The Genome of Europe (GoE) project has launched to create a European reference genome, advancing medicine and public health policies.
A meeting held on 30–31 October marked the launch of this ambitious initiative, involving 51 institutes across 27 European nations and BioData.pt was well represented by Ana Teresa Freitas. The project has a budget of nearly €45 million, with €20 million financed through the Digital Europe Programme.
By early 2028, in line with the goals of the 1+MG Initiative, the GoE will address the fragmentation of genetic data across Member States. This unified data resource will support groundbreaking research in disease prevention, diagnosis, and personalised treatments, benefitting areas such as rare diseases and cancer.
The GoE will also integrate with the Genomic Data Infrastructure project, another Digital Europe initiative, providing access to genomic data for research and healthcare. A proposed European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) for genomics could further enable secondary data use, contributing to the European Health Data Space (EHDS).