Below are details of the various committees and working groups that govern the working of the Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnership (GeCIP).

GeCIP Board

Chair: Professor Dame Kay Davies

The GeCIP Board is tasked with overseeing and steering GeCIP. It acts as a focus for co-ordination of GeCIP activities, including aspects of strategy and disease area or funding opportunities and meets twice a year.

It is comprised of:

• representatives from funders (National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK);
• a representative from the Genomics England Scientific Advisory Committee;
• the Genomics England Chief Scientist, Prof Mark Caulfield;
• a patient representative;
• and a representative from each of the Cancer, Rare Diseases, and Cross-Cutting arms of GeCIP, as decided by the GeCIP Steering Committee.

GeCIP Steering Committee

Chair: Genomics England Chief Scientist, Prof Mark Caulfield

The GeCIP Steering Committee is a subcommittee of the GeCIP Board and is comprised of representatives from each of the different domains. For convenience, it has been split into three separate sub-committees along the lines of Cancer, Rare Diseases, and Cross-Cutting domains. The plan is for these sub committees to meet regularly, and for there to be a single meeting each year where all domain representatives meet as one. It's main activities include:

• evaluating reports and plans from the GeCIP and advise the GeCIP Board on the success, functionality or otherwise of the Domains;
• advising the GeCIP Board on the need to form new Domains;
• advising the domains and the GeCIP Board on tasks or work packages to progress the Genomics England programme in a timely and efficient manner according to the Project Plan and associated milestones;
• overseeing and advising on appropriateness of grant plans, authorship or publication plans and membership of Domain.

Access Review Committee

Chair: Prof Jonathan Knowles

The Access Review Committee (ARC) has been established as a vital advisory body within the 100,000 Genomes Project. The primary purpose of the ARC is to provide an independent examination of requests for data access based on the principles in the Data Access and Acceptable Uses Policy of Genomics England, and as outlined in the Research Ethics Committee (REC) approved 100,000 Genomes Project Protocol.

The ARC delivers decisions to approve, decline, or amend requests for access to data. Such decisions are made taking into account factors such as: the nature of the research, the proportionality of the dataset size, and the risk of identifiability. External sources of expertise may be called upon to assist the decision-making process by evaluating the perceived potential risks. This mechanism will be in place to ensure the dataset is being put to responsible research activities. 

The ARC also approves the research plans of each GeCIP domain. Once approved, and research has begun the GeCIP domain will have to give regular updates to the ARC on its progress.

If you would like to find out more about the members of ARC please visit the Genomics England website.

Publication Committee

Chair: Prof Sir John Bell

The Publication Committee (PC), convenes to review all potential publications produced through use of the Project dataset. The committee works to ensure that all potential publications are in accordance with the Genomics England Publication Policy. The PC will make decisions to approve or decline, requests for potential publications to be approved for release outside the Research Environment. Such decisions are made taking into account that the Protocol, policies and standard operating procedures relating to publication are complied with and any conflicts of interest are resolved.

Scientific Advisory Committee

Chair: Prof Sir John Bell

The Scientific Advisory Committee is commissioned with ensuring the Genomics England has access to the best possible scientific advice. The committee advises on all aspects of the 100,000 Genomes Project and is asked to ratify many aspects of the project from sample collection, through disease or tumour type selection, to the individual GeCIP Domain's research plans.