To accelerate and facilitate the discovery of genetic variants related to health and disease, genotype (SNP calls), phenotype and exposure data from each of these studies will be shared with the scientific community through dbGaP’s controlled access process when data cleaning is complete [Mailman et al., 2007]. Raw intensity data will also be made available to enable approved users to apply alternative genotype calling algorithms or for other method development purposes. Final data files from each study as well as supporting documents and data dictionaries are organized by the CC and are sent to NCBI, where they are deposited in dbGaP (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gap). A 1-year protected period for dissemination allows GENEVA investigators to analyze the data and report study results. During this period, individuallevel and summary genotype data in dbGaP are available to authorized researchers outside of GENEVA, but they agree not to submit publications or make presentations using the data. To date, four of the GENEVA studies have genetic and phenotypic data publicly available on dbGaP. In addition to over 78 authorized data requests for independent analysis, over 35 studies and consortia have proposed collaborations with GENEVA investigators.
