About us
Learn how GA4GH helps expand responsible genomic data use to benefit human health.
Learn how GA4GH helps expand responsible genomic data use to benefit human health.
Our Strategic Road Map defines strategies, standards, and policy frameworks to support responsible global use of genomic and related health data.
Discover how a meeting of 50 leaders in genomics and medicine led to an alliance uniting more than 5,000 individuals and organisations to benefit human health.
GA4GH Inc. is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the global GA4GH community.
The GA4GH Council, consisting of the Executive Committee, Strategic Leadership Committee, and Product Steering Committee, guides our collaborative, globe-spanning alliance.
The Funders Forum brings together organisations that offer both financial support and strategic guidance.
The EDI Advisory Group responds to issues raised in the GA4GH community, finding equitable, inclusive ways to build products that benefit diverse groups.
Distributed across a number of Host Institutions, our staff team supports the mission and operations of GA4GH.
Curious who we are? Meet the people and organisations across six continents who make up GA4GH.
More than 500 organisations connected to genomics — in healthcare, research, patient advocacy, industry, and beyond — have signed onto the mission and vision of GA4GH as Organisational Members.
These core Organisational Members are genomic data initiatives that have committed resources to guide GA4GH work and pilot our products.
This subset of Organisational Members whose networks or infrastructure align with GA4GH priorities has made a long-term commitment to engaging with our community.
Local and national organisations assign experts to spend at least 30% of their time building GA4GH products.
Anyone working in genomics and related fields is invited to participate in our inclusive community by creating and using new products.
Wondering what GA4GH does? Learn how we find and overcome challenges to expanding responsible genomic data use for the benefit of human health.
Study Groups define needs. Participants survey the landscape of the genomics and health community and determine whether GA4GH can help.
Work Streams create products. Community members join together to develop technical standards, policy frameworks, and policy tools that overcome hurdles to international genomic data use.
GIF solves problems. Organisations in the forum pilot GA4GH products in real-world situations. Along the way, they troubleshoot products, suggest updates, and flag additional needs.
NIF finds challenges and opportunities in genomics at a global scale. National programmes meet to share best practices, avoid incompatabilities, and help translate genomics into benefits for human health.
Communities of Interest find challenges and opportunities in areas such as rare disease, cancer, and infectious disease. Participants pinpoint real-world problems that would benefit from broad data use.
Find out what’s happening with up to the minute meeting schedules for the GA4GH community.
See all our products — always free and open-source. Do you work on cloud genomics, data discovery, user access, data security or regulatory policy and ethics? Need to represent genomic, phenotypic, or clinical data? We’ve got a solution for you.
All GA4GH standards, frameworks, and tools follow the Product Development and Approval Process before being officially adopted.
Learn how other organisations have implemented GA4GH products to solve real-world problems.
Help us transform the future of genomic data use! See how GA4GH can benefit you — whether you’re using our products, writing our standards, subscribing to a newsletter, or more.
Help create new global standards and frameworks for responsible genomic data use.
Align your organisation with the GA4GH mission and vision.
Want to advance both your career and responsible genomic data sharing at the same time? See our open leadership opportunities.
Join our international team and help us advance genomic data use for the benefit of human health.
Share your thoughts on all GA4GH products currently open for public comment.
Solve real problems by aligning your organisation with the world’s genomics standards. We offer software dvelopers both customisable and out-of-the-box solutions to help you get started.
Learn more about upcoming GA4GH events. See reports and recordings from our past events.
Speak directly to the global genomics and health community while supporting GA4GH strategy.
Be the first to hear about the latest GA4GH products, upcoming meetings, new initiatives, and more.
Questions? We would love to hear from you.
Read news, stories, and insights from the forefront of genomic and clinical data use.
Attend an upcoming GA4GH event, or view meeting reports from past events.
See new projects, updates, and calls for support from the Work Streams.
Read academic papers coauthored by GA4GH contributors.
Listen to our podcast OmicsXchange, featuring discussions from leaders in the world of genomics, health, and data sharing.
Check out our videos, then subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content.
View the latest GA4GH updates, Genomics and Health News, Implementation Notes, GDPR Briefs, and more.
Discover all things GA4GH: explore our news, events, videos, podcasts, announcements, publications, and newsletters.
In a public health emergency like a pandemic or epidemic, standard research behaviour and protocols must change. Research must be conducted at a faster pace. Data sharing needs to occur in real time, with easily accessible data. Accurate research results need to be made publicly available in a timely manner, to support data-driven decision-making when responding to a disease outbreak.
However, all of these changes significantly increase the likelihood of unethical practices. To address this, the GA4GH Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream (REWS), in collaboration with the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) Ethics and Data Sharing Working Group, is designing an ethics framework for use during pandemics and epidemics. The Ethical Preparedness for Pandemics and Epidemics (EPPE) Framework will help ensure science can be conducted both quickly and ethically.
Researchers, clinicians, clinical laboratories, data generators, data custodians, data access committees, ethics review committees, data protection authorities, funding agencies, research participants & patient communities, security officers, and research institutes
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There is a need for ethical preparedness during pandemics and epidemics. For example, at GA4GH Connect in April 2023, investigative journalist Emmanuel Freudenthal presented on the unethical handling of blood samples during and after the 2014 to 2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which he compared to the recent COVID-19 pandemic response.
Standards development organisations, such as GA4GH and PHA4GE, can play a key role in ensuring ethical conduct for future pandemics and epidemics. Work in the GA4GH Infectious Disease Community led to the development of the EPPE group.
EPPE will be a practical tool — a framework — that researchers and scientists can use when conducting human-pathogen genomics research during pandemics and epidemics. The aim of the framework is to ensure that, despite research occurring at a faster pace, it is still conducted in an ethical and equitable manner.
This group meets to develop a framework for the responsible use of human genomic data during pandemics and epidemics.
Catch up with all news and articles associated with Ethical Preparedness for Pandemics and Epidemics (EPPE) Framework.