Insess-COVID19 is a study to find out the emerging social vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 crisis in the 108 Basic Areas of Social Services in Catalonia.

(2020)

Finalist for the European Social Services Awards 2021, in the category of research projects

INSESS-COVID19 (Identification of Emerging Social Needs as a consequence of COVID19 and effect on the Social Services of the territory) has been a prospective study made by iSocial and the Intelligence Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Researh Center of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) to know the vulnerabilities of the Catalan population as a result of the crisis of the COVID19 and to contribute elements of decision for the 108 Basic Areas of Social Services of Catalonia.

The Catalan Government, the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM) and the Barcelona Regional Government have been taking part.

INSESS-COVID19 is a prospective study carried out from an innovative approach based on Artificial Intelligence and rapid data collection mechanisms from participatory processes that have involved experts and citizens, to know and anticipate the emerging vulnerabilities of the Catalan population during the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the territory and the 108 areas of Social Services in Catalonia.

This study brought together 136 professionals and nearly 1,000 Social Services users to gain insights into the transformation of social needs as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

INSESS-COVID19 has the virtue of introducing an innovative mixed methodology that combines data science, knowledge management and AI to create a technological solution that obtains direct data from citizens, extracts relevant decision-making knowledge and generates automatic final reports in a few hours, thus providing elements of support for better decision-making, strategic definition, resource efficiency and policy-making, both in the face of disruptive situations and situations in which ordinary information systems cannot provide relevant data.