Skip to main content
European Commission logo
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
CORDIS Web 30th anniversary CORDIS Web 30th anniversary

A federated FAIR platform enabling large-scale analysis of high-value cohort data connecting Europe and Canada in personalized health

Project description

Europe-Canada personalised medicine connection

Your unique genetic make-up can be used to assess your risk of developing disease, predict disease course, and accordingly tailor treatment. This is the basis of personalised medicine, also known as genomic medicine or precision medicine but adoption of personalised medicine in clinical practice remains low. The EU-funded EUCAN-Connect aims to change this by contributing to the creation of better personalised health strategies. The project will start by analysing the results of large-scale cohort studies conducted in Europe and Canada but most data repositories are scattered. The project aims to ensure large-scale uptake and to deliver solutions for distributed, low-cost data harvesting and preservation, as well as international governance.

Objective

Rapid progress in information and biotechnologies offers the promise of better, personalized health strategies using rich phenotypic, environmental and molecular (omics) profiles of every individual. To capitalize on this great promise, key challenge is to relate these profiles to health and disease while accounting for high diversity in individuals, populations and environments. Both Europe and Canada have long-term investments in population-based prospective cohort studies providing essential longitudinal data. These data must be analysed in unison to reach statistical power, however, presently cohort data repositories are scattered, hard to search and integrate, and data protection and governance rules discourage central pooling.

EUCAN-Connect will enable large-scale integrated cohort data analysis for personalized and preventive healthcare across EU and Canada. This will be based on an open, scalable data platform for cohorts, researchers and networks, incorporating FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) for optimal reuse of existing data, and building on maturing federated technologies, with sensitive data kept locally and only results being shared and integrated, in line with key ELSI and governance guidelines. Widespread uptake will be promoted via beyond state-of-the-art research in close collaboration with leading cohort networks, focused on early-life origins of cardio-metabolic, developmental, musculoskeletal and respiratory health and disease impacting human life course.

To address challenges of sustainability and curation, we will deliver innovative solutions for distributed, low-cost data harvesting and preservation, community curation/harmonization, privacy protection, open source bioinformatics toolbox development, and international governance. EUCAN-Connect platform and collaborations will be coordinated through BBMRI-ERIC (EU) and Maelstrom Research (Canada) to sustain long-term benefits to science and citizens worldwide.

Call for proposal

H2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SC1-2018-Single-Stage-RTD

Coordinator

ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS GRONINGEN
Net EU contribution
€ 1 787 610,00
Address
HANZEPLEIN 1
9713 GZ Groningen
Netherlands

See on map

Region
Noord-Nederland Groningen Overig Groningen
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 799 310,00

Participants (14)