About us
Learn how GA4GH helps expand responsible genomic data use to benefit human health.
GA4GH Implementation Forum
Diverse scientific and clinical groups meet in the GA4GH Implementation Forum (GIF), from rare disease research teams to national initiatives stewarding thousands of human genomes. They find ways that GA4GH products can solve real-world problems.
Empowering science through interoperability
When GA4GH products work together, scientists can study more data from more places. This leads to new genomic discoveries that improve healthcare.
To support implementers around the globe, GIF runs pilot projects that demonstrate how GA4GH products can power such end-to-end solutions.
In GIF, multiple institutions tackle problems together — leading to more interoperable systems. Participants include Individual Contributors, Driver Projects, Organisational Members, and Strategic Partners. They find and fix pain points to help future adopters of GA4GH products.
GIF Projects get dedicated staff support and a sounding board of genomics leaders from the GA4GH community. By joining GIF, genomic data sharing initiatives can take advantage of this valuable network of expertise and solve their real-world challenges.
Open for Comment
To support initiatives and organisations in adopting GA4GH standards, GIF aims to create two initiatives: GIF Projects and GIF Ask Me Anything (AMA) programmes. The project proposal documents are now open for comment. Please leave any feedback directly in the documents below by 10 December 2024.
GIF Projects
The GIF Project document outlines characteristics of a GIF project, and support mechanisms available to ensure success.
GIF "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) programmes
The GIF AMA programme document outlines a new GIF event and resources that will enable product teams and current and future implementers to gather and get their implementation questions answered.
Three strategies
GIF Projects use three strategies to achieve interoperability. These strategies build on the 2020 Connection Demos, which simulated how a researcher can search, access, and analyse genomic data using GA4GH standards.
The “horizontal” demo showed interoperability across data providers. The “vertical” demo showed interoperability between standards. The “cross-platform” demo showed interoperability between both providers and standards. Learn more about the Connection Demos in a webinar and podcast.
What do you want to achieve with GA4GH products?
01
Horizontal interoperability
Reliably produce the same research results regardless of your choice of platform.
02
Vertical interoperability
Integrate a comprehensive suite of GA4GH standards within your institution to answer a scientific inquiry.
03
Cross-platform interoperability
Conduct real-world disease research using data and services across institutions.
Leadership
Alastair Thomson
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)GIF Lead
Driver Project Champion for: NHLBI BioData Catalyst® (BDC)
GIF projects
GIF projects aim to put GA4GH products into practice in real-world scenario. Explore our current GIF projects below. Have a use case that would make a good GIF project? Propose a project or see eligibility criteria.
Federated Variant-Level Matching (VLM) Project
The VLM project aims to support a global federated network of genomic databases, powered by GA4GH standards.
Want to implement GA4GH products now?
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Implementation examples
Learn how other organisations have implemented GA4GH products to solve real-world problems.
Developer resources
Explore our customisable and out-of-the-box solutions to help you get started.