovation includes everything from building a carefully curated impact program suite of existing open-source technologies, resources and methodologies to developing entirely new software, frameworks and practices, down to the deepest infrastructure level, to support local adaptation and ownership.
COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION AT WORK
IDEMS currently develops the enabling innovation to address systemic challenges in five global collaborations:
education
public health
agroecology
climate
biodiversity
High-Quality STEM Education
650M+ secondary students globally, with 50M+ in sub-Saharan Africa. Mathematics failure rates there hover near 80%, resulting in US$Bs in lost earning potential.
Reducing Child Abuse
1.1B children under the age of 18 experience violence; ending it reduces poverty in the poorest families by 22% for an estimated value of US$7B/year
Sustainable Food Systems
2B people globally live in smallholder farmer households. Agroecological programs increase crop yields by 50-70%, worth an estimated $349M/day to farmers earning under $3/day.
Climate-Resilient Farming
500M+ smallholder farmers globally producing 33% of the world's food, climate change threatens to reduce yields by 37%. Farmers spend US$368B annually adapting to climate change.
Resilient Ecosystems
Invasive species prediction, management and loss costs an estimated US$423B annually. Costs are projected to be 20% higher by 2060, with billions of people at increased risk of disease and food insecurity.
High-Quality STEM Education
650M+ secondary students globally, with 50M+ in sub-Saharan Africa. Mathematics failure rates there hover near 80%, resulting in US$Bs in lost earning potential.
Reducing Child Abuse
1.1B children under the age of 18 experience violence; ending it reduces poverty in the poorest families by 22% for an estimated value of US$7B/year
Sustainable Food Systems
2B people globally live in smallholder farmer households. Agroecological programs increase crop yields by 50-70%, worth an estimated $349M/day to farmers earning under $3/day.
Climate-Resilient Farming
500M+ smallholder farmers globally producing 33% of the world's food, climate change threatens to reduce yields by 37%. Farmers spend US$368B annually adapting to climate change.
Resilient Ecosystems
Invasive species prediction, management and loss costs an estimated US$423B annually. Costs are projected to be 20% higher by 2060, with billions of people at increased risk of disease and food insecurity.
IDEMS GLOBAL RESEARCH & IMPLEMENTATION PARTNERS INCLUDE
{ SPOTLIGHT INNOVATION }
AFFORDABLE,
ACCESSIBLE
HIGH-QUALITY
STEM TEXTBOOKS
FOR EVERY STUDENT
EVERYWHERE.
In collaboration with IDEMS, the Kenyan Mathematics Society and Kenyan social enterprise INNODEMS are piloting open, adaptive secondary mathematics textbooks. Support their crowdfunding campaign.
In collaboration with IDEMS, the Kenyan Mathematics Society and Kenyan social enterprise INNODEMS are piloting open, adaptive secondary mathematics textbooks. Support their crowdfunding campaign.
An Innovative Social Enterprise. A Purpose-Led Team.
AS A UK-BASED COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANY, IDEMS HOLDS THE HIGHEST STANDARDS FOR DELIVERING SOCIAL IMPACT, SERVING COMMUNITIES GLOBALLY, DEVELOPING AMBITIOUS INNOVATION, AND ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS GROWTH.
IDEMS is a home for purpose-driven mathematical scientists, social scientists and applied technologists reimagining how technology can work for everyone. We attract top mathematical scientists and field-leading experts by offering a challenging and rewarding “third way” career path as an alternative to traditional careers in academia or commercial business.
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