There is a growing need for investment in policies and practices to support the inclusion of diverse research participants and thus maximize the global potential of genetics research and precision medicine. Broadening participation of both study populations and researchers from many regions of the globe and LMIC in particular will likely be tremendously beneficial. Within the arenas of available data and analytic methods, short-term goals include improved sharing and openness of data. Longer-term goals include identifying ways in which the complex practical, cultural, social, legal and ethical issues inhibiting sample collection from under-represented populations are best resolved. Early, often, and meaningful engagement of stakeholders from diverse patient groups and communities, multi-disciplinary investigators including those with expertise in community-based participatory research, research institutions, scientific editors and reviewers, and funding agencies will all be critical to the success of these short- and long-term objectives towards fostering an environment of inclusive research. Knowing that the lack of representation of diverse populations in genetics research will hinder our understanding of disease etiology, it is clear that this is both an important ethical and scientific growth area for genomics research.
