What is FEGA?
- Federated European Genome-phenome Archive: a global resource supporting and maximizing the discovery of, and secure access to, sensitive human data.
- Repository for human genomic, phenotypic and clinical data.
- One national node per country that stores data locally; Swiss FEGA in Switzerland.
- Available datasets searchable via the Central EGA catalogue (public metadata).
- Compliant with national data protection regulations, national genomics initiatives, and data governance.
- See the FEGA website for more information.
Why deposit your data in Swiss FEGA?
- Get your work published by complying with journal and funder requirements for data availability (e.g., accession codes).
- Allow data sharing and reuse within the genomic and bioinformatic communities – in line with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and compatible with interoperability standards adopted by global initiatives (e.g. GA4GH, ELIXIR, 1+ Million Genome Initiative, GDI).
- Promote your work within the European and global scientific communities.
- Help Switzerland unlock patient ‘-omics’ data to boost healthcare research and personalized medicine.
- Ensure your shared data remains in Switzerland under the Swiss law and regulations.
- Free core archiving services; there may be costs for additional services such as data processing on Trusted Research Environments or additional analysis support.
What happens with your data?
- On submission, metadata are stored in the Swiss FEGA portal (powered by FHDportal, hosted on Switch Cloud) where researchers and clinicians can find your data and request access.
- A subset of metadata is pushed to the Central EGA catalogue so researchers and clinicians worldwide can similarly find your data.
- Encrypted data are stored on Switch Cloud, with a copy in their two Zurich data centres.
- Data access is managed by the Data Access Committee (DAC) you nominate, supported by the Swiss DAC platform (provided by the Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC), hosted on Switch Cloud).
- When access is granted, the data can be delivered to requestor organizations or accessed on a Trusted Research Environment (TRE, such as BioMedIT) for decryption and analysis.
Swiss FEGA set up

How do you submit your data?
- Register a Swiss FEGA account using Switch eduID.
- Prepare your metadata for submission, aligning with the EGA metadata schema and validating using tools (e.g. FHDportal CLI) from the Swiss FEGA portal.
- Upload your data and metadata to the Swiss FEGA node via FTP, using the submission form on FHDportal. Note that the submitted data must be encrypted to prevent unauthorized access.
- Sign a Data Transfer and Processing Agreement to let Swiss FEGA handle and publish your dataset.
- Assign a Data Access Committee (either an existing DAC or a new one you create) and an access policy to your dataset.
- Publish your dataset in the Swiss FEGA portal and the metadata in the Central EGA catalogue.
- Contact the Swiss FEGA Helpdesk at support@fega.swiss if you have any questions or need support to submit your data.