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The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) is an open-membership working body formed in September 2005. The aim of the GSC is making genomic data discoverable. The GSC enables genomic data integration, discovery and comparison through international community-driven standards. Learn more on the Gensc.org/About page.

GSC meetings

The GSC host annual international meetings to promote the use of standards in the life sciences and beyond, with a particular emphasis on sequence data sharing. Each annual meeting is themed around a topic or topics that are relevant to the host organisation and local participants. This year the underlying theme will be the Challenges of Reproducibility in Genomics, and how the use of standards can help overcome those challenges. With the recent movement in the FAIR principles arena towards focusing on machine-readable and actionable data, along with the commitments shown by various National funding agencies towards open and reproducible science, we hope our choice of topic will enable networking of relevant players from standards organisations, funders, and researchers to further the discussions and facilitate a coherent movement towards a more robust future for scientific discovery and dissemination.

GSC past meetings

Please see GSC23-Bangkok and GSC22-Moorea for the previous two GSC meetings.

GSC24 Tucson

The GSC 2024 annual meeting will be located at the University of Arizona’s Bio5 facility. The GSC24 meeting will focus on Challenges of Reproducibility in Genomics with sessions for Standards in Genomic Reproducibility, Virome standards, IMMSA: A year long discussion on data reuse, Genomics and Standards challenges at UofA, Omics Standards including genomic standards pertinent to pathogens, GA4GH experimental data, proteomics and eDNA and concluding with the Discussion of Challenges to Solutions session. Afternoon Working Groups will include CIG - MIxS standards, GA4GH experimental metadata hackathon, TDWG - CIG interactions, NMDC Field Notes mobile app workshop.

The GSC community includes international delegates working in collaborative groups to provide a forum for developing and implementing community-driven standards in genomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics. Participants in the GSC include clinicians, biologists, chemists, computer scientists, and groups building genomic and ‘omic databases, researchers conducting large-scale comparative genomic analyses, and individuals experienced in building community-based genomic standards.

Since its founding in 2005, the GSC’s Mission has focused on making genomic data discoverable, reusable and interoperable through:

  • The implementation of new community-driven genomic standards
  • The establishment of methods of capturing and exchanging metadata
  • Harmonization of metadata collection and analysis efforts across the wider genomics community
  • Advancing the science of genomics and metagenomics
  • Implementing standards for reproducibility across all areas of genomics

GSC24 Daily Agenda Overview:

  • August 5 GSC board meeting – GSC board dinner
  • August 6 GSC main meeting and Opening Reception at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
  • August 7 GSC main meeting and Standards Working Groups
  • August 8 GSC main meeting and Evening Hike Sabino Canyon
  • August 9 GSC main meeting (half day)

Meeting Sessions Theme:

  • Genomic Reproducibility
  • Virome Genomic Standards
  • Challenges of ‘Omic data reuse (International Microbiome and Multi’Omics Standards Alliance)
  • Solutions to Genomic Reproducibility and Standards Challenges

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