ELIXIR and the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) have agreed on a strategy to guide their collaboration in developing and promoting standards and frameworks for the responsible sharing and reuse of genomics data.
The Collaboration Strategy builds on current joint activities, such as the ELIXIR Beacon Driver project and the EGA/EVA/ENA project, and opens up new opportunities for joint initiatives.
"The strategy will ensure that ELIXIR can influence standards and technology for human genomics data sharing through GA4GH Technical Workstreams and Driver Projects," said Serena Scollen, ELIXIR Head of Genomics and Translational Data. "At the same time, we can promote these standards and tools in our national Nodes and make sure they comply with national and European regulations."
The ELIXIR—GA4GH collaboration is aligned with GA4GH Connect, a five-year strategic plan to drive uptake of genomics data sharing standards and frameworks and enable sharing of genomic data in clinical practice by 2022.
The Collaboration Strategy also envisages training ELIXIR Node members to understand GA4GH standards and implement them in their countries. This can increase the membership and involvement of European countries in GA4GH, expanding on the current US and UK focus to cover the rest of Europe more.
Read in full: GA4GH - ELIXIR Collaboration Strategy (pdf)
About Global Alliance for Genomics and Health
The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is an international, nonprofit alliance formed in 2013 to accelerate the potential of research and medicine to advance human health. Bringing together 500+ leading organizations working in healthcare, research, patient advocacy, life science, and information technology, the GA4GH community is working together to create frameworks and standards to enable the responsible, voluntary, and secure sharing of genomic and health-related data.