About IDEMS
IDEMS is a UK-based social enterprise building inclusive, impactful digital technology that works in and scales across global social, economic and environmental complexity.
Founded in 2018, IDEMS is a technology social enterprise with a vision and mission to develop inclusive, sustainable open-source digital infrastructure, interventions and products that work in, for and across variable low-resource environments.
IDEMS innovation emerges from long-term, research-based collaborations with global experts, NGOs and local communities to develop digital solutions and interventions able to responsibly, adaptively scale to address global grand challenges—the complex development problems (sometimes also referred to as “wicked problems”) that are impervious to simple, one-size-fits-all solutions and ill-served by most existing tech platforms and services.
We are a home for mathematical scientists developing impact innovation at the intersection of mathematical and social complexity. We attract top mathematical scientists by offering a challenging and rewarding “third way” career path as an alternative to traditional careers in academia or commercial business.
Our deep experience in developing, and creating new opportunities for, next-generation global mathematical talent from secondary school through to the postdoctoral level helps us create our own pipeline of highly skilled, expert talent.
Addressing
an unsolved
global problem
Most existing technology platforms and solutions can’t support the inclusive, cost-effective, sustainable scaling of impact innovation across variable low-resource social, economic and digital complexity.
Mainstream software platforms, products, and solutions—developed in and for high-resource users and often to serve financial shareholders over community stakeholders—aren’t designed to work in variable low-resource contexts or address the complex global problems that disproportionately affect marginalised and underserved communities.
Existing tech is defined by:
As a result, global NGOs, experts and governments, along with local organisations and users, struggle to unlock the potential of digital technologies in collaboration with each other and local communities to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
The need: sociotechnical innovation for
low-resource digital participation and inclusion
Software and solutions that
work in, for and across variable underserved contexts…
Low-resource and underserved communities have varying digital access, literacy and practices, and divergent cultural, education, and communication norms. Even within a single intervention, different information, user experiences, and digital services are needed to meet users where they are to achieve uptake and desired impact.
…and enable multidirectional
collaboration among global
teams & programmes
Grand challenges require multidirectional information sharing, bringing together expert research and local knowledge, to unlock innovation through collective intelligence. A complex web of global-local, transdisciplinary programmes and teams, information, and behaviours must be able to work collaboratively to meaningfully address systemic global challenges.
Vision & Mission
Grounded in the guiding IDEMS principles (link), our vision and mission
reflect our belief that technology should work in service of all communities and people to create meaningful, measurable social and economic impact.
VISION
A responsible, inclusive future where technology works for everyone to address the world’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges
MISSION
IDEMS works collaboratively with innovative experts and communities around the world to support the development and evolution of responsible, inclusive digital innovation that addresses global grand challenges. We:
- Build and contribute to maintaining digital software, products and interventions that work affordably and reliably in, for and across low-resource, underserved contexts and users.
- Bridge high-resource and low-resource digital environments, practices and teams.
- Enable and normalise collaboration among global experts and local communities, which contribute context-specific knowledge, practices, and relationships to research, development and adaptation.
- Identify, educate and train the next generation of mathematical science talent from leading universities and underserved communities globally to develop, manage, and contribute to inclusive digital innovation.
A talented global team
IDEMS is a home for PhD mathematical scientists, social scientists, and applied technologists who are helping realise the potential of technology to work for everyone.
Johnny McQuade
Software Developer
What’s the most interesting project or problem you’re working on right now?
Building a component to visualise data related to conflicts on an interactive map
What’s the most challenging project or problem you’re working on right now?
Adapting software built for low-resource environments to an extremely high-resource one
What’s a recent professional success you’re especially proud of ?
Training others to use a complex app building system with minimal documentation
What’s the next tangible thing your work will produce (published research, app deployment, a new product/step toward a new product, new methodology or approach, etc.)?
An app to support parents in an entirely new territory
What social problem is nearest and dearest to you?
The exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie
What role do you think tech can/should/could play in social impact?
Tech won’t save us, but there needs to be an alternative to technology created to extract resources (money, data, etc.), that instead serves the needs of communities.
Do you have a dream collaboration that you’d like IDEMS to take on?
I’d be interested in collaborating on a rewilding project, using technology to monitor and promote biodiversity
What’s most surprising, unexpected or rewarding about working in transdisciplinary collaborations?
I love the density of communication between different team members and partners.
What in your education and/or past professional or personal experiences is most relevant to the work you’re currently doing?
The philosophy side of my Physics and Philosophy degree has proved surprisingly useful both in communicating precisely and in structuring software and data systems. At IDEMS it seems we always want to generalise our structures just one more level!
Do you have a particular professional development or education degree aspiration?
I’d like to feel like an expert in my field.
Why did/do you choose to work at IDEMS?
I was looking for a non-evil job that would value my skills and enable me to contribute to meaningful projects.
Where is home? Anything you can/want to share about the family/community/activities that matter to you in that home (or away from that home if that’s more your thing)?
I volunteer at a local mycology co-operative and am gradually digesting the wet foundations of Manchester through an expanding mycelium network.
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- United Kingdom
Kate Fleming
Director
What’s the most interesting project or problem you’re working on right now?
How to tell the story of the work we’re doing and the impact it’s having in a way that lands for funders. And related to that how to connect with values-aligned funders with the patient, impact-focused capital to support IDEMS’ own R&D and product innovation.
What’s a recent professional success you’re especially proud of (can be at IDEMS or something you did independently)?
I’m really proud of my own social impact startup horizontl. It’s not a success by any traditional metrics, but it feels like an achievement to me. David and I properly connected as a result of a presentation I gave on that work, so at the very least it led me to IDEMS and set in motion our joining forces.
What’s the next tangible thing your work will produce (published research, app deployment, a new product/step toward a new product, new methodology or approach, etc.)?
Well, this website! But also defining and standardizing the Collaboratories and our collaboration research & innovation model in a way that helps us really begin to own what is a genuinely unique value proposition: our rare intersectional knowledge, experience, and understanding of complex math-based tech and of working in and with low-resource communities around the world.
Oh, and I hope my work will continue to raise funding for IDEMS, in particular to support our core business and original product development.
What social problem is nearest and dearest to you?
Pushing back against the venture capital-backed, market-cornering model of mainstream tech, defined by data capture and black-box algorithms to support economic exploitation. Inclusive, accountable tech that retains data, governance, decision making, and economic value in communities but that can effectively scale to work across variable contexts and requirements. At heart I’m interested in how (governance?) systems serve society, protect against abuse of power, and work for the most vulnerable members of society.
What role do you think tech can/should/could play in social impact?
This relates to the social problem that’s nearest and dearest to me. I think tech is now deeply intertwined with all aspects of society, and we need to think far more about technology as public infrastructure and platforms as accountable institutions.
Do you have a dream collaboration that you’d like IDEMS to take on?
Most immediately, I’d like to see a collaboration that gets at the issues horizontl was taking on and brings together many of those same collaborators. Globally, women often choose sex work as the available path to economic security and social mobility; at the same time, trafficking, exploitation and abuse are rampant because these are the so often the most vulnerable members of society–those already at the margins and excluded from systems of social and legal protection. It is, at heart, a public health issue. [actually adapt to make about low-paid in-person work: sex work, cleaners, carers]
What’s most surprising, unexpected or rewarding about working in transdisciplinary collaborations?
The surprise and delight of working with people whose brains are completely different from mine. I definitely see the humor in the fact that I–the person who hated math more than any other subject to the disappointment of my PhD-physicist father–find myself working closely (and with pleasure!) with mathematicians every day. But when you’re working on hard problems, there’s no confusion that it’s all hands on deck all the time. We need all kinds of brains and skills to tackle these really complex challenges.
What in your education and/or past professional or personal experiences is most relevant to the work you’re currently doing?
I’ve always been a curious generalist in our systems that are mostly built to develop and reward specialists. (Probably a contributing factor to why I pathologically question existing systems.) The fact that school forced me to choose a discipline, and that learning within the bounds of that single discipline represented growth rather than diminishment, was so unsatisfying to me. And then that my career choices were constrained and defined by that! It was disconnected from me, how I experienced the world, and the ways I imagined I could contribute. My ability to have an impact in the world felt entirely limited to following narrow paths others had mapped in systems I questioned.
And that is how I spent the next 25 years incrementally charting my own transdisciplinary, system-challenging, curious-generalist course to arrive at the intersection of entrepreneurship, digital technology and social impact–and ultimately IDEMS.
Why did/do you choose to work at IDEMS?
I found my tribe! I presented on my social impact tech startup, horizontl, and David Stern was in the audience. He immediately grasped the problem, the need, the tech, the non-traditional business model and structure, all of it. Because David, fro
Where is home? Anything you can/want to share about the family/community/activities that matter to you in that home (or away from that home if that’s more your thing)?
After nearly 20 years in New York City, home is now London–I got my permanent UK residency in 2024–and I love the mix of modernity and history. I studied Shakespeare, the Tudor-Stuart period, and I still love that history; even though the city has changed so much (and most of it burned in the 17th century), the past still feels so present in so much of London. Also I love how accessible the UK countryside is–when the days are long, I take a train in any direction and go on
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- United Kingdom
A profitable nonprofit
As a UK-based Community Interest Company, IDEMS is structured to enable us to prioritise community and stakeholder interests while running a commercially sustainable business.
Fundamentally
profitable
IDEMS was founded on the understanding that we can only grow and achieve our ambitions by embracing the entrepreneurial nature of our work – and the enterprising part of being a “social enterprise”. Our business practices are built on ambitious growth-driven strategy, objectives and activities. Our approach prioritises building a dynamic and competitive team and developing open-source impact tech solutions and products based on long-term, sustainable business models.
Not-for-profit
IDEMS is structured as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. Our nonprofit status means that profits cannot be passed to individuals or shareholders and must be retained within the company for growth and expansion to serve our mission.
Profits can also be used for social impact projects and donations to designated charities.
Social enterprise
IDEMS is an active member of Social Enterprise UK and committed to business practices that prioritise the interests of communities and community stakeholders over those of financial shareholders.
We are committed to supporting the growing network of social enterprise
in the UK and internationally and advocating for a growing social enterprise movement globally. Where possible, we support the “buy social” movement and we actively look for ways to support fellow social enterprises.