GDI D1.14 2nd GDI quarterly implementation report

The European Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) is a deployment project, co-funded by the Digital Europe programme. GDI's main objective is to realise the data infrastructure required by the 1+MG initiative to share high-quality genotypic and phenotypic data across borders; the 1+MG Virtual Cohort. Countries participating have committed to reach a concrete operational level before the end of the project (progressing across different phases: onboarding, deployment or operational) which will require them to fulfil technical and non-technical requirements.  In addition, the establishment of required technical capacity in each Node has been identified as a critical factor for the success of the project and the long-term sustainability of the data infrastructure and the initiative.

This document presents the results of the initial European Genomic Data Infrastructure monitoring activities layed out in  D1.12 that are initially focussed on:

• the deployment of the technical expertise required to deploy and operate the European Genomic Data Infrastructure to share access to data across borders, building the technical capacity to run the infrastructure beyond the end of the project, and,
• the evolution of the European Genomic Data Infrastructure Nodes. GDI Nodes will transition across different phases in their journey to be fully operational and integrated into the European Genomic Data Infrastructure.
  • (New from this report) Identifying across Nodes capacity building actions required to target onboarding. We acknowledge the different access to skills  and resources each GDI Node has which imply that GDI Nodes will evolve and reach operational readiness at different speeds. We will use the information collected from GDI Nodes to identify gaps and opportunities to build capacity across the Nodes both at technical level and non-technical levels to accelerate the journey across the different phases. In this case we will focus on the onboarding phase

These monitoring processes and tools are aiming to support GDI Nodes in their journey by assessing their progress on a quarterly basis and providing them with useful guidance and recommendations to reach their individual objectives, as well as the project objectives summarised in the commitment to have 6 Nodes technically operational by 2024. This will be extended to 15 Nodes by 2026 with three additional Nodes reaching deployment and two more Nodes reaching onboarding.

A summary of the information collected every quarter will be presented to the 1+MG Group (in addition to be shared with project participants) in order to gather the contributions and support of the 1+MG Group on the direction of travel and their assistance in removing any roadblocks that could be identified.

The information presented here corresponded to the status by M9 ( M8 for the operational readiness as no significant progress has happened over the holiday season). 

The current scope and content of the quarterly report could be updated if there is a need to modify it to better support the countries in their commitments or to facilitate reaching the overall project's initiatives. For instance, monitoring of the volume of data available in the European Genome Dashboard or via the 1+MG infrastructure could be implemented in the near future.

B1MG is releasing the beta version of the 1+MG Framework 

  which will be a useful resource to build capacity and facilitate the dissemination of the 1+MG recommendations and guidelines coming from the project to support the implementation ( B1MG, GDI, GoE, EHDS,....). The first official release will take place in October 2023 and should help GDI members to navigate recommendations and understand how the different components work together for GDI, and align with the EHDS. The framework maintenance will continue in GDI after the end of B1MG.