Regulatory & EthicsRegulatory & Ethics Work Stream (REWS)

Develops community-driven policies, tools, and standards that address regulatory and ethical considerations in genomic research and international data sharing.

The GA4GH Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream (REWS) offers guidance on the regulatory, ethical, and social implications of genomic research and data sharing, building on the human right to benefit from science. The Work Stream develops community-driven tools, standards, and policies that foster common practices across countries, sectors, and institutions.

REWS is a foundational Work Stream, which means it formally reviews all GA4GH products during the approval process.

Please note that the team is in the process of updating REWS product information to reflect the Work Stream's current activities. If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please contact rews-coordinator@ga4gh.org.

Built on a novel human rights framework, REWS creates and harmonises forward-looking consent and privacy policies, and anticipatory data governance models.
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Built on a novel human rights framework, REWS creates and harmonises forward-looking consent and privacy policies, and anticipatory data governance models.

Announcements

Date Title
3 March 2026 The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Product Steering Committee has approved the release of two new Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream products
9 December 2025 GA4GH Public Attitudes blog post discusses how older research participants are motivated to receive genetic results for the benefit of younger relatives
20 November 2025 GA4GH Public Attitudes blog post explores individual attitudes toward medical and genetic data sharing in Latin America and the development of two new indexes
30 October 2025 GA4GH Public Attitudes blog post explores the role of the ‘commercialisation effect’ in shaping Australians’ attitudes towards a hypothetical national genomic repository
9 September 2025 Two GA4GH Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream products are now open for public comment
24 July 2025 GA4GH Public Attitudes blog post explores the perceived risks of sharing genomic data with researchers
17 June 2025 Policy Brief: will the UK participate in the European Health Data Space?
4 February 2025 GA4GH Policy Brief: children’s data protection and genomic research (part 2: consent and lawful bases)
30 January 2025 GA4GH welcomes new Co-Leads for four Work Streams
23 January 2025 GA4GH Policy Brief: children’s data protection and genomic research (part 1: general considerations)
16 January 2025 Public Attitudes blog post explores public perceptions of international genetic information sharing for biomedical research in China.
5 December 2024 The GA4GH Model Data Access Agreement (DAA) Clauses have been approved as an official GA4GH product
12 November 2024 Approved earlier this year, Diversity in Datasets urges researchers to pursue more than just "ancestral diversity"
29 May 2024 GA4GH submits comments on the WHO’s draft principles for human genome access, use, and sharing
16 November 2023 Join four new GA4GH groups to help shape guidelines for pandemic prep, schema consensus, sequencing metadata, and categorical variants
12 May 2023 Welcome to the new GA4GH website!
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