Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI)

What is GDI?

The Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project is a European initiative, which brings together national authorities, research organisations and technology providers in 20 countries to create a cross-border interconnected network of national genome collections in conjunction with other relevant data. It aims to advance data-driven biomedical research and personalised medicine for the benefit of European citizens and to support the European 1+ Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative. It is coordinated by ELIXIR and funded by the European Commission under the Digital Europe Programme.

Building on the preparatory work of 1+MG Initiative working groups and the "Beyond 1 Million Genomes" (B1MG) project, the GDI project brings together 20 EU Member States with two infrastructure organisations (BBMRI and EMBL) to work collectively to support the 1+MG Initiative's vision to facilitate better healthcare for citizens in Europe by providing cross-border access to at least one million genomes and related clinical data.

What is GDIs mission?

Specifically, GDI will drive the development, deployment, and operation of sustainable data access infrastructures in each participating country, including the legal frameworks, operational procedures, and ethical principles necessary to promote and maintain citizen trust in cross-border access to highly sensitive personal data.

The GDI project is structured around three pillars and its aligned objectives: 

  • Pillar I will establish the legal framework and the business models required to support European and national infrastructure operations.
  • Pillar II will work on the establishment of the nodes and the European level services, initiating the deployment and operations of the 1+MG infrastructure ensuring it is fully operational and ready to enable access to data.
  • Pillar III will guide implementation through key use cases, targeting users and identifying standards and solutions that could be made part of the 1+MG infrastructure. 

 

Within GDI, national research consortia and other stakeholders ensure that the countries successfully contribute to the main goal of GDI - the creation of a data network of over 1 million genome sequences for research and clinical purposes.

GDI in Germany

Within the German part of the GDI project, the goal is to connect the genomic data stored in GHGA to the pan-European GDI infrastructure. Here the focus will be on technical and legal interoperability with the new European network. GHGA will build the German node for the GDI infrastructure.

Germany aims to be fully operational by the end of the project - and can build upon previous work by several national initiatives: GHGA, genomDE, Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and University Network Medicine (NUM). GDI will support a closer collaboration between these players to further drive the digitalisation of health care in a unified way.

Going forward, a lead role will be taken on by two prominent institutions within GHGA: the DKFZ and the University of Tübingen, which are both funded partners within the GDI project. They will have expert team members working on setting up a national infrastructure (as part of the GHGA project) which subsequently can be interconnected with our European partner initiative.