NEWS
Norway signs the 1 Million Genomes Declaration
We are very happy that Norway recently signed the European Declaration 'Towards access to at least 1 Million sequenced genomes in the EU by 2022'. This initiative aims to link genomic information across borders, and ELIXIR Norway is ready to contribute with crucial infrastructure in this effort, along with ELIXIR nodes all over Europe.
Sharing of genomic data across borders is a multi-facetted challenge, due to the sensitive nature of the data, and various regional and national jurisdictions. ELIXIR is well positioned to respond to this challenge, and the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) may play a central part forward. This archive permits permanent archival and sharing of genetic and phenotypic human data, with controlled access. A federated network of EGAs is currently being developed within national ELIXIR nodes, and ELIXIR Norway is in the front with the other Nordic countries through the Tryggve collaboration. In Tryggve, we are developing secure solutions for sharing sensitive data, and will soon have the first Federated EGA pilot in production. In this way, we ensure secure local storage of genomic data (in Norway through TSD, the national services for sensitive data), whilst facilitating collaborative analysis and providing controlled access to data.
Norway is currently represented by Professor Eivind Hovig, who is involved in Work Group 4, Good Genomic Practise.
The importance of this project e.g. for patients with rare diseases was recently emphasised in the Norwegian newspaper VG, read more here (Norwegian only).
(image: European Commission)