Is FEGA Sweden the right archive?
Before you start working on a submission, you should ask yourself whether FEGA Sweden is the right place to store and share your data. This guide will help you assess whether FEGA Sweden is suitable for your data. If you need help with the assessment, please write to the FEGA Sweden Helpdesk.
What types of data can FEGA Sweden receive?
FEGA Sweden is intended for sensitive human biomedical research data that require controlled access. We can receive several types of omics and related biomedical data, including sequence data, variants, array-based data, phenotypes, and GWAS summary statistics.
Some data types fit directly into the FEGA/EGA metadata model. Other data types may still be possible to submit, but may need to be described using more general analysis metadata. This means that the level of metadata support can vary depending on the data type.
If you are unsure whether FEGA Sweden is suitable for your data, please contact the FEGA Sweden Helpdesk before you begin.
Does my data require controlled access?
Sensitive personal data cannot normally be shared publicly due to legal and ethical constraints. FEGA Sweden makes it possible to share sensitive personal data under controlled access. This means that access to any submitted file will be determined by a formal application procedure. If your data do not require controlled access, you should consider an alternative repository, such as the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA).
Is my data from a Swedish research project?
FEGA Sweden is a national node of the Federated EGA that primarily hosts data from Swedish research projects. You are welcome to contact us if you want to discuss whether different parts of your data should be submitted to different repositories. If it is unclear whether your data should be considered to come from a Swedish research project, for example in the case of an international collaboration, you are also welcome to contact us.
Why use FEGA Sweden rather than submit directly to EGA?
FEGA Sweden exists to give Swedish organisations a national route into the EGA ecosystem. This means that sensitive data files are deposited and stored in Sweden, while public metadata can still be indexed in EGA and made discoverable internationally.
This can be important if the organisation responsible for the data does not want, or is not able, to deposit sensitive personal data files directly in the central EGA archive. Reasons may include requirements to keep sensitive personal data stored in Sweden, the legal status of EMBL-EBI within EMBL as an international organisation with its own data protection framework, or whether the standard EGA Data Processing Agreement fits local requirements.
The organisation responsible for the data should make its own legal, data protection, and information security assessment. FEGA Sweden can provide information about the Swedish setup and help identify which questions need to be clarified.