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Learn how GA4GH helps expand responsible genomic data use to benefit human health.
The April Connect 2026 meeting took place in Montreal, Canada from 14 to 17 April 2026. Learn more about the meeting below.
The GA4GH April Connect meeting in Montreal, Canada brought together global leaders in genomics and health data to transition technical standards into real-world clinical impact. Over four days, the community focused on interoperability, federated learning, ethical governance, integrating GA4GH standards into national health initiatives, and more.
Bridging the gap: from technical readiness to clinical impact
A primary thread throughout the conference was the transition of GA4GH products from technical standards into practical, real-world applications. In Canada, funders such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Genome Canada are requiring compliance with GA4GH standards to receive funding, highlighting a commitment to building an interoperable genomic and health data ecosystem. Sessions also emphasised moving towards “user-driven science,” focusing on what clinicians and researchers need from this space in order to advance patient care. There was also a focus on integrating GA4GH standards with clinically-based standards, such as HL7 FHIR and OMOP, signaling a growing effort to link the research lab to healthcare.
Equitable governance and stewardship
The Connect meeting underscored that technical standards are only as effective as the ethical and legal frameworks supporting them. The Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream is developing a governance checklist tailored to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that aims to address power imbalances in global partnerships. The community also explored opportunities to develop tools for computable governance, which would turn complex legal policies into machine-readable formats to facilitate transparent and efficient data access. A “stewardship maturity matrix” was also proposed, aiming to help measure how repositories are responsibly managing their data.
The launch of the GA4GH AI Work Stream
GA4GH has launched a new Work Stream focused on developing governance recommendations and data standards to foster responsible integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in genomics and health. The Connect meeting served as a kick-off for the Work Stream, with a dynamic, interactive plenary session that asked all community members to imagine the ways in which GA4GH could support relevant AI projects. Explore a list of AI projects generated by the community here, or add your own. To get involved in the Work Stream, register your interest here.
Federated ecosystems and “data visiting”
The Connect meeting demonstrated a global shift in how genomic data is accessed, moving away from large-scale data transfer to federated models. The session “From capacity to collaboration: genomic data sharing in Asia” showed an emphasis on data visiting rather than data transfer to navigate fragmented regulatory frameworks and geopolitical concerns. The GA4GH community is also actively prototyping privacy-preserving methods and other advanced privacy technologies that keep raw data in its home jurisdiction. The expansion of initiatives like the Federated Variant-Level Matching network shows a growing commitment to connecting diverse clinical and research nodes globally.
Harmonisation and schema interoperability
As the suite of GA4GH products grows, a central theme emerged regarding internal alignment of these standards. Several sessions focused on the risk of fragmentation when Work Streams use different schemas or data formats. There was also a concerted push to align how complex biological data is represented across all GA4GH tools.
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