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About the Framework

Intro to 1+MG, B1MG, and GDI

The 1+ Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative aims to enable secure access to genomics and the corresponding clinical data across Europe for better research, personalised healthcare and health policy making. Since the Digital Day 2018, 25 EU countries plus the United Kingdom and Norway signed the Member States’ Declaration ‘Towards access to at least 1 million sequenced genomes in the EU by 2022. This plan consists of stepping up efforts towards creating a European data infrastructure for genomic data and implementing common national rules enabling federated data access. The initiative forms part of the EU’s agenda for the Digital Transformation of Health and Care and is aligned with the goals of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). The updated 1+MG Roadmap, published in Q3, 2023, sets out the priorities for the period 2023-2027.

The Beyond 1 Million Genomes (B1MG) project helped to create a network of genetic and clinical data across Europe. The project provided coordination and support to the 1+ Million Genomes Initiative (1+MG). This initiative was a commitment of 25 EU countries and Norway to give cross-border access to one million sequenced genomes by 2022. But B1MG went ‘beyond’ the 1+MG Initiative by creating long-term means of sharing data beyond 2022, and enabling access to beyond 1 million genomes.

The Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project is enabling access to genomic and related phenotypic and clinical data across Europe. It is doing this by establishing a federated, sustainable and secure infrastructure to access the data. It builds on the outputs of the Beyond 1 Million Genomes (B1MG) project and is realising the ambition of the 1+Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative.

Framework Contents and EC Projects

The 1+MG Framework is meant to provide a user friendly interface to navigate the guidelines and recommendations provided by the 1+MG Working Groups and the project supporting the initiative across the different phases of its implementation: currently the European GDI project.

About the 1+MG framework

It contains the set of agreed outputs and guidance on:

  • ELSI aspects to be considered to ensure data is properly consented and Data access committees and/or permit authorities have appropriate guidance while granting access to data.
  • Data standards to be applied to fulfil FAIR principles
  • Technical Infrastructure standards and APIs to be implemented
  • Data quality guidelines
  • Tools and guidance for Node and country advancement

Realising vision for European Healthcare

B1MG defined the initial architecture, shared interfaces, and possible virtualisation platforms required to achieve technical interoperability. In addition, the proposed infrastructure must support semantic interoperability, so a variety of international standards were proposed to support this. The below EOSC Interoperability Layers (adapted from Nictiz NL) have been considered throughout the development in the 1+MG resources to enable broad European interoperability of the infrastructure.

B1MG objectives for interoperability EOSC model

A 1+MG Glossary of terms is available here to help you understand and navigate this Framework.

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