ELIXIR has awarded €124,000 in infrastructure service funding to support the Beacon network. Beacon joins two other funded infrastructure services, the ELIXIR Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI) and the ELIXIR Training e-Support System (TeSS). The funding will support operational activities such as maintenance and governance at three ELIXIR Nodes: ELIXIR Spain, ELIXIR Switzerland, and ELIXIR Finland.
Infrastructure service funding supports management and delivery of stable ELIXIR services that are difficult to sustain through alternative mechanisms. Services are identified and developed through multi-year consultation with ELIXIR Heads of Nodes, service providers, and user communities.
Beacon is a standard for data discovery and sharing in biomedical genomics, launched in 2014 by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). Originally implemented as a simple protocol to determine if a given genetic variant exists in the queried genomics resources, the protocol has evolved significantly. Current versions support flexible data discovery across genomic, pheno-clinical and procedural parameters and can accommodate differential response scenarios, all whilst the implementing data centres retain full control.
Since 2015, ELIXIR has supported the Beacon project through a series of short-term initiatives. These have included the delivery of the ELIXIR Beacon Network as a service and the development and promotion of the GA4GH Beacon standard v2.0, approved in 2022. Beacon has also been a key component of the European Genomic Data Infrastructure (GDI) starter kit since 2022. Coordinated by ELIXIR, GDI is the open technology platform enabling access to genomic and related phenotypic and clinical data across Europe as part of the 1+MG initiative.
More recently, development of the ELIXIR Beacon Network service has led to a reference implementation for federated data discovery, with participation from ELIXIR Nodes and international centres. The Beacon protocol remains under continuous development, with v2.2.0 just released, reflecting feedback from a growing community of implementers.
Funding from ELIXIR will provide Beacon with additional stability, supporting researchers and clinicians to rapidly identify the existence of data fulfilling specified criteria across multiple datasets prior to downloading or requesting secure access.