As a research network, GHGA has multiple cooperations with national and international partners. This ensures a tight embedding within biomedical resarch and the application of international compatible standards for data sharing.
In the National Research Data Infrastructure Germany (NFDI), valuable data from science and research are systematically accessed, networked and made usable in a sustainable and qualitative manner for the entire German science system.
GHGA is funded as part of the NFDI by the BMBF via the DFG and is active in many of the cross-cutting topics within NFDI.
The European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) is a service for permanent archiving and sharing of all types of personally identifiable genetic and phenotypic data resulting from biomedical research projects. In the newly formed federated EGA, a network of national nodes will share and commit to joint standards and infrastructures.
GHGA will serve as the German EGA node.
The European 1+ Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative is aiming to collect data from more than one million genomes. It will grant secure access to the data and corresponding clinical data across Europe for better research, personalised healthcare and health policy making.
The Beyond 1 Million Genomes (B1MG) project provides coordination and support to 1+MG by developing guidelines and recommendations for creating federated networks of genomic data across Europe.
To see the 1+MG vision to fruition, the implementation of an European infrastructure was funded via the Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project. GDI brings together 20 EU Member states and, building on a network of national infrastructures, aims to align technical standards and define a common ethico-legal framework - while in accordance with national requirements.
GHGA will form the German GDI node, connecting genomic data stored in GHGA to the pan-European GDI infrastructure, and integrating its expertise into the European network.
The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is a policy-framing and technical standards-setting organisation, seeking to enable responsible genomic data sharing within a human rights framework.
As part of the GA4GH community, GHGA aims to contribute to and push forward the development of standards to enable the responsible, voluntary, and secure sharing of genomic and health-related data.
The German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI) is a national, academic and non-profit infrastructure. De.NBI provides bioinformatics services, such as standards and compute services as well as training events, to users in life sciences research and biomedicine in Germany and Europe.
ELIXIR unites Europe’s leading life science organisations in managing and safeguarding the increasing volume of data being generated by publicly funded research. It coordinates, integrates and sustains bioinformatics resources across its member states. The national Elixir node, Elixir Germany, is coordinated by members of de.NBI.
GHGA is building upon existing infrastructure, partnering with centres that operate existing cloud infrastructures - e.g. within de.NBI and ELIXIR-DE - and have the capacity and experience to sustainably operate a robust and scalable infrastructure.
The Next Generation Sequencing Competence Network (NGS-CN) is a DFG-funded initiative comprised of four highly specialised centres. It provides the infrastructure and expertise for high-throughput sequencing and makes genomic research widely accessible to the life sciences and medicine.
These sequencing centres will be among the major providers of omics data for GHGA. Collaboration with NGS-CN, e.g., through joint events and cross-promotion of relevant content, allows for impactful engagement with this community.
Launched by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the National Strategy for Genomic Medicine aims to integrate genomic medicine into Germany's healthcare system. Coordinated by TMF e.V., the genomDEinitiative addresses ethical, regulatory, and safety issues, and has paved the way for nationwide implementation of the § 64e SGB V model project (MV GenomSeq) in mid-2024.
As a partner both in genomDE and MV GenomSeq, GHGA is instrumental in developing the nationwide genomic data platform. In the MV GenomSeq project, GHGA serves as the archiving and research platform, with its Data Hubs operating as Genome Data Centers.
The German COVID-19 OMICS Initiative (DeCOI) is a national network for the use of NGS-based omics data in COVID-19 research. DeCOI is based on the DFG-funded network of NGS Competence Centers, bringing together expertise in sequencing and NGS data generation.
GHGA and the NFDI4Microbiota Consortium are among the founding consortia of DeCOI, providing extended expertise in data management and data analysis.
The German National Cohort (NAKO) is a long-term population study organised and conducted by a network of German research institutions. The comprehensive data collection from a total of 200,000 participants, now expanding to omics data, will serve to elucidate the causes and risk factors of common diseases.
The omics data will be stored within GHGA - making this large population-based data set also available for secondary research use.
The network Single Cell Omics Germany (SCOG) brings together researchers using and developing single cell technologies. Its mission is to provide a collaborative platform for the exchange of expertise, thereby strengthening single cell research in Germany.
GHGA collaborates with SCOG, e.g., through joint events and cross-promotion of relevant contents, aiming for impactful engagement of these future users and providing workflows tailored to their community needs.
The e.MED Systems Medicine Network has the objective of promoting system-oriented research of diseases by linking life-sciences and informatics and establishing a systems medicine network in Germany.
GHGA collaborates with e:MED aiming for impactful engagement of these future users.
The Alliance of Chronic Rare Diseases e.V. (ACHSE) is the umbrella organisation of and for people with chronic rare diseases and their relatives in Germany. With its more than 130 patient organisations, ACHSE pools expertise and knowledge in the field of rare diseases and represents the interests of affected people.
The National Action League for People with Rare Diseases (NAMSE) was founded by ACHSE with the German Federal Ministries of Health (BMG) and Education and Research (BMBF). NAMSE brings together all key bodies and organisations of the German health care system with the common goal of improving health and quality of life of people with rare diseases in Germany.
'Solve-RD – solving the unsolved rare diseases’ is a large-scale European research program. With the aim to solve large numbers of rare diseases for which a molecular cause is not yet known.
Working closely together with the rare disease community, GHGA aims to establish a reference genome collection and provide workflows tailored to their community needs.
nf-core is a community effort to collect a curated set of analysis workflows built using Nextflow.
Aiming to facilitate uniform processing of raw data to ready-to-use research data, GHGA workflows are being developed together with the respective communities such as nf-core. That way, GHGA does not create yet another workflow but utilises and improves existing workflows and aligns with community standards.
In addition to the partners mentioned above, GHGA is cooperating with several national and international organisations and stakeholders. In the application process, GHGA received Letters of Support from the following institutions and societies: