ELIXIR – IMI OncoTrack scoping study on long-term data handling

The aim of this project was to deposit relevant subsets of data from the IMI OncoTrack project into a data discovery service in the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) or as part of other ELIXIR Node resources (e.g. for long-term hosting of TranSMART instances). It also assessed the cost and complexity of ex-post data sharing efforts for IMI translational research projects.

The results of the scoping study show that the upload of the OncoTrack data to the EGA for long-term storage is technically feasible. The main recommendations of the Implementation study are:

Export of OncoTrack data to the EGA should be done from the OncoTrack database and standard file submission terminologies need to be defined to explain the data types.
To maximise the future use of OncoTrack data and help generalising the results of this scoping study, extensive work has been carried out to establish the optimal mapping of the OncoTrack meta-data to existing EGA objects and attributes.
From the governance point of view, to make the OncoTrack data available from the EGA, a Data Access Committee has been formed and will be funded by the owners of the OncoTrack data.
A Data and Sample Transfer Agreement defining the terms of access to data and biological samples for research use has been drafted and is under review by the OncoTrack data owners.
A draft Data Processing Agreement between the OncoTrack data owners, ELIXIR and the EGA, defining the terms and conditions for the storage of the OncoTrack data is in preparation.