Belgium officially joins the “1+M genomes” initiative of the European Commission.
We live in an era where Genomics becomes increasingly important. Genomics has the potential to impact healthcare organization in many ways. It could lead to the development of more targeted personalised medicines, therapies and interventions. It could also enable better diagnostics, boost prevention and make more efficient use of scarce resources. From cancer, to rear diseases, brain related diseases or prevention.
The Declaration on genomics cooperation: ‘Towards access to at least 1 million sequenced genomes in the EU by 2022’, was launched on Digital Day 2018 and is signed already by 22 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK) and, since 14 June 2019, by Norway. It is part of the EU’s agenda for the Digital Transformation of Health and Care, as set out in its recently adopted Communication.
To meet the target of having over one million genomes sequenced by the end of 2022, in February 2020, the signatories of the 1+ Million Genomes initiative adopted the ‘1+MG Roadmap 2020-2022’. The Roadmap has been established to provide a clear perspective for tangible outcomes over the course of the next three years and can be easily discovered in the new brochure.
The Horizon 2020 project “Beyond 1 Million Genomes” will support and coordinate the implementation of the Roadmap in the coming years by leading up to an agreement on the infrastructure, the legal guidance and the best practices to enable this access. However, it will look also ‘beyond’ the initiative and drive further the development of a data sharing infrastructure to ensure its sustainability and provide the means necessary for clinicians to pursue personalised medicine and benefit their patients, scientists to better understand diseases, and innovators contribute to and boost the European economy.
Beyond 1 million Genomes EU website
Beyond 1 million Genomes BE Mirror group website