Passports

Contains a researcher’s securely-encoded “Visas,” which allow access to genomic datasets

Overview

Summary Benefits Target users Announcements

For researchers to leverage the vast genomic data and computational resources available today, it is crucial to enable fast and secure access across numerous systems. As the amount of genomic data generated around the globe has increased exponentially, so has the number of data access requests. To streamline the data access process and support data access committees (DACs), the GA4GH Data Use & Researcher Identities (DURI) Work Stream developed the Passports specification. Passports contain a researcher’s “Visas,” which unlock datasets they are authorised to access. The passports specification provides a data model for encoding information about the researcher, along with their acquired data access permissions, in a way that cannot be tampered with.

Image summary -

The Passports specification builds a secure infrastructure for granting researchers access to datasets.

Benefits

Helps enable automation of data access requests through attribute-based access control
Supports federated analysis
Can be implemented for registered- and controlled-access datasets

Target users

Researchers, data access committees, data protection authorities, developers, and security officers

Announcements

Date	Title
4 August 2026	New Product in Action: Greater Bay Area Bioinformatics Center leverages GA4GH standards to navigate data sovereignty and advance genomic research in China
29 January 2026	New GA4GH implementation story: Rakeiora Genomics Platform in New Zealand
30 September 2025	Join the next "Ask Me Anything" session featuring GA4GH Passports

Title	Related Driver Projects and Organisations
Australian Genomics Data Management Systems	Australian Genomics
Biomedical Research Hub (BRH)	Biomedical Research Hub (BRH)
ELIXIR European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)	European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)
ELIXIR-Beacon	ELIXIR Beacon
Federated EGA	European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA), EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Centre for Genomic Regulation
Life Science AAI	ELIXIR Cloud and AAI
NCPI Interoperability Projects and partners	NIH Cloud Platform Interoperability (NCPI) effort
Omics AI	Autism Sharing Initiative

Share your implementation

Publications Documents Videos

Publications

Title	Author(s)	Year
Rakeiora Genomics Platform: a pathfinder for genomic medicine research in Aotearoa New Zealand	Rye, C.E. et al. Rye, C.E., Puketapu-Watson, H., Wihongi, H., Te Aika, B., de Ligt, J., Print, C.G., Tsai, P., Curran, B., Jones, N., Huh, J, Owen Perkins, E., Pestle, M., Zhao, K., Halytskyy, Y., Robertson, S.P., Halliday, B.J., Goodin, E., Markie, D.M., Lamont, A., Wilcox, P.	2025
International federation of genomic medicine databases using GA4GH standards	Thorogood, A. et al. Thorogood, A., Rehm, H.L., Goodhand, P., Page, A.J.H., Joly, Y., Baudis, M., Rambla, J., Navarro, A., Nyronen, T.H., Linden, M., Dove, E.S., Fiume, M., Brudno, M., Cline, M.S., Birney, E.	2021
GA4GH Passport standard for digital identity and access permissions	Voisin, C. et al. Voisin, C., Linden, M., Dyke, S.O.M., Bowers, S.R., Alper, P., Barkley, M.P., Bernick, D., Chao, J., Courtot, M., Jeanson, F., Konopko, M.A., Kuba, M., Lawson, J., Leinonen, J., Li, S., Ota Wang, V., Philippakis, A.A., Reinold, K., Rushton, G.A., Spalding, J.D., Törnroos, J., Tulchinsky, I., Guidry Auvil, J.M., Nyrönen, T.H.	2021
Simplifying research access to genomics and health data with Library Cards	Cabili, M.N. et al. Cabili, M.N., Carey, K., Dyke, S.O.M., Brookes, A.J., Fiume, M., Jeanson, F., Kerry, G., Lash, A., Sofia, H., Spalding, J.D., Tassé, A., Varma, S., Pandya, R.	2018
Registered access: authorizing data access	Dyke, S.O.M. et al. Dyke, S.O.M., Linden, M., Lappalainen, I., De Argila, J.R., Carey, K., Lloyd, D., Spalding, J.D., Cabili, M.N., Kerry, G., Foreman, J., Cutts, T., Shabani, M., Rodriguez, L.L., Haeussler, M., Walsh, B., Jiang, X., Wang, S., Perrett, D., Boughtwood, T., Matern, A., Brookes, A.J., Cupak, M., Fiume, M., Pandya, R., Tulchinsky, I., Scollen, S., Törnroos, J., Das, S., Evans, A.C., Malin, B.A., Beck, S., Brenner, S.E., Nyrönen, T., Blomberg, N., Firth, H.V., Hurles, M.E., Philippakis, A.A., Rätsch, G., Brudno, M., Boycott, K.M., Rehm, H.L., Baudis, M., Sherry, S.T., Kato, K., Knoppers, B.M., Baker, D., Flicek, P.	2018

Documents

Date	Title
13 November 2025	GA4GH Implementation Forum (GIF) Ask Me Anything: Passports, Visas, and AAI
14 September 2023	Code of Ethics and Community Conduct (CECC)
17 January 2022	Working document: Passports v1.2 work-order token proposal (January 2022)
14 December 2020	Meeting minutes: Passports (2021 to 2022)

Videos

	Date	Title
	24 June 2020	Using the GA4GH toolkit: GA4GH Passports part 2 (technical deep dive)
	18 June 2020	Using the GA4GH toolkit: GA4GH Passports part 1

Contributors Driver Projects

Contributors

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Get in touch

Sarion BowersPassports LeadWellcome Sanger Institute (WSI), Hinxton, UK
Martin KubaPassports LeadMasaryk University, Brno, Czechia, ELIXIR Cloud and AAI, International
Max BarkleyDNAstack, Toronto
David BernickBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, US
Rebecca BoylesRTI International
Michael BrudnoUniversity Health Network, Toronto, Canada
Moran CabiliFoundation Medicine, Inc., Cambridge
Salvador Capella-GutierrezBarcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona
Knox CareyIntertrust Technologies Corporation, Sunnyvale
Shu Hui ChenNIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Bethesda
Tom ConnerBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, US
Mélanie CourtotOntario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), Toronto, Canada
Jaime DelgadoUniversitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Megan DoerrSage Bionetworks, Seattle
Ian ForeNIH National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
Mallory FreebergEMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Hinxton, UK
David GlazerVerily, South San Francisco, CA, USA
Jaime Guidry AuvilNIH National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda
Dean HartleyAutism Speaks, Princeton
Francis JeansonDatadex
Fabio LiberanteWellcome Sanger Institute (WSI), Hinxton, UK
Alice MannWellcome Sanger Institute (WSI), Hinxton, UK
Jamal NasirUniversity of Northampton, Northampton
Tommi NyrönenCSC – IT CENTER FOR SCIENCE
Brian O'ConnorNimbus Informatics
Laura PaglioneSpherical Cow Group, New York, NY, USA
Andrew PattersonUniversity of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research, Melbourne
Jimmy PayyappillyEMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Hinxton, UK
Aleksandra RadovanovicVerily, South San Francisco, CA, USA
Kathy ReinoldIndependent Contributor
Kurt RodarmerIndependent Contributor
Christopher SiwyNIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS)
Heidi SofiaNIH National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), Bethesda
Dylan SpaldingCSC – IT CENTER FOR SCIENCE
Jonathan TeddsELIXIR, International
Ilia TulchinskyAlphabet
Susheel VarmaInformation Commissioner's Office
Douglas VoetBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, US
Craig VoisinGoogle LLC, Mountain View
Christina YungOntario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), Toronto, Canada, Indoc Research, Toronto

Driver Projects

Title	Thematic Area
European Joint Programme on Rare Disease (EJP RD)	Rare Disease
ELIXIR Beacon	Rare Disease Cancer Complex Traits Basic Biology
European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)	Rare Disease Cancer Complex Traits Basic Biology
Genomics England	Rare Disease Cancer Complex Traits
ELIXIR Cloud and AAI	Rare Disease Cancer Complex Traits Basic Biology