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Learn how GA4GH helps expand responsible genomic data use to benefit human health.
Passports
Contains a researcher’s securely-encoded “Visas,” which allow access to genomic datasets
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.
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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
Image summary: The Passports specification builds a secure infrastructure for granting researchers access to datasets.
THEME
CATEGORY
TYPE
STATUS
Work Streams
LATEST VERSION
Product Leads
- Martin Kuba
- Sarion Bowers
Staff Contact
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Publications
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Dive deeper into this product! With the rise of genomic sequencing for both research and healthcare, researchers have potential access to more useful data than ever before; data access and its ability to scale are crucial. Consistently defining who is a bona fide researcher, and standardising how data access rights are expressed, can help expedite or automate the data access process. Passports provides a data model for encoding information about a user, along with their acquired data access permission as “Visas.” The specification aims to standardise the way the genomics and health community communicates a user’s data access authorisations and move towards role-based access control between institutions and data stores.
Date
Version
13 Jan 2023
15 Jul 2021
Date
Title
15 Dec 2023
14 Sep 2023
14 Dec 2020
Australian Genomics
Biomedical Research Hub (BRH)
European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA)
ELIXIR Beacon
European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA), EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Centre for Genomic Regulation
ELIXIR Cloud and AAI
NIH Cloud Platform Interoperability (NCPI) effort
Autism Sharing Initiative
Don't see your name? Get in touch:
- Max Barkley
DNAstack - David Bernick
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard - Sarion Bowers
Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) - Rebecca Boyles
RTI International - Michael Brudno
University Health Network - Moran Cabili
Foundation Medicine, Inc. - Salvador Capella-Gutierrez
Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Knox Carey
Intertrust Technologies Corporation - Shu Hui Chen
NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) - Thomas Conner
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard - Mélanie Courtot
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) - Jaime Delgado
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) - Megan Doerr
Sage Bionetworks - Ian Fore
NIH National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) - Mallory Freeberg
EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) - David Glazer
Verily - Jaime Guidry Auvil
NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI) - Dean Hartley
Autism Speaks - Francis Jeanson
Datadex - Martin Kuba
Masaryk University, ELIXIR Cloud and AAI - Fabio Liberante
Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) - Alice Mann
Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) - Jamal Nasir
University of Northampton - Tommi Nyrönen
CSC – IT CENTER FOR SCIENCE - Brian O'Connor
Sage Bionetworks - Laura Paglione
Spherical Cow Group - Andrew Patterson
University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research - Jimmy Payyappilly
EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) - Aleksandra Radovanovic
Verily - Kathy Reinold
Independent Contributor - Kurt Rodarmer
Independent Contributor - Christopher Siwy
NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) - Heidi Sofia
NIH National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) - Dylan Spalding
CSC – IT CENTER FOR SCIENCE - Jonathan Tedds
ELIXIR - Ilia Tulchinsky
Alphabet - Susheel Varma
Information Commissioner's Office - Douglas Voet
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard - Craig Voisin
Google LLC - Christina Yung
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), Indoc Research
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