In November 2023, the C4IR Serbia and the Office for IT and e-Government of the Government of the Republic of Serbia joined the Genome of Europe consortium, along with the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (IMGGE). The consortium consists of 29 European countries, with only 3 outside the European Union – Serbia, Norway, and Turkey.

In the past few days, the consortium submitted a project to the Digital Europe call for projects, aimed at sequencing 100,000 European genomes. The project represents the first major pan-European initiative to establish a reference European genome. The project was initiated as a European response to global trends (US, UK, Japan, and China) in the use of genetic data in research and healthcare.

The ultimate expected outcome of the project is the advancement of personalized medicine, which is becoming a global focus in the field of healthcare and prevention, to optimize early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases.

As a reminder, in February of this year, C4IR Serbia became a part of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), a worldwide network committed to advancing standards in genomics and healthcare. Then in June, through the efforts of the Centre and the Ministry of Science, Technological Development, and Innovation, Serbia joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).