Connecting Genomics Across Borders: GHGA at the GA4GH National Initiatives Forum

On 28 September 2026, Prof. Juliane Winkelmann, member of the Board of Directors of GHGA, spoke in the Genomics Infrastructure session of the GA4GH National Initiatives Forum. The forum took place alongside the 14th GA4GH  Plenary. Prof. Winkelmann sat on the panel with Richard Scott (Genomics England) and Nicola Mulder (H3Africa), moderated by Wendi Bacon (HDR UK).

The discussion highlighted how national and regional initiatives are building genomics data infrastructures to meet different needs. GHGA is federated, with six data hubs and one access point. Genomics England runs a central Trusted Research Environment and is moving it to the cloud. H3Africa is linking national initiatives across a continent. Many African countries do not allow data to leave their borders, so H3Africa relies on federation.

Despite these different approaches, the speakers reported similar experiences. All of them use GA4GH standards, and said these work best when they are simple and come with starter kits. GHGA and H3Africa both highlighted the difficulties submitters face in providing detailed metadata. Several programs are moving to secure environments where researchers analyse data in place instead of downloading it. Across the discussion, funding and governance were described as harder to solve than the technology.

This is why such exchanges matter. There is no single right architecture, because the best choice depends on legal frameworks, funding, and health systems in each country. Yet programs face similar questions and can learn from one another, and shared standards make it easier to connect national infrastructures across borders in the future. For GHGA, such forums are a chance to share our experience and connect the German infrastructure to international developments. As Richard Scott put it during the panel discussion, “We are all on the journey together.”

GHGA thanks the NIF co-chairs and organisers for the invitation. The whole session is available on Youtube.