ILDA was founded as a research program to promote and understand the use of open data in Latin America in 2012. Their work in this first stage had a strong community focus and sought to promote a research agenda that would serve the interests of Latin America. Crucial to this process was an initial group of researchers who carried out the task of opening the field in the region in areas as diverse as education, public budgets, public procurement, and civic technology, among others.

In this new stage – as an organization since 2018 – ILDA seeks to strengthen its commitment to research to address the most complex problems in Latin America, promoting consideration of how data will serve the development of our societies. ILDA has developed this activity based on its 2018-2020 strategic plan.