Anita began by asking Brennan about the purpose and history of the Data for Good Program at Cuebiq/Spectus.  How did the program get started, and why has it been sustained so successfully for such a long time?

Brennan explained that the founders of Cuebiq were committed to supporting the Data for Good agenda from the beginning.  With a heritage that reflected a commitment to academic insights, the founders wanted to advance important insights regarding issues such as equitable financing and effective transportation solutions into underserved communities.  And then, shortly after the Data for Good Program was founded, the pandemic hit.   That made the insights available in epidemiology incredibly relevant for public health and accelerated the impact of the program.

Anita and Brennan described the partnership between Cuebiq/Spectus and the University of Toronto – and particularly of the work that Anita and her colleagues did in identifying trends over the course of the pandemic in Canadian mobility and proximity.   This kind of effort started at Cuebiq from a place of passion about social impact that became very tangible fast as COVID took hold.

The conversation then turned to the values that have guided Cuebiq/Spectus’s approach since its inception – both in the Data for Good Program and in its business more generally. 

Brennan described how Cuebiq emphasizes principles of data privacy, anonymization, and deterrence of the backward engineering of specific home-location inferences.   Perhaps because of the European origins of Cuebiq’s founders, the company was GDPR compliant “even before GDPR was a thing,” Brennan explained.   Privacy is truly at the heart of the organization’s approach.  Because this facet of the way the company operates is so well-aligned with the requirements of Institutional Review Boards in academic life, the achievement of alignment between researcher goals and Cuebiq goals was much easier than it might have been otherwise.   But this required a real commitment that evolved and deepened over time.   Brennan explained that, at Cuebiq, the team was building the plane as they flew it.    Momentum with the tangible policy impact of the research that was conducted.

Anita asked Brennan to offer some thoughts about the benefits of the Data for Good Program for Cuebiq itself.   It’s remarkable that the program has been sustained and expanded for seven years given that it must be expensive for the company.  Anita asked Brennan how Cuebiq achieved this.

He described how Cuebiq too a hard look a few years ago at the benefits of the program for the company as a whole to develop a framework with four elements:  Mission, messaging, methods and monetization.   Each application to the Data for Good Program is now scored on its potential to contribute to Cuebiq in each of these areas.    In some instances, for example, academic researchers have access to grant funding and other resources that can be committed to purchase different kinds of coding and storage solutions, for example, from Cuebiq.   As a result, the Data for Good Program has become sustainable financially.

Brennan had the following advice for anyone in a large data-rich company that seeks to make available information that has been created through the business to researchers who plan to use it to generate important insights for social impact.  He said that it’s critical to build an internal coalition to support the project.  Consensus building is important to keep programs such as Data for Good going beyond the scope of the original passion that may give rise to them in the first place.   Brennan described the work required to align a project like this with the mission of the organization to get better outcomes both in the program and in the business outcomes.    Data for Good Programs have to be a company-wide priority to be sustainable, he said.    Leadership requires skills in working cross-functionally so that there is sustained alignment of business and social goals.

Anita gave Brennan the last word by asking him about what makes him optimistic.

Brennan’s answer:  Working with young researchers who develop really important insights that support action to improve people’s lives.   It’s especially inspiring to Brennan when – slowly but surely – more and more of these young researchers are improving lives in the Global South.