Software & Data

I build and lead open-data communities and FAIR data tooling for the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, and I write and manage the grants that fund them.

Open Data & Software

AGUASAN Workshop 2027 - Publishing WASH Data Together

AGUASAN Community of Practice / SDC Water Network

2026 - Current

  • Author of a topic proposal for a five-day working retreat where WASH-sector participants publish datasets while learning Git/GitHub, Quarto and safe use of AI agents; bridges academia (ETH), the WASH community and Swiss government.

fairenough - tidy data into documented R packages

Author

2025 - Current

  • Converts tidy data into R packages with documentation websites and AI-assisted descriptions.

jmpwashdata - WHO/UNICEF JMP data

Author

2024 - Current

  • R package providing tidy access to WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme WASH data.

Data Science for openwashdata (ds4owd)

Course Creator & Instructor

2023 - Current

  • Designed and taught two free online cohorts on literate programming with Quarto and R; hundreds of participants across many countries.
  • Focus on data management, reproducibility and publishing open data.

washr - R package for publishing openwashdata resources

Author

2023 - Current

  • An R package that makes publishing openwashdata data resources easier.

openwashdata community

Founder & Community Lead

2022 - Current

  • Built and lead a global open-data community for the WASH sector; 90+ open datasets published as documented R data packages.
  • Created the {washr} and {fairenough} R packages that turn tidy data into FAIR, documented data packages.
  • See openwashdata.org

rstatsZH - open course materials & infrastructure

Creator & Maintainer

2021 - Current

  • Built and maintain the open, reusable course materials, website templates and Git-based infrastructure behind the rstatsZH training programme (course delivery is under Teaching).

Grants & Funding

Wrote and managed a portfolio of ETH Board Open Research Data grants worth roughly CHF 500,000 in total (2023-2026).

openwashdata - establishing Data Stewards and increasing FAIRness

ETH Board ORD Program (Explore, 2nd call)

2024 - Current

  • Wrote the proposal and manage the project (Prof. Elizabeth Tilley, PI). Places funded data stewards in partner organisations (UKZN, South Africa; BASEflow, Malawi) and delivers a 12-module data stewardship training programme.

washcollab - Enhancing Global WASH Data Accessibility through Collaborative Initiatives

ETH Board ORD Program (Contribute)

2024 - Current

  • Wrote the proposal and manage the project (Prof. Elizabeth Tilley, PI). A partnership between WASHWeb and openwashdata maintaining open-source tools for authoritative WASH data (WHO/UNICEF JMP, World Bank, UN-Water GLAAS, OECD).

FAIRqual - FAIR Data Practices for Qualitative Research in Transdisciplinarity

ETH Board ORD Program (Explore, Measure 1)

2024 - 2025

  • Co-wrote the proposal and contributed to the project (team across TdLab and Global Health Engineering, ETH Zurich). Develops tools and standards for sharing hard-to-anonymise qualitative research data following FAIR principles.

openwashdata - Open WASH data by building Open Science Competencies and Community

ETH Board ORD Program (Explore, 1st call)

2023 - 2024

  • Wrote the proposal and managed the project (Prof. Elizabeth Tilley, PI). Built the infrastructure, community and FAIR data publishing workflow for open WASH data; 18 months.

openjmp - Open JMP: unlocking the potential of global indicator data

ETH Board ORD Program (Contribute)

2023 - 2024

  • Wrote the proposal and managed the project (Prof. Elizabeth Tilley, PI). In partnership with the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, turns decades of WASH coverage data into documented open R packages; 15 months.

Awards

National Prize for Open Research Data 2024

Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences

2024

  • Awarded to openwashdata, the global open-data community for the WASH sector (project led by Prof. Elizabeth Tilley, Global Health Engineering, ETH Zurich).
  • Recognition for advancing FAIR and Open Research Data practices in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.
  • Watch the prize video: youtu.be/590qPtQNCD0