Solution Strategy
Governance & Federation
The fundamental strategic decision for 1+MG is Federation.
- No Central Data Lake: Genomic data is too sensitive and voluminous to move. It remains legally and physically within the Member State (National Node)1.
- Bring Compute to Data: Analysis algorithms are containerized (e.g., Nextflow pipelines) and dispatched to the data location, returning only aggregated results.
- Sovereignty First: The architecture prioritizes the Local Data Authority (DAC). No access is granted without a cryptographically verifiable token from the local DAC.
Trust Framework
We employ a Zero Trust approach where identity and authorization are decoupled2.
- Identity (Who are you?): Verified by LS AAI (Life Science Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure). Users log in via their home university or research institute.
- authorization (What can you do?): Managed by GA4GH Passports. DACs issue "Visas" (signed claims) that travel with the user's request. The National Node verifies these Visas before executing any query or workload.
Technology Stack & Standards
To ensure interoperability across 27+ countries, we rely strictly on open standards3.
| Area | Standard / Technology | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | GA4GH Beacon v2 | enabling feasibility queries without exposing raw data. |
| Data Access | GA4GH DRS / htsget | Standardized streaming of large genomic files (VCF/CRAM). |
| Compute | GA4GH WES / WfExS | Abstracting the execution environment. Mandating RO-Crates for packaging. |
| Metadata | HealthDCAT-AP 5.0 | Alignment with EU Health Data Space (EHDS). |
| Containerization | Docker / Singularity | Ensuring reproducible analysis environments. |
| Orchestration | Kubernetes | Managing the lifecycle of microservices and compute jobs. |
Organizational Strategy
- GDI Starter Kit: To support smaller Member States, we provide a "Reference Implementation" (Starter Kit) that can be deployed out-of-the-box to spin up a compliant National Node4. It includes Galaxy Europe integration, Beacon v2, and WfExS.
- Separation of Concerns: The Genome EDIC handles the catalog and governance logic, while Member States handle the storage and compute infrastructure.