Making one million genomes accessible in the EU by 2022 is the objective that 13 member states set out during Digital Day on Tuesday 10 April. They co-signed a declaration that will provide the foundations for shared access to genomic databanks.
The Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, informed the 650 participants that, “The progress achieved in sequencing technologies has been significant over recent years: today, less than €1,000 is required to generate an equivalent amount of data”. She added, “Genomics is shifting from a specialist domain to being fully integrated into the health systems themselves. This makes the dream possible to access personalised healthcare, whilst improving health and reducing costs".
The declaration for cross-border access to genomic information was co-signed by the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece are also committed to signing the declaration.
In practice, the nine page document supports the following threefold objective: bringing together fragmented infrastructure and expertise; leveraging and maximising the investments already made by Member States at national and EU level, particularly in sequencing, bio banking and data infrastructure; Reaching a larger cohort that will provide a sufficient scale for new clinically impactful research. The draft also calls on the European Commission to provide support for this initiative, particularly by mobilising the Horizon 2020 and Connecting Europe Facility financing programmes and by focusing on them the next multi-annual financial framework. The text of the declaration for shared access to genomic and other data can be consulted here: https://bit.ly/2HbfUp2 . (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)