The overall goal of the Humanitics project, financed mainly by the Swiss National Science Foundation, is to develop visual analytics tools for public organizations to enhance collaborative knowledge discovery, information exchange and communication.

It was initiated as a collaboration between the University of Fribourg and the United Nations in Geneva. Each year, the United Nation manipulates and reports numerous data and information concerning world-wide health, illicit drug trade, environment and global climate change, diseases, energy, conflict, and humanitarian development concerns.