Enabling the use of data to transform support for young people with anxiety and depression​

The Wellcome Data Prize in Mental Health supports teams based in the UK and South Africa to explore existing datasets and find new insights and build digital tools that enable future research. 

Social Finance supported the design and running of the data prize, bringing our experience of engaging and including people with lived experience in different stages of project design and implementation.

Millions of young people worldwide are affected by poor mental health. Anxiety and depression often starts early in a person’s life and can have debilitating consequences, which makes early intervention key.

The Wellcome Data Prize in Mental Health aims to generate tangible and scalable outputs that support the mental health research community. The overarching question for the data prize is: What are the ​‘active ingredients’ that make a difference in preventing, treating, and managing anxiety and depression in young people? What works, for whom, in what contexts, and why?

Applications to the prize closed in April 2022.

Our work on the prize has seen us return to the management and administrative work that we’ve done in the past when managing outcome funds, and working with a unique partner like the Wellcome Trust has brought its own new experience. The project has required Wellcome’s team to work in an Agile fashion and has been a fantastic opportunity to bring in knowledge from across our Data + Digital Labs and International teams.

During the design phase we worked alongside our Youth Advisory Network (YAN) to develop the plan, goals, and parameters of the prize. We also included two people from the YAN in our selection panel to ensure people with lived experience were embedded every step of the way. 

We continue to work alongside the Wellcome Trust to support participating teams in engaging people with lived experience.