Public Webinar on the Draft Genomic Data Sharing Policy

On November 6, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will host a webinar to provide an overview of the draft Genomic Data Sharing Policy and answer questions from the community. This past September, NIH began seeking public comments on the draft GDS policy, which promotes the sharing, for research purposes, of large-scale, human and nonhuman genomic data generated from NIH-supported and NIH-conducted research.

Dr. Kathy Hudson, NIH Deputy Director for Science, Outreach, and Policy, will make opening remarks. The meeting is free and open to the public. As part of the webinar registration process, NIH asks the public to submit questions on the draft policy that may be addressed during the webinar. 

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Webinar Details

Register

To register for the webinar and submit questions, please go to:  http://gds.nih.gov/webinar_reg.html

Join the Webinar

To join the webinar on November 6, please use the information below:

Web:  https://webmeeting.nih.gov/gdswebinar/
Conference Number: 1-855-747-8824
Participant Code: 1392178379

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About the Draft GDS Policy

The NIH's mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. The draft GDS Policy supports this mission by promoting the sharing of genomic research data, which maximizes the knowledge gained. Not only does data sharing allow data generated from one research study to be used to explore a wide range of additional research questions, it also enables data from multiple projects to be combined, amplifying the scientific value of data many times. Broad research use of the data enhances public benefit by helping to speed discoveries that increase the understanding of biological processes that affect human health and the development of better ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. 

The draft GDS Policy applies to research involving nonhuman genomic data as well as human data that are generated through array-based and high-throughput genomic technologies (e.g., SNP, whole-genome, transcriptomic, epigenomic and gene expression data). (See section II of the draft Policy.) The NIH considers access to such data particularly important because of the opportunities to accelerate research through the power of combining such large and information-rich datasets. The draft GDS Policy is aligned with Administration priorities and a recent directive to agencies to increase access to digital scientific data resulting from federally funded research.

To read the draft Policy and comment, go to http://www.federalregister.gov/a/2013-22941.