Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) & the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) Neuroscience Community Co-Lead

Shape the strategy and direction of the Neuroscience Community, a forum that brings together neuroscience initiatives to uncover needs and find opportunities to put GA4GH products into practice.

About GA4GH

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is a global standards development organisation dedicated to realising the potential of genomics in health. Supported by staff across five Host Institutions (Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Wellcome Sanger Institute, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute, and McGill University’s Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine), members of the volunteer community provide expert leadership to GA4GH Work Streams and Implementation communities.

Communities of Interest focus on exploring use cases, challenges, and successes related to real-world implementation of GA4GH standards within specific domains. Currently, these domains include rare disease, cancer, infectious disease, neuroscience, and clinical genomics. These communities aim to strengthen collaborations between users and developers to ensure that solutions are fit-for-purpose, increase responsible data use and interoperability, and connect international initiatives with common needs. 

About INCF

The International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) brings together a global community to facilitate neuroinformatics activities for standards and best practices development. Guided by the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse) data management practices, the INCF helps promote open neuroscience while offering training to increase research transparency and reproducibility. 

The GA4GH & INCF Neuroscience Community links experts and global partners to shape guidance around data standards and best practices, helping to advance both genomic and neuroscientific data. 

We are currently seeking expressions of interest in the volunteer role of Neuroscience Community Co-Lead.

About the role

This is a unique opportunity to help shape the direction and priorities of the GA4GH & INCF Neuroscience Community. As Co-Lead, you will work in partnership with another community leader and closely with GA4GH staff to develop the community’s strategic vision. You will help drive collaboration between neuroscience researchers, clinicians, data custodians, and developers — supporting the uptake of GA4GH and INCF products and identifying gaps in existing standards.

Your responsibilities will include:

• co-developing the Neuroscience Community strategy in line with GA4GH’s broader goals;
• engaging with GA4GH Work Streams and other community working groups to triage and align relevant work;
• identifying opportunities to launch Study Groups or projects;
• chairing community calls and facilitating discussion;
• supporting technical exploration and group consensus-building;
• serving as a liaison between neuroscience stakeholders and GA4GH standards efforts;
• expected to contribute three to six hours per month, including time to prepare for chairing calls and strategic planning. Additional time may be needed leading up to and during Neuroscience Community, GA4GH, and other related meetings (e.g. Connect, Plenary, Product Steering Committee Meetings, End of Year Neuro meeting).

You have…

• substantial experience in neuroscience research and one or more of the following: biomedical informatics, genomics, neurogenetics, computational development, or related fields;
• leadership experience and the ability to work across disciplines and cultures;
• strong facilitation and consensus-building skills;
• a collaborative mindset and experience working with interdisciplinary teams;
• insight into the challenges and opportunities of implementing genomics standards in neuroscience projects;
• a commitment to global, responsible, and interoperable data sharing;
• a deep understanding of the importance of standards in supporting brain research across institutions and borders.

You might also have…

• experience working with GA4GH, INCF, or similar standards-development organisations;
• experience as part of a volunteer or community-led initiative;
• familiarity with APIs, ontologies, or data exchange formats used in neuroscience or genomics;
• experience with custodianship or stewardship of brain or genomic data;
• participation in multi-institutional or cross-border neuroscience data initiatives.

Why join us

GA4GH accelerates progress in human health by building tools that expand responsible, effective, and democratised use of genomic and clinical data. With a global volunteer community made up of hundreds of individuals from a variety of organisations and institutions, GA4GH provides an active environment in which to drive these aims forward while building on our foundational commitments to human rights, ethics, and security.

Having a truly global community of contributors and leadership is key to GA4GH’s work. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for contributors at all levels in GA4GH and welcome applications and nominations from all interested individuals.