3334 results for "*geneti*"

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• From research to data sharing: exploring EGA user's experiences

  The Cell Plasticity and Regeneration Group at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL focuses on the process of recruitment of macrophages that takes place in the small intestine during injury and healing. They recently published a paper titled “Mucosal Macrophages Govern Intestinal Regeneration in Response to Injury" in Gastroenterology Journal. As part of the research, some experiments were conducted using human intestinal organoid lines. These cells were processed for RNA sequencing, and the sequencing data were deposited at the EGA to be made available to the scientific community. When dealing with human genomic information, repositories must ensure the availability of the datasets while ensuring data protection. In this context, the European Genome-phenome Archive stands as a service for secure archiving and sharing of genetic, phenotypic and clinical data resulting from biomedical research. Following the recent publication of their paper, we took the opportunity to talk to Ilias Moraitis, first author, and Jordi Guiu, group leader, to find out about their experience with data sharing. Could you explain the focus of your research? In the lab, we study intestinal regeneration and how immune cells participate in this process. We use several techniques: engineered mouse models, image tracing, as well as mouse and human cells intestinal organoids. What challenges do you face regarding data management? We didn’t have a lot of problems. Always the informatic part, the data analysis, can give problems. But everything was smooth and working. We think it’s very important to deposit the data in repositories. For the mouse data it is very straightforward, but for us it was the first time depositing human data, which is sensitive because it comes from patients, and this is legally regulated. That’s why we thought about the EGA, and it was our first time. Why do you think it is important to submit data to repositories such as EGA? Because we think data is important for the science. Nowadays, we are sequencing a lot everywhere worldwide and having these resources shared with the scientific community it’s not only good for science, but it is also saving money and reducing costs. And there is so much data in there that can be used for other projects and for other questions. And it saves time! How was the process of submitting the data to the EGA? The communication worked very well but it was slower than we would like. But I think this is something we learn on the way. People usually wait until the last minute to do this before publication but if you know it in advance, you can start the process earlier. If you had to repeat the process, would you do anything differently? It’s like everything, isn’t it? For the first time you don’t know, you aren’t sure, but for the second time you know the steps, you know what to do and it’s faster. Of course, we would to do it earlier. Also, there were some things related to the control access that we didn’t know how to manage, but it was something more internal to us. Who is going to receive the communications and when, is our ethical committee going to evaluate this? All these technicalities that we didn’t know before starting this process, so we had to think about all these things. Next time it will be faster on our side. Do you have any suggestions for us to improve the submission process? Maybe we’ll need to ask our bioinformatician who did it! He was in charge of this part. Besides that, we think if the process were faster, it would be better for everyone. Also, in science a lot of times you have to do a lot of things at the very last minute, because of the nature of the experiments, or the need to accomplish for submitting a paper. Being faster in the process would be a plus. On your side, we went through the process and were able to find some information, but there were aspects we weren't aware of and weren't sure how to handle. I'm not sure if other institutes have different protocols for managing data requests or how they handle these internally. We believe the main issue lies in how the forms are filled out. Do you have any recommendations for other submitters? The main advice is to do this with enough time. Submit the data when you have the sequences, and don’t wait until the last minute. And then it can be under embargo, so you don’t need to make it public at that moment. As soon as you sequence, upload it and then it will be there for whenever you need to publish. How do you think we could encourage other researchers to submit their data? There are different layers here. One is that it is mandatory. You have to do this. The other is that we belong to a research community, to the same community and sharing this is making our research community stronger and more efficient. And then, also because this gives you visibility. The data is there, other people can analyse your data, and this also will bring citations to your papers. It has many advantages.

  Blog from-research-to-data-sharing

• How to use the EGA search box

  Tips on how to search Tip 1: Use simple and clear keywords No matter what you are searching: a study, a dataset or a committee; the search will look recursively in all the fields of all the entities in the database. Thus, there is no need to specify which type of data you are looking for. Try to use single and specific words and avoid long and complex expressions. Try it out: cancer rna-seq instead of cancer studies using RNA-seq. Tip 2: Narrow your results using search operators Search operators give you more control over the results. They manage the way keywords are used to restrict the search. By default, the search engine applies an AND operator when a space is inserted between two words. Include OR (capitalised) between the keywords in your search in order to show pages containing either term or both terms. Try it out: Search all the studies based on transcriptomic data, including those ones that use RNA sequencing to obtain this data. Tip 3: Do not worry about details The search engine automatically checks for the most common spelling mistakes of given words and suggests the use of the correct version. It also ignores capital letters and most punctuation so none of these mistakes will hamper the accuracy of your search. Besides, when using a combination of words, the search engine will suggest similar combinations with a higher number of results. Tip 4: Use words that are likely to appear within the text Unfortunately, our search engine is not able to interpret words yet. Therefore, words which do not appear in the body text will not return any result despite them denoting a group of present terms. For instance, if we are looking for studies focused on neurological diseases, using neurological as a keyword would not be the best option. Instead, you should use the name of each neurological disease such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or depression. In the same fashion, incomplete words do not return any result. Please include an asterisk (*) before and/or after the incomplete word in order to allow for partial matching. Try it out: canc* instead of canc(without wildcard). Also you can try out *oma, or even *geneti* Tip 5: Narrow down your search by filtering the results You can filter the results by the following options: general, study, and dataset. Under these categories, you will find more sub-filters to refine your search. Make sure that you click on Apply in order to filter the results. You can clear the filtering anytime. Advanced Searches Additional example queries: Search for DUO:0000005 and word lung example query Or write: DUO:0000005 AND lung Search for an exome sequencing study in dbGaP example query Or write: study_type: "exome sequencing" AND repository:dbGaP Search for an exome sequencing study in EGA example query Or write: study_type: "exome sequencing" AND repository:ega Search for a dataset that is at the EGA beacon and with type "Whole genome sequencing" and with number of samples between 100 and 2000 and with technology "Illumina HiSeq 2000" example query Or write: is_in_beacon:true AND dataset_types:"Whole genome sequencing" AND samples:[100 TO 2000] AND dataset_technologies:"Illumina HiSeq 2000" Search for PMIDS example query Or write: pmids:32025007

  Documentation discovery/metadata/search-box

• What is a DAC?

  What is a DAC? Given the complexity, scale, and diversity of global submitters and studies, the EGA operates a distributed data access model in which requests are made to the data controller, not to the EGA. The European Commission defines a data controller, in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as the person that determines the purposes for which and the means by which personal data is processed. A Data Access Committees, commonly referred to as DACs, comprise on or more individuals (or data controllers) that review data access requests and make decisions on who can access personally identifiable genetic, phenotypic, and clinical data deposited at the EGA. Therefore, the members of a DAC should be individuals who have the authority to approve data access requests. The animation describes how you can authorise access to your sensitive data with the help of Data Access Committee and Authorisation tool. Acknowledgement to CSC - IT Center for Finland, Elixir Finland, Elixir Europe. Frequently Asked Questions How can I create a Data Access Committee? How can I create a Data Access Committee? The members of a DAC can come from different areas of expertise, such as data management, data analysis, information technology, legal and compliance, subject matter experts, privacy and security, and representatives from the organisations or individuals that provide data to the DAC. The specific members of a DAC can vary depending on the needs of the organisation and the type of data being managed. The EGA strongly suggests checking with your organisation to align with its regulations How should a DAC be named? The chosen name must be informative to the applicant.  For example, internal identifiers, such as grant numbers, should not be used. Individual PI names should also not be used. DAC's are often named after the organisation or department of the data source.  Browse the full list of DAC names currently in the EGA. How can I become an EGA DAC contact? To register a DAC at the EGA you must create first as an EGA user. Once your EGA user has been approved by the Helpdesk team, you will be able to log in to the DAC Portal. How can I register a DAC? To register a DAC, follow the DAC Portal instructions.  You will be required to provide a DAC name, name of the individual(s) that make up your DAC and contact details for your DAC including your Institutional email(s). Wherever possible, the DAC should make sure that all points of contact are readily available and able to answer any initial data requests/queries in < 2 weeks.  Once your DAC is registered, you will have to wait upon the validation from our Helpdesk team. As soon as all the validations have been completed, your DAC will be activated. Alternatively, you can also establish a DAC at the EGA during a programmatic submission through Webin API. Which are the possible roles of a DAC contact? There are two possible roles for DAC contacts: member and admin. An admin has additional privileges compared to a member: An “admin” can manage data requests, create and edit policies, edit the content of the DAC, add or remove contacts, and decide the role of each contact. A “member” can manage data requests and create policies. However, a member does not have permission to modify DAC details, edit information from policies where they are not admins, or add/remove contacts. There is no limit to the number of admins in a DAC, and each admin is responsible for deciding who should have editing privileges. This allows for a more decentralised and democratic approach to managing the DAC. How can I modify the information of a DAC? To modify a DAC, follow the instructions here. Keep in mind that only DAC contact with an admin role can modify the information of a DAC. If your DAC was registered before the lauch of the DAC Portal, and its ID is EGAC0 (not EGAC5), you must use the programmatic submission to modify it. Please, do not hesitate to contact our Helpdesk team if you need help with this! To prevent potential data breaches and ensure adherence to GDPR regulations, it is essential that the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA) is informed via the Helpdesk team of any changes to the Data Access Committee (DAC). This should be done in addition to any changes being made on the DAC portal. Data Controllers (as per the definition in the DPA) are also responsible for notifying the previous DAC of any modifications. Without proper notification, changes might not be automatically updated in our system, leading to the risk of incorrect permissions being applied and potential data access issues. Therefore, it is imperative that all Data Controllers follow this protocol to maintain data integrity and security. What’s the link between DAC, policy and dataset? A dataset is linked to one single policy. At the same time, one policy has a one to one relationship with a DAC. In this example, you can see that in this dataset page, we are only showing the information of one DAC (1 dataset - 1 DAC). However, the ratio of objects does not work the same in the other direction. One DAC can own multiple policy objects. And each policy object can be reused in several datasets. Thus, one DAC can manage one or more datasets. In this example, you can see that in this DAC page, we are showing all the datasets that are managed by one DAC (1 DAC - >400 datasets). EGA Data Access Committee Best Practices Which are the EGA DAC best practices? Refer to DAC Best Practices What happens if a DAC member changes institutions? EGA is committed to the protection and ownership of the data stored in our systems. We respect the institution's ownership of the data, and as such, if a DAC member changes institutions, the ownership of the data will not be transferred to the new institution. Therefore, before changing institutions, we request that the DAC contact add a new member who will replace them once they no longer work at the institution. This ensures that the data remains protected and is accessible to authorised personnel at the institution. To prevent potential data breaches and ensure adherence to GDPR regulations, it is essential that the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA) is informed via the Helpdesk team of any changes to the Data Access Committee (DAC). This should be done in addition to any changes being made on the DAC portal. Data Controllers (as per the definition in the DPA) are also responsible for notifying the previous DAC of any modifications. Without proper notification, changes might not be automatically updated in our system, leading to the risk of incorrect permissions being applied and potential data access issues. Therefore, it is imperative that all Data Controllers follow this protocol to maintain data integrity and security. What happens if EGA detects an unresponsive DAC? EGA defines an unresponsive DAC as a DAC with one or more contacts who do not respond to data access requests. EGA has procedures in place to identify these types of DACs, escalate the issue, and attempt to reassign the DAC to a responsive contact. This is a crucial step in ensuring that data can be accessed and utilised by researchers. If EGA identifies an unresponsive DAC, the organisation will first try to resolve the issue by escalating it to the appropriate parties. This may involve attempting to reassign the DAC to a more responsive contact. Unfortunately, in situations where we cannot reassign the DAC, the dataset will be withdrawn from the public website and the files will be removed from our system. If an EGA ID is referenced in a publication, the EGA will take extra steps to ensure that the public is made aware of the data's unavailability. I don't want to receive an email notification for pending requests. How can I do that? If you are an EGA DAC with pending requests, you will always receive emails for new data access requests. However, the EGA understands that a request resolution can take some time, for this reason, if you add a comment (make sure you save it by clicking the APPLY button!) we will filter those requests at the time of sending the notification! How can I manage data access requests? What documentation does the DAC need to provide? Each dataset that is submitted to the EGA must be linked to a policy object. The policy is a Data Access Agreement (DAA), which defines the terms and conditions of using the dataset, such as how the data files should be stored once downloaded or details of publication embargoes that should be observed by the approved user. As part of the Data Access Agreement, information regarding the application can be captured to help inform the DAC when making its decision. For example, requestors could be asked to provide a proposed title for their research and a proposal of how the data will be used. By asking for provision of such information the DAC can be assured that the requestor fully understands any consents associated with the data. It is important that accounts created at the EGA, are created solely for those individuals that will be downloading the data from the EGA. As part of the data access request, we strongly encourage you to identify individuals that will need an account at the EGA in order to prevent sharing of login details, which is strictly prohibited under EGA user account policy. Such information can easily be captured in the DAA. NOTICE The data access agreement template below is provided for guidance only and should be adapted as you see fit to suit your own purpose. In the interest of promoting data sharing, we suggest that if an agreement cannot be met around clause 19 in this example that both parties should agree to remain silent, and that the clause should be removed from the agreement. Example DAA How can the DAC provide the DAA? The DAC should provide their own DAA when registering a policy. Data requestors will download this document and should fill it in and send it back to the DAC. Data access decisions should be based on such documentation. The DAA can be downloaded through the request data webpage. Once it has been filled in, the signed copy of the DAA can be uploaded back to the request data webpage and sent to the DAC for review. How can I grant access to the data? Once you receive a data access request, you can login to the DAC Portal. In this portal you will see all your pending requests and will be able to grant or decline access to the requestors. I am a member of the Data Access Committee. Could I approve somebody else to deal with the requests on my behalf? If you want to delegate data access decisions to someone else, make sure that the individual's account is officially registered as a member of the DAC. Remember that a DAC contact with an "admin" role can always add new members to an existing DAC, remove members, and modify contact details through the DAC Portal. Can I automatise the process of managing data access requests? The answer is yes! You can use a programmatic approach using our DAC API! Check out the DAC API specification! Data Breach What should a DAC do if they suspect a breach? If a DAC suspects a data breach of one or more of their datasets, they should immediately contact the EGA Helpdesk team at this link. The DAC must provide the following information when contacting the EGA Helpdesk team: A list of affected datasets An estimated date of the data breach (or interval of dates) A list of unauthorised users who accessed the data (if available). Otherwise, they can provide a list of authorised users for the affected datasets Any observations they would like to raise to the EGA team Once the DAC has contacted the EGA team, we will respond within 48 hours (please allow some leeway during peak times) and activate our data breach protocol. What can I expect from the EGA if they detect a breach? Once the EGA determines that a security incident has occurred, we will notify all DAC members that a data breach has been detected, and take steps to contain the incident. Containment approaches may include: Revoking a data provider's access to the EGA resources, such as by changing passwords. Removing affected EGA datasets from distribution, such as by withdrawing a dataset. Disabling certain functions or services, such as the EGA ingestion pipeline. Shutting down the system or disconnecting it from the network. After the incident has been contained, the EGA will determine whether it is necessary to eradicate components related to the incident. Finally, the EGA will enable recovery of the service to normal operation and confirm that all services are functioning normally.

  Documentation access/data-access-committee/what-is-dac

• Data Use Ontology (DUO)

  Data Use Ontology Data Use Ontology at EGA The EGA is committed to its involvement in the work of GA4GH. In an effort to enhance data discoverability and streamline data access, EGA have implemented the use of the Data Use Ontology (DUO), based on consent codes as described in Dyke et al. 2017. The Data Use Ontology codes will be displayed on the live dataset page of your submission to advise any would be requestor on how the data can be used and also to enhance data discoverability as users will be able to search on these codes to find applicable datasets. DUO can be browsed online via the Ontology Lookup Service Learn more reading the Data Use Ontology publication and the GA4GH Machine-Readable Consent Guidance! Check our DAC Portal Take The Tour and learn how to add DUO codes to your policy! Term Shorthand Label Description DUO:0000004 NRES no restriction This data use permission indicates there is no restriction on use. DUO:0000042 GRU general research use This data use permission indicates that use is allowed for general research use for any research purpose. DUO:0000006 HMB health or medical or biomedical research This data use permission indicates that use is allowed for health/medical/biomedical purposes; does not include the study of population origins or ancestry. DUO:0000007 DS disease specific research This data use permission indicates that use is allowed provided it is related to the specified disease. DUO:0000011 POA population origins or ancestry research only This data use permission indicates that use of the data is limited to the study of population origins or ancestry. DUO:0000012 RS research specific restrictions This data use modifier indicates that use is limited to studies of a certain research type. DUO:0000015 NMDS no general methods research This data use modifier indicates that use does not allow methods development research (e.g., development of software or algorithms). DUO:0000016 GSO genetic studies only This data use modifier indicates that use is limited to genetic studies only (i.e., studies that include genotype research alone or both genotype and phenotype research, but not phenotype research exclusively) DUO:0000018 NPUNCU not for profit, non commercial use only This data use modifier indicates that use of the data is limited to not-for-profit organizations and not-for-profit use, non-commercial use. DUO:0000019 PUB publication required This data use modifier indicates that requestor agrees to make results of studies using the data available to the larger scientific community. DUO:0000020 COL collaboration required This data use modifier indicates that the requestor must agree to collaboration with the primary study investigator(s). DUO:0000021 IRB ethics approval required This data use modifier indicates that the requestor must provide documentation of local IRB/ERB approval. DUO:0000022 GS geographical restriction This data use modifier indicates that use is limited to within a specific geographic region. DUO:0000024 MOR publication moratorium This data use modifier indicates that requestor agrees not to publish results of studies until a specific date. DUO:0000025 TS time limit on use This data use modifier indicates that use is approved for a specific number of months. DUO:0000026 US user specific restriction This data use modifier indicates that use is limited to use by approved users. DUO:0000027 PS project specific restriction This data use modifier indicates that use is limited to use within an approved project. DUO:0000028 IS institution specific restriction This data use modifier indicates that use is limited to use within an approved institution. DUO:0000029 RTN return to database or resource This data use modifier indicates that the requestor must return derived/enriched data to the database/resource. DUO:0000043 CC clinical care use This data use modifier indicates that use is allowed for clinical use and care. DUO:0000044 NPOA population origins or ancestry research prohibited This data use modifier indicates use for purposes of population, origin, or ancestry research is prohibited. DUO:0000045 NPU not for profit organisation use only This data use modifier indicates that use of the data is limited to not-for-profit organisations. DUO:0000046 NCU non-commercial use only This data use modifier indicates that use of the data is limited to not-for-profit use. Point to Notice: For the consent code DUO:0000007 where data is restricted to use on a specific disease, please accompany it with an appropriate ontology from MONDO e.g., If the data is restricted to the use of research into juvenile idiopathic arthritis the code should be displayed as DUO:0000007; MONDO:0011429.

  Documentation access/data-access-committee/data-use-ontology

• How to request data

  Request Data Access If you're looking to access data from the EGA for your research, you are in the right documentation page! In this page you will find a step by step guide on how to request data archived at the EGA, as well as some frequently asked questions you might find useful. When requesting data, you'll need to provide information about your research project and intended use of the data. Keep in mind that your data access request may require additional approvals or agreements depending on the datasets and data providers involved. Step by step guide Register yourself as an EGA user. Validate your account. A validation link will be sent to your email to activate your EGA user account. Log into the EGA page. Search the dataset of interest from the dataset catalogue or search bar. Click on "Request access" Add a comment requesting these files and send your request Your request is successfully registered, and the DAC will receive a notification about your request In addition to submitting your request, you should also contact the DAC directly via e-mail. You can access the DAC's contact information from the relevant dataset page. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Which is the role of the EGA in the data access process? The European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) facilitates the secure distribution under controlled access of personally identifiable genetic and phenotypic data. Data Access Committee (DAC) is a body of one or more individuals who are responsible for data release to external requestors, based on participant consent and/or National Research Ethics terms. How do I request access to multiple datasets? To request access for multiple datasets managed by the same Data Access Committee (DAC), please start by visiting the DAC catalogue to locate the DAC of your choice. Once you've found the relevant DAC, proceed to its dedicated page where you'll find a "Request access" button. After logging in to the EGA website, you'll be presented with a comprehensive list of datasets under the chosen DAC. Select the datasets you're interested in, and then compose a message indicating your access request. Click the "Send" button to submit your request, which will include the chosen datasets. Please be sure to review the data usage policies for the requested datasets, as policies can vary among datasets managed by the same DAC. I am a co-applicant. Will I be given a joint access account? Each applicant needs to create an EGA account themselves, with unique login details. User log-in details are for individual use only and should never be shared, under any circumstances. EGA services are only provided to EGA account holders. Therefore, the co-applicant will send a formal request to the DAC. What happens if a co-applicant leaves or a new member needs to be added to an existing DAC application? The appropriate Data Access Committee (DAC) should be contacted and informed about the required changes so that the application can be updated. I have changed my place of work since my EGA account was created. Can I still have access to data? You must contact the relevant Data Access Committee (DAC). The DAC did not reply to my data access request. How should I proceed? There is no estimated time for DAC response. Please allow up to four weeks for a response. In the meantime, please send them a weekly reminder of the status of your request by emailing them directly.If the DAC becomes unresponsive, meaning that they fail to communicate with a requestor within the specified time frame, please contact the EGA Helpdesk team. I have an account with the EGA and would like access to further datasets. How should I proceed? You need to reapply to the relevant Data Access Committee (DAC). Once the DAC has approved your application your account will be updated and an email will be sent to notify you of a change made to your account. How do I download files of the datasets I have been granted access to? The preferred method for data download and decryption is the EGA Secure Download Client. Please carefully review the provided documentation. How do I download metadata? Metadata is retrieved from the EGA webpage; you will not need to use any download client. Be informed that you will only be able to download metadata of your approved datasets. For such download, you should first log in the EGA webpage with your credentials. Then browse the metadata's dataset you have gained access and you will find a metadata download button. You may also want to have a look our metadata schema. I have forgotten or misplaced my user account password; how do I get a new one? Click on "Log in", located in the top right corner of the EGA homepage. Then click "Forgot password", type in your registered institutional email address, and instructions for resetting your password will be sent to you. Please check both regular and junk/spam folders. I was sent a link to set a password for my download account, but it seems like the link has expired. What should I do? The procedure is the same as the one for a forgotten password, explained in the previous question.

  Documentation access/request-data/how-to-request-data

• Projects

  Projects Jointly managed by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Cambridge (UK) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, the EGA provides an invaluable service to the worldwide biomedical research community. The teams leading the EGA are involved in several international partnerships and consortia in numerous scientific fields, where they contribute to ambitious projects. In addition to the project listed below, the EGA is in a long-standing partnership with the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), as described on the dedicated page. On-going projects Project Duration Domain Funder Tags CANDLE | CANDLE project aims to conceptualise and advance the development of National Cancer Data Nodes (NCDNs) in European countries. These NCDNs will boost the reuse of cancer data for research, innovation and policy making, in order to improve diagnostics and treatment for cancer patients, as well as prevention and early detection. 2025-2028 Cancer Horizon Europe DOCUMENTATION EASIGEN-DS | The EASIGEN-DS project aims to conduct a design study to establish a new European Research Infrastructure on Advanced Genomics Technologies, EASIGEN. To develop an excellent scientific, technological and operational design, we will conduct landscape studies, stakeholder consultations, and community surveying. 2025-2028 Genomic and health data Horizon Europe DATA MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATION INFRASTRUCTURE Go-IMPaCT | Go-IMPaCT will contribute sequenced genomes and provide infrastructure as part of IMPaCT-Cohort, one of the three fundamental pillars of the Precision Medicine Infrastructure associated with Science and Technology (IMPaCT) program in Spain. Along with the Genome of Europe (GoE) project, around 18.000 people will have their genomes sequenced, also contributing to Spain's commitments in 1+MG. Go-IMPaCT will fund the development of an EGA node to manage and share this genomic and phenoclinic data, laying the foundations for regional and ethnic genomic variability in Spain to be available for research purposes. The IMPaCT cohort is created with the spirit of being an open research tool, compatible with the rest of the health research ecosystem, and other international initiatives. 2025-2027 Large-scale genomics and health data; personalised medicine Instituto de Salud Carlos III ACCESS DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS FAIR-FEGA | This project seeks to accelerate data depositions into FEGA, significantly increasing the data flow in and from FEGA nodes. It will build capacity within the FEGA nodes and increase awareness in a wide range of stakeholders, thus altogether achieving the ultimate goal of enhancing data reuse. The project will be carried out by a strategic consortium comprising seven ELIXIR nodes and two ELIXIR communities. 2025-2026 Not applicable ELIXIR ACCESS DISCOVERY DOCUMENTATION INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS FEGA-Connect | A consortium of six ELIXIR nodes plus the Polish FEGA node (in-kind contribution) joining forces to build a solid base to develop solutions for effective multi-omic sensitive data integration between FEGA nodes and other infrastructures and specialised Data repositories. We aim to promote a more coherent data deposition, discoverability and retrieval of multi-omics datasets, providing FAIRer data and consequently accelerating research. 2025-2026 Multi-omics data ELIXIR ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS IMPaCT-Data 2 | IMPaCT-Data 2 will develop a digital platform for the integration and modelling of biomedical data associated with IMPaCT (Precision Medicine Infrastructure associated with Science and Technology) projects in Spain. It will deploy a sustainable infrastructure that facilitates the integration, standardisation, interoperability and analysis of clinical, genomic, molecular and medical imaging data. This platform will be aligned with European projects such as Genome of Europe (GoE), the first project to make use of the European Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI), and EUCAIM. IMPaCT-Data 2 will benefit from advanced Artificial Intelligence and High Computing Capacity Systems capabilities, offering robust and accessible tools for researchers from the National Health System in Spain. 2025-2026 Large-scale genomics and health data; personalised medicine Instituto de Salud Carlos III ACCESS DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS SenSec | This project aims to establish a mechanism for orchestrating secure access to sensitive data hosted by the EGA, whether in Central EGA or any Federated Node, from Galaxy, a popular open-source, community-driven VRE (Virtual Research Environment) for bioinformatics analysis. Building on a previous prototype that enabled Galaxy users within Trusted Research Environments (TREs) to decrypt sensitive data for workflow execution without sharing private encryption keys, SenSec will expand this prototype into a comprehensive solution for secure data analysis in Galaxy, facilitating encrypted data access and transfer from FEGA/EGA repositories to designated TREs. 2025-2026 Genomic and health data; trusted research environment ELIXIR ACCESS DATA ANALYSIS ERDERA | The European Rare Disease Research Alliance (ERDERA) takes over EJPRD to deliver concrete health benefits to rare disease patients in the next decade by advancing prevention, diagnosis and treatment research. To leave no one behind, over 170 organisations championed by the European Union and member states are working hand in hand to make Europe a world leader in rare diseases research and innovation. 2024-2034 Rare diseases Horizon Europe; "La Caixa" Foundation cofunds CRG's contribution ACCESS DATA ANALYSIS DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE SYNTHIA | The aim of SYNTHIA is to deliver validated, reliable tools and methods for synthetic data generation (SDG). The tools will cover multiple data types including lab results, clinical notes, genomics, imaging and m-health data. SYNTHIA also hopes to make possible the generation of longitudinal data. 2024-2029 Genomic and health data; multi-omics; AI solutions Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) DATA ANALYSIS DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE GoE | The Genome of Europe initiative aims to build a European network of national genomic reference cohorts of at least 500.000 citizens. These reference cohorts will be selected to be representative of the European population. 2024-2028 Large-scale genomic and health data Horizon Europe ACCESS DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS HEREDITARY | HEREDITARY aims to transform the way we approach disease detection, prepare treatment response, and explore medical knowledge by building a robust, interoperable, trustworthy, and secure framework that integrates multimodal health data (including genetic data) while ensuring compliance with cross-national privacy-preserving policies. 2024-2027 Neurodegenerative disorders, gut-brain interplay Horizon Europe DATA MANAGEMENT DATA ANALYSIS EOSC-ENTRUST | The mission of EOSC-ENTRUST is to create a European network of trusted research environments for sensitive data and to drive European interoperability by joint development of a common blueprint for federated data access and analysis. 2024-2026 Trusted Research Environment Horizon Europe INFRASTRUCTURE EBV-MS | "Targeting Epstein-Barr Virus Infection for Treatment and Prevention of Multiple Sclerosis". The ambitious goals of the project are to answer the questions why only a few EBV infected persons develop MS, and define the underlying mechanism of this process, as well as clarify if targeting the EBV infection can prevent MS or improve the disease course. 2023-2028 Viral-host genetics; immune response; disease modelling; disease prevention; AI/ML solutions Horizon Europe DATA MANAGEMENT DATA ANALYSIS WISDOM | WELL-BEING IMPROVEMENT THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF HEALTHCARE AND RESEARCH DATA AND MODELS WITHOUT BORDER FOR CHRONIC IMMUNE-MEDIATED DISEASES aims to deploy novel approaches for data processing, harmonisation, management, and secure data sharing and federated access for diseases like multiple sclerosis. Using an end-user guided approach, it will facilitate responsible and critical assessment of the use of AI in healthcare. 2023-2028 Chronic immune-mediated diseases Horizon Europe DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE EUCAIM | EUropean Federation for CAncer IMages is a project that will build a highly secure, federated and large-scale European cancer imaging platform, with capabilities that will greatly enhance the potential of Artificial Intelligence in oncology. 2023-2027 Cancer Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) DISCOVERY CONTAGIO | CONTAGIO (COhorts Network To be Activated Globally In Outbreaks) aims to create coordination mechanisms to rapidly react to infectious disease (re-)emergence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 2023-2026 Infectious Diseases European Commission - Horizon Europe ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY Youth-GEMs | Youth-GEMS (Gene Environment Interactions in Mental Health TrajectorieS of Youth) will conduct research into the genetic and environmental factors of mental health in young European people. 2022-2027 Mental health European Commission - Horizon Europe DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY GDI | The European Genomics Data Infrastructure project is enabling access to genomic and related phenotypic and clinical data across Europe. It is doing this by establishing a federated, sustainable and secure infrastructure to access the data. 2022-2026 Genomic and health data European Commission - Horizon Europe; "La Caixa" Foundation cofunds CRG's contribution DISCOVERY DOCUMENTATION INFRASTRUCTURE IMPaCT-T2D | The IMPaCT-T2D project aims at studying the complete genomes of a large cohort of patients with Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2D), using modern sequencing technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to improve the stratification and pharmacological treatment in the context of precision medicine. 2022-2025 Cardiovascular and Complex Diseases Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; Instituto de Salud Carlos III ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE Completed projects Project Duration Domain Funder Tags EOSC4Cancer | EOSC4Cancer builds on existing projects, research outcomes and established community solutions to create the federated FAIR data, analysis and services infrastructure needed for European Cancer research programmes. 2022-2025 Cancer European Commission - Horizon Europe DISCOVERY EuCanImage | A European Cancer Image Platform Linked to Biological and Health Data for Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence and Precision Medicine in Oncology. 2020-2025 AI Solutions in Oncology European Commission - H2020 Programme; "La Caixa" Foundation cofunds CRG's contribution DATA MANAGEMENT METADATA STANDARDS GenoMed4ALL | A consortium built to empower personalised medicine in the field of haematological diseases through the use of AI and the pooling of genomic and clinical data. 2020-2025 Hematological diseases European Commission - H2020 Programme DISCOVERY METADATA STANDARDS BY-COVID | The BeYond-COVID project aims to make COVID-19 data accessible to scientists in laboratories but also to anyone who can use it, such as medical staff in hospitals or government officials. Going beyond SARS-CoV-2 data, the project will provide a framework for making data from other infectious diseases open and accessible to everyone. 2021-2024 Infectious diseases European Commission - H2020 Programme ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE IMPaCT-Data | IMPaCT-Data aims to create the infrastructure for secondary use of data from Spanish healthcare systems - electronic health records, medical imaging and genomic repositories - and contribute with the knowledge and methodology produced to the healthcare system. 2021-2024 Large-scale genomics and health dataSpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; Instituto de Salud Carlos III ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE LaMarato | It is a project aimed at creating and developing a catalan interhospitalary network to interrogate genetic variants from thousands of genetic tests carried out in patients with rare diseases from the main catalan hospitals. 2021-2024 Genomic and health data Fundacio La Marato de TV3 (catalan foundation) DISCOVERY HealthyCloud | This consortium will contribute a Strategic Agenda towards the European Health Research and Innovation Cloud. The project will work in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders to ensure that all voices are included and that the results are technically and ethically sound. 2021-2023 Not Applicable European Commission - H2020 Programme DOCUMENTATION B1MG | Beyond 1 Million Genomes aims to create a network of genetic and clinical data across Europe. The project provides coordination and support to the 1+ Million Genomes Initiative (1+MG). This initiative is a commitment of 24 EU countries, the UK and Norway to give cross-border access to one million sequenced genomes by 2022. 2020-2023 Not applicable European Commission - Horizon Europe DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS ELIXIR-CONVERGE | An alliance with the goal of Connecting and aligning ELIXIR Nodes to deliver sustainable FAIR life-science data management services. 2020-2023 Data Management and Infectious Diseases European Commission - H2020 Programme DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS IHCC | The International HundredK+ Cohorts Consortium aims to create a global platform for translational research ? informing the biological and genetic basis for disease and improving clinical care and population health. 2020-2022 Translational research NIH; The Wellcome Trust; CZI INFRASTRUCTURE METADATA STANDARDS PPCG | The Pan Prostate Cancer Group aims to harmonise and interrogate Whole Genome DNA Sequence data generated around the world from over 2000 men with prostate cancer, with associated transcriptome and methylome data to include men from different clinical categories, and ethnicities. This project is about providing breakthrough advances through analysis of a very large series of Whole Genome DNA data from prostate cancer contributed by many of the leading scientists and clinicians working in prostate cancer genomics. 2019-2024 Cancer Cancer Research UK DATA MANAGEMENT CINECA | Consortium providing a Federated solution enabling population-scale genomic and biomolecular data accessible across international borders accelerating research and improving the health of individuals resident across continents. 2019-2023 Large-scale Genomics and Health Data European Commission - H2020 Programme ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DISCOVERY INFRASTRUCTURE EASI-Genomics | A project designed to provide easy access to cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies to researchers from academia and industry, within a framework that ensures compliance with ethical and legal requirements, as well as FAIR and secure data management. 2019-2023 Next Generation Sequencing European Commission - H2020 Programme ACCESS EJP-RD | An European consortium built to create a comprehensive, sustainable ecosystem allowing a virtuous circle between research, care, and medical innovation. 2019-2023 Rare diseases European Commission - H2020 Programme ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATION METADATA STANDARDS EOSC-Life | EOSC-Life brings together the 13 Life Science research infrastructures (LS RIs) to create an open, digital and collaborative space for biological and medical research. The project will publish 'FAIR' data and a catalogue of services provided by participating RIs for the management, storage and reuse of data in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). 2019-2023 Not applicable European Commission - H2020 Programme DOCUMENTATION EUCANCan | A federated network aiming at implementing a cultural, technological and legal integrated framework across Europe and Canada, to enable and facilitate the efficient sharing of cancer genomic data. 2019-2023 Cancer European Commission - H2020 Programme DATA MANAGEMENT METADATA STANDARDS The Federated EGA framework: supporting sensitive data management across the ELIXIR Nodes | This project is a direct continuation of the FHD IS with the goal to position the FEGA framework as the core infrastructure driver to support human data sharing for research. 2019-2023 Human genomic data ELIXIR INFRASTRUCTURE UK Biobank | UK Biobank is a large-scale biomedical database and research resource, containing in-depth genetic and health information from half a million UK participants. This project is to archive whole genome sequencing and other genetic data for UK Biobank participants. 2019-2023 Large-scale Genomics and Health Data The Wellcome Trust; UKRI; Amgen; AstraZeneca; GSK; Johnson & Johnson DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE VEIS | The core mission of VEIS is to create an open ecosystem of technologies that will address and adapt to the requirements of the systems used to analyse and interpret -omics and clinical data in research and application environments in biomedicine. The aim of the project is to leverage the value of the EGA for both industry and society. 2019-2022 Oncology and Rare diseases Generalitat de Catalunya and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) ACCESS DISCOVERY ELIXIR BEACON IS | This study follows on from a number of earlier activities that have established the ELIXIR Beacon Project. The main aim is to extend the Beacon protocol, developed at EGA, to become the reference ELIXIR Data Discovery product 2019-2021 Not applicable ELIXIR DISCOVERY ELIXIR FHD IS | This project coordinates the delivery of FAIR compliant metadata standards, interfaces, and reference implementation to support the federated ELIXIR network of human data resources. 2019-2021 Human genomic data ELIXIR INFRASTRUCTURE ELIXIR Rare Disease | The Rare Disease Community extends and generalises the system of access authorisation and high volume secure data transfer developed within the EGA. The goal of the Community is to create a federated infrastructure that will enable researchers to discover, access and analyse different rare disease repositories across Europe. It is doing this in partnership with other European infrastructure projects, namely RD-CONNECT, BBMRI-ERIC and E-Rare.2019-2021 Rare diseases ELIXIR INFRASTRUCTURE Solve-RD | Solve-RD - solving the unsolved rare diseases - is a research project funded by the European Commission. It echoes the ambitious goals set out by the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) to deliver diagnostic tests for most rare diseases by 2020. The current diagnostic and subsequent therapeutic management of rare diseases is still highly unsatisfactory for a large proportion of rare disease patients - the unsolved RD cases. For these unsolved rare diseases, we are unable to explain the etiology responsible for the disease phenotype, predict the individual disease risk and/or rate of disease progression, and/or quantitate the risk of relatives to develop the same disorder. 2018-2024 Rare diseases European Commission - H2020 Programme ACCESS DATA MANAGEMENT METADATA STANDARDS EuCanShare | An EU-Canada joint infrastructure for next-generation multi-Study Heart research. 2018-2022 Cardiovascular Diseases European Commission - H2020 Programme ACCESS METADATA STANDARDS

  Documentation about/projects-and-funders/projects

• GA4GH

  Standards The EGA is a long-standing supporter of the Global Alliance for Genomics & Health (GA4GH) to enhance responsible sharing of human genetic data through the development of interoperable global standards for human data access. The EGA is one of the founding GA4GH Driver Projects and has contributed to the development and implementation of several GA4GH standards and APIs. Below is a list of the GA4GH standards and APIs that are currently available or planned for implementation at EGA. TechnicalStandards Purpose SpecificationVersion SupportedVersion Implementation Large Scale Genomics htsget A protocol for secure, efficient, and reliable access to sequencing read and variation data. V1.3.0 V1.0.0 Specification Documentation Endpoint Read File Formats (SAM/BAM/CRAM) Specifications for storing next-generation sequencing read data. V3.0.0 V3.0.0 Implementation Example of Usage Variation File Formats (VCF/BCF) The specifications for Variant Call Format Files (VCF) and its binary counterpart BCF. V4.0.0 V2.0.0 V4.0.0 V2.0.0 Implementation Example of Usage Crypt4GH v1.0 Enables direct byte-level compatible random access to encrypted genetic data stored in community standards (e.g. CRAM, VCF) V1.0 V1.0 Specification Documentation Endpoint refget API Enables access to reference sequences using an identifier derived from the sequence itself. V1.2.6 NA Specification RNAget API v1 Provides a means of retrieving data from several types of RNA experiments including (i) feature-level expression data from RNA-seq type measurements and (ii) coordinate-based signal/intensity data similar to a bigwig representation via a client/server model. V1.0.0 NA Documentation Discovery Beacon v2 Supports discovery of genomic variants, phenotypes, and individuals V1.0.1 V0.3 Web UI API Source Code Service Info API v1 The Service Info API is an endpoint for describing GA4GH service metadata, designed for extension and inclusion in other APIs. Service info is used to describe a single service, while Service Registry is used to describe multiple services. V1.0.0 NA Documentation Service Registry API v1 provides information about other GA4GH services, primarily for the purpose of organizing services into networks or groups and service discovery across organizational boundaries. V1.0.0 NA Documentation Data Use Researcher Identities Data Use Ontology (DUO) Allow users to semantically tag genomic datasets with usage restrictions, allowing them to become automatically discoverable based on a health, clinical, or biomedical researcher’s authorisation level or intended use. 2021-02-23 2021-02-23 Specification Documentation Endpoint Authentication & Authorization Infrastructure (AAI) The GA4GH AAI specification leverages OpenID Connect (OIDC) Servers for use in authenticating the identity of researchers desiring to access clinical and genomic resources from data holders adhering to GA4GH standards, and to enable data holders to obtain security-related attributes of those researchers. V1.2.0 V1.2.0 API URI: ega.ebi.ac.uk:8443 Documentation Repository Researcher IDs (passport, visa) Specify the collection of researchers that may access a dataset at any given time, and the credentials they must supply. V1.0.1 V1.0.1 Specification Documentation Endpoint Cloud Tool Registry Service API TRS is a standard API for exchanging tools and workflows to analyze, read, and manipulate genomic data. V2.0.1 NA Documentation Repostiory Data Repository Service API ​DRS API is a standard for building data repositories and adapting access tools to work with those repositories, works with other approved APIs from the GA4GH Cloud Work Stream to allow researchers to discover algorithms across different cloud environments and send them to datasets they wish to analyse. V1.0.3 NA Documentation Repostiory Workflow Execution Service API This API lets users run a single workflow (defined using CWL or WDL) on multiple different platforms, clouds, and environments, and be confident that it will work the same way. The API provides methods to request that a workflow be run, pass parameters to that workflow, get information about running workflows, and cancel a running workflow. V1.0.1 NA Documentation Repostiory Genomic Knowledge Standards Variation Representation v1 Provides a flexible framework of computational models, schemas, and algorithms to precisely and consistently exchange genetic variation data across communities. V1.3.0 EGA team is contributing to including it in in Beacon v2 Specification and Elixir Reference Implementation Documentation Repostiory Clin/ Pheno Data Capture Phenopackets Provides information models with different levels of complexity to enable high level clinical phenotype information as well as deep clinical phenotype information to be exchanged. V2.0.0 Included in Ongoing Submissions EGA team is contributing to including it in in Beacon v2 Specification and Elixir Reference Implementation Documentation Repostiory Driver Project The EGA, jointly coordinated by the EBI and the CRG, was announced, in 2017, to be one of the 15 Driver Projects for GA4GH. Driver Projects are international genomic data initiatives, focussed on real projects and challenges that will guide the development efforts in order to accelerate and enable completely responsible and standarised data sharing by 2022. All chosen Driver Projects make a cross-sectional effort by playing an important role across the different workstreams. Thomas Keane, Jordi Rambla, Mallory Freeberg, and Aina Jené have been named Driver Project Champions for the EGA. All Driver Project Champions will be leading this ambitious initiative for the following years.

  Documentation about/projects-and-funders/ga4gh

• Federated EGA

  Federated EGA Federated EGA Index Overview Map of FEGA status across the world Current status of the FEGA Network Documentation Overview Federated EGA is a global network of repositories enabling secure discovery and access to sensitive human data. Our vision is to accelerate scientific discovery and healthcare breakthroughs by creating the go-to worldwide sensitive human data resource. Our values are: Privacy & Trust: Ensuring privacy of data subjects, security of services and acting with integrity to build community trust.FAIRness: Driving reuse of data through standardisation of metadata and clear access policies.Diversity: Expanding our network and representing global diversity in the data we host to bring benefits worldwide. Federated EGA - European by name, global by nature Federated EGA collaborates with European and global initiatives (GA4GH, ELIXIR, 1+ Million Genomes Framework, GDI), demonstrating that a network for transnational discovery of and access to human data is possible. By providing a solution to emerging challenges around secure and efficient management of human omics and associated data, the FEGA Network fosters data reuse, enables reproducibility, and accelerates biomedical research. For general enquiries or to request more information about Federated EGA, please send an email to fega-info [at] lists [dot] ega-archive [dot] org. Read more about the Federated EGA in our commentary in Nature Genetics! Learn more about joining the Federated EGA Network in our onboarding documentation. Map of FEGA status across the world Current status of the FEGA Network Node Description Joined CEGA Central EGA is managed by the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and EMBL-EBI. The EGA has been a trusted repository for sensitive data since 2008. CEGA coordinates the FEGA network, hosts central services and the EGA catalogue. 2022 Finland FEGA Finland is hosted by CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd., which is the national ELIXIR Node in Finland. CSC is a state-owned company specialising in providing high-quality IT infrastructure and services for Finnish higher education and research. 2022 Germany The German Human Genome-Phenome archive (GHGA) is part of the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). It is coordinated by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and includes over 20 academic partners. 2022 Norway FEGA Norway is a service by ELIXIR Norway, the Norwegian node of the European organisation ELIXIR. University of Oslo as a partner institution in ELIXIR Norway is hosting the service relying on the TSD infrastructure for sensitive data. ELIXIR Norway is a consortium of 5 Norwegian universities and is coordinated by University of Bergen. 2022 Spain FEGA Spain is co-hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputer Center (BSC) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), both part of ELIXIR Spain and the Spanish National Infrastructure for Personalised Medicine associated with Science and Technology (IMPaCT). 2022 Sweden FEGA Sweden is hosted by the National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden (NBIS), which legally is part of Uppsala University. NBIS forms the bioinformatics platform at SciLifeLab and constitutes the Swedish node of the European organisation ELIXIR. 2022 Poland FEGA Poland is hosted by Biobank Lodz, which is part of University of Lodz. Biobank Lodz is an element of the infrastructure of the Regional Digital Medicine Centers established by the Medical Research Agency. 2022 Portugal FEGA Portugal is managed by BioData.pt, the distributed infrastructure for Life and Health data for Portugal. This entity is a non-profit association of 15 life sciences R&I organisations spread across the country, and the home of ELIXIR Node in Portugal. 2023 Canada Canadian Genome-phenome Archive is part of the Pan Canadian Genome Library, with the mandate to allow the secure and responsible sharing and analysis of Canadian genomic information. 2024 Switzerland Swiss FEGA is hosted by SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, which is the national ELIXIR Node in Switzerland, on behalf of the Swiss FEGA Partnership which includes 4 other key partners (ETH Zurich, Health 2030 Genome Center, Swiss Data Science Center and Switch). 2025 Documentation Title Version Description Mission, vision, values Federated EGA Mission, vision, values 1.0 The official Mission-Vision-Values statement for FEGA, produced and formally approved by the FEGA Strategic Committee in September 2025. Structure and Organisation Federated EGA Structure and Organisation 2.0 The structure of the FEGA network and service expectations, responsibilities and commitments. FEGA is organised into three tiers: Central EGA, FEGA Nodes and FEGA Affiliates. Strategic Committee Federated EGA Strategic Committee 1.1 Terms of reference for the FEGA Strategic Committee describe the purpose and objectives of the committee, which is to provide direction and strategic planning for the FEGA network. The committee receives input from, and provides feedback for the EGA Strategic Committee. Operations Committee Federated EGA Operations Committee 1.1 Terms of reference for the FEGA Operations Committee describe the purpose and objectives of the committee, which is to review operational performance and coordinate technical roadmaps of FEGA Nodes and Central EGA. The committee receives advice from, and provides operational reporting to the FEGA Strategic Committee. Guidelines Federated EGA Node Operations Guidelines 2.1 An overview of the operational areas which require resources in order to create a FEGA Node. The document is based on more than 15 years' experience of EMBL-EBI and CRG operating the EGA and initial expericences of the inaugural FEGA Nodes. The operational areas of responsability are in line with the FEGA Maturity Model, which guides establishment and operation of FEGA Nodes. Collaboration Federated EGA Node Collaboration Agreement 1.3 Nodes are welcome to make a copy of this current version of the CA to start its review with their legal teams and understand the responsibilities of joining FEGA. Nevertheless, this version (the one with a watermark) shall not be signed: the official version needs to be obtained from FEGA prior to signing through its official channels. Federated EGA Affiliate Collaboration Agreement 1.0 Affiliates are welcome to make a copy of this current version of the CA to start its review with their legal teams and understand the responsibilities of joining FEGA. Nevertheless, this version (the one with a watermark) shall not be signed: the official version needs to be obtained from FEGA prior to signing through its official channels.

  Documentation about/projects-and-funders/federated-ega

• Implementation of the GDPR

  Data Protection 1 About the EGA The European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) was formally launched in 2008 at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), an outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), to address an identified need for archiving and sharing the results of genome-wide association studies from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. In late 2012, with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (and subsequent formal agreement in 2016) between EMBL-EBI and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the EGA formally became a joint project of the two institutes. The two institutes work together to support the EGA services, including supporting submissions, web site, strategic leadership, and data infrastructure developments. 2 EMBL-EBI & GDPR The EGA is co-managed by EMBL-EBI and CRG. EMBL-EBI is an international organisation established by treaty and has certain privileges and immunities (e.g. exemptions from the application of national law) and also may self-regulate its activities (e.g. establish its own institutional legal framework) within the framework of its founding act of 1973. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) regulation that legislates how organisations can share and process personal data of EU citizens. EMBL places great value in maintaining collaboration with researchers who are subject to GDPR. For that reason, it is of utmost importance for EMBL to handle data received from those collaborators in a secure and responsible manner. Mindful of its public mandate and the sensitivity of the data it handles, EMBL has always ensured a high level of data protection in its activities. Since the introduction of GDPR in May 2018, EMBL has established its internal policy on General Data Protection (IP68), exercising its right to self-regulate its operations,., IP 68 establishes a robust personal data protection framework that provides for data protection principles, enforceable data subject rights and oversight and redress mechanisms offering a level of protection comparable with GDPR. 3 CRG & GDPR The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) is an international biomedical research institute of excellence, created in July 2000 and mainly participated by the Catalan Government. It is a non-profit foundation and its mission is to discover and advance knowledge for the benefit of society, public health and economic prosperity. The CRG is a CERCA center. CERCA is the collective organisation for all research centres of excellence in Catalonia. CERCA ensures these centres develop successfully by promoting synergies and strategic cooperation improving their visibility and the impact of their research and promoting the dialogue amongst both public and private stakeholders. As a legal entity based in Spain and operating within the EU, the CRG ensures the compliance with the GDPR and the legal regulations on personal data protection applicable at the national level, as well as any other legislation that may replace, modify or supplement the above-mentioned in terms of personal data protection. 4 EGA & GDPR EGA GDPR Schema 4.1 Genetic and phenotypic data Within GDPR, there are two main actors: data controllers and data processors. Data controllers are persons or entities which determine the purposes and means that the personal data may be processed, e.g. companies, researchers, or universities. For EGA, the data controller is ultimately the data producer and the submitter(s) who submit the data to EGA. The data controller also creates a Data Access Committee (DAC) who will decide on data access permissions at EGA. Data processors are the persons or entities which process the data on behalf of a data controller. With regard to GDPR, EGA is a data processor as it processes data as instructed by the data controller. GDPR applies to any organisation which accesses personal data from an individual within the EU. Under GDPR, personal data is defined as any data that is identifiable, including names and email addresses as well as health-related and genetic data. EGA does not accept personally identifiable data except genetic and phenotypic data, so all other data submitted to EGA, such as names and addresses, must be pseudonymised. GDPR requires that data controllers implement data protection principles, such as data minimisation, to minimise the risk of data leakage, and protect the rights of the data subjects. As a data processor, EGA has a set of security policies that are followed to minimise the risk of unauthorised data access or data loss. In its role as a data processor, EGA requires all submitters to sign a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) when the submission account is first created. This agreement is only required to be signed once per submitter, and will remain valid for future submissions to EGA. 4.2 Other personal data The EGA also collects personal data as part of our interactions with submitters, data access committees, and researchers accessing data distributed by EGA. The below privacy notices explain what personal data is collected by the specific service you are requesting, for what purposes, how it is processed, and how we keep it secure. Privacy Notices for EGA Title Version Last Updated EGA Data Access Committee Account Privacy Notice for EGA Data Access Committee Account 1.0 February 6, 2019 EGA User Account Privacy Notice for EGA User Account 1.0 February 6, 2019 EGA Helpdesk Service Privacy Notice for EGA Helpdesk Service 1.0 February 6, 2019 EGA Website Service Privacy Notice for EGA Website Service 1.0 February 6, 2019 Documentation Title Version Description EGA Security Overview Security Document 1.1 The EGA Security Document provides an overview of EGA’s practices in ensuring the security of data stored at EGA. EGA Data Processing Agreement Data Processing Agreement 1.5 The Data Processing Agreement must be completed and returned as part of the submission process. Please note that this document is non-negotiable. Authorised Submitters Authorised Submitters Formulary 1.0 The Authorised Submitters Form must be completed and returned as part of the submission process. Please list all those that should have access to the submission account in order to submit to the EGA should be detailed here. Dispute Resolution Any controversy or claim arising out of, or relating to, the DPA (including the enforceability or breach thereof, any question regarding its existence, validity or termination) or relating to the EGA Service shall be resolved using the internal dispute resolution mechanisms of EGA including those related to Data Protection. The EGA’s internal dispute resolution mechanism has the following procedure: EGA OPERATIONAL PHASE: Meetings between EGA staff and the Data Controller.LEGAL MANAGEMENT PHASE: Meetings between legal teams of EMBL, CRG and the Data Controller. DIRECTION MANAGEMENT PHASE: Negotiation between the legal representatives of EMBL, the CRG and the Data Controller. If the internal dispute resolution mechanism doesn’t resolve the controversy or claim the next phase is:ARBITRATION PHASE: Resolution by arbitration under the WIPO Expedited Arbitration Rules (“Rules”).

  Documentation about/privacy-notice

• About

  About What's the EGA? The European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) is a global network for permanent archiving and sharing of personally identifiable genetic, phenotypic, and clinical data generated for the purposes of biomedical research projects or in the context of research-focused healthcare systems. Jointly managed by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Cambridge (UK) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, we aim to advance biomedical research and promote personalised medicine worldwide by enabling discovery of and access to human genomic and health research data. The EGA contains data collected from individuals whose consent agreements authorise data release for specific research use to bona fide researchers. We ensure strict security measures to control access to the data and maintain patient confidentiality. With expertise in data management and technical infrastructure, we promote FAIR data reuse and enable researchers to share their data securely. By leveraging public funding and our strategic partnerships, the EGA provides a free service for permanent data storage, data discovery, and secure data access. In addition, we foster a federated network to provide transnational access to human research data in compliance with legal frameworks. For additional information about the EGA, please contact: Helen Parkinson and Mallory Freeberg EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute Arcadi Navarro, Roderic Guigó, and Jordi Rambla Center for Genomic Regulation History The European Genome-phenome Archive was launched in 2008 at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), an outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), to address an identified need for archiving and sharing the results of genome-wide association studies from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. With the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2013 and a formal agreement in 2016, the EGA became a joint project of EMBL-EBI and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG). The two institutes work together to support the EGA services, including supporting submissions, website, strategic leadership, and data infrastructure developments. In 2022, the Federated EGA was officially launched with the signature of the first five countries: Finland, Germany, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. With more than 20 additional nodes worldwide preparing to join, the Federated EGA aims to become the largest human omics data sharing initiative towards understanding human health and disease. EGA overview If you're a researcher you may need to deposit, manage, or access genomic data in a secure and regulated way. The European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) is a platform that facilitates these processes, ensuring that sensitive data is stored and shared in accordance with legal and ethical regulations. Submission process To start a submission, you need to become an EGA submitter. For that, you’ll need to sign a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with us, that defines the terms and conditions under which your data will be processed and shared within the EGA system. The access to each study is controlled by its Data Access Committee (DAC). The DAC is responsible for managing data access requests and ensuring that the release of data is in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Please, note that once your data is released, all public metadata related to your study and dataset(s) will be searchable on the EGA website. However, the files are only accessible under controlled access, which means that a DAC has to agree to a previous data access request. Request process It is possible to submit an access request to data stored at the EGA. The DAC assigned to the study will assess the request and, if approved, grant access to the data. Requesters must provide sufficient justification for your request and comply with the intended data usage in order to get access to it. Each dataset is covered by a Data Access Agreement (DAA) that defines the terms and conditions of use for the specified dataset/s. The DAA is created and provided by the DAC, and must be signed by the individual requesting access to the given dataset/s. Download process Once the request for access is approved, the data and metadata can be downloaded. The EGA offers various download options to fit the needs: it is possible to preview files without downloading them, download specific files of interest, or even download terabytes of data. Overall, the EGA provides a secure and regulated environment for depositing, managing, and accessing human data. Regardless of the role - submitter, DAC member, or requester - the EGA provides assistance for each while ensuring that sensitive data is managed in an ethical and responsible manner. More information on how EGA handles data is available in the EGA dataflow.

  Documentation about/ega