GDI — European Genomic Data Infrastructure

Overview

The European Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) project is a €40M Horizon Europe-funded initiative (2022–2026) deploying a federated, secure, and sustainable infrastructure to provide approved researchers and clinicians with access to genomic and related phenotypic and clinical data across Europe. Coordinated by ELIXIR with 22 partner institutions across 21 EU countries, GDI implements the 1+MG Framework guidelines in practice, using GA4GH APIs — including Beacon for federated variant queries, Data Repository Service (DRS) for data access, and Data Use Ontology (DUO) for machine-readable consent — as its core technical layer. Federated EGA national nodes serve as the controlled-access repository backbone, while BBMRI-ERIC biobank networks provide the primary data holdings. GDI is the technical implementation of the 1+ Million Genomes (1+MG) initiative — the commitment of 24 EU countries to enable cross-border access to one million sequenced genomes — and is explicitly aligned with the EHDS secondary use framework, positioning it as a reference implementation for federated genomic access within the European health data space.

Connections

• relatedTo: ELIXIR (ELIXIR coordinates GDI national node operations and provides shared technical infrastructure)
• implements: 1+MG Framework (GDI is the primary infrastructure project implementing the Framework’s technical and governance recommendations)
• relatedTo: GA4GH (GDI implements GA4GH Beacon, DRS, and DUO as its core federated query and access APIs)
• relatedTo: EGA (Federated EGA national nodes are the controlled-access repository layer of GDI, allowing countries to host sensitive genomic data locally while maintaining central discoverability)
• relatedTo: BBMRI-ERIC (BBMRI-ERIC biobank networks across Europe are the primary data holders feeding data into GDI)
• relatedTo: EHDS (GDI is aligned with the EHDS secondary use framework and is a reference implementation for federated genomic data access within the European health data space)

Resources

• https://gdi.onemilliongenomes.eu
• https://dashboard.onemilliongenomes.eu (European Genome Dashboard — federated genomic data discovery portal)
• https://zenodo.org/record/7590822 (B1MG Secure Access Demonstrator — proof-of-concept specification for GDI’s federated cross-border data access architecture)