by Admin | Jan 13, 2026 | Citizen Science and Public Engagement, Hereditary
HEREDITARY‘s ‘World Café Outcome: Priorities and Gaps’ report was released. The report captures key insights from a dynamic held on October 16, 2025, during EBC‘s . Diverse stakeholders, including researchers, healthcare professionals, innovators, individuals with lived experience, and patient organisation representatives, collaborated to identify solutions to challenges in multimodal health data integration. Highlights include strategies for data standardisation, inclusive data collection, cross-sectoral collaboration, ethical AI tools, and balancing EU regulation processes to advance health research and inform brain health policy decisions.
Glimpse on key insights:
- Greater standardisation is needed at every stage of the data lifecycle (from data collection and analysis to sharing), along with clearer documentation of data sources.
- Providing education and training for healthcare professionals on required data elements can support standardisation and collection of high-quality, usable data.
- Empowering patients in data sharing consent processes and building awareness of underrepresented populations fosters patient inclusion in research.
Read the full outcomes of the HEREDITARY World Café in the REPORT.
by Admin | Jan 12, 2026 | Hereditary
The European Horizon Europe project HEREDITARY has successfully reached Month 24 of its execution, marking the halfway point of its four-year duration. This milestone confirms the project’s strong progress and consolidates the solid foundations laid during its first two years of activity, with major deliverables completed and progress achieved.
The end of 2025 closed with particularly positive news for the consortium. HEREDITARY successfully passed its first periodic review at Month 18, with all deliverables approved. Both the external reviewers and the Project Officer praised the high quality of the work, the coherence of the technical developments, and the overall advancement of the project in line with its ambitious objectives.
In December, the consortium reached another remarkable achievement: 14 deliverables were submitted in a single day, representing the highest delivery peak foreseen throughout the entire project. These deliverables span all core scientific and technical work packages, covering clinical use cases, federated and privacy-preserving data infrastructures, semantic integration, advanced analytics, visualisation tools, citizen engagement, project management, and exploitation and intellectual property planning. Altogether, they account for more than 400 pages of technical and scientific results, reflecting an extraordinary collective effort by all partners. At the end of the article, you can review the complete list of all the reports submitted. Check them all out in the Deliverables section of our website.
Among the key achievements at this midpoint, there are also two important milestones: the first operational version of the federated workflow execution engine, enabling secure and distributed analysis across institutions, on top of the federated data management infrastructure, and the progress in data FAIRification, strengthening the discoverability and alignment of HEREDITARY data resources with European initiatives and standards. Both can be consulted in Deliverables 3.2 and Deliverable 3.6, respectively.
Reaching Month 24 represents not only a quantitative success in terms of deliverables and milestones, but also a qualitative one. The results produced so far demonstrate that HEREDITARY is effectively advancing towards its vision of building a federated, interoperable and privacy-preserving ecosystem for the integration and analysis of multimodal health data, with a particular focus on neurodegenerative and gut–brain related disorders.
Looking ahead, the consortium enters the second half of the project with a clear roadmap. The coming period will focus on maturing core scientific contributions, integrating results across work packages, and consolidating HEREDITARY into a coherent and impactful ecosystem.
14 Deliverables Submitted at M24 (December 2025)
| Deliverable | Title | Brief description | Dissemination level |
|---|
| D1.5 | Risk Management Plan, 2nd report | Updated analysis of project risks identified after the second year of implementation, including mitigation and contingency measures. | EU Classified |
| D2.4 | Linkage and feature extraction from gut–brain, intermediate evaluation | Integrated brain–gut linkage and behavioural phenotyping to extract features for federated learning, including an intermediate evaluation at M24. | Public (PU) |
| D2.22 | UCD clinical studies documentation | Regulatory, ethical and data access documentation required for the UCD-led clinical studies, including approvals and MTAs where applicable. | Public (PU) |
| D3.2 | Federated workflow execution methods: first release | First release of the federated query execution engine, including intermediate implementations, optimisations, documentation and testing. | Public (PU) |
| D3.6 | FAIRification of participating data resources | Report on improvements in FAIRness of HEREDITARY data sources, with emphasis on discoverability and alignment with EU initiatives. | Public (PU) |
| D3.11 | Pilot of the genomics data science ontology interconversion | Pilot demonstrator of a clinical ontology conversion tool enabling interoperability with genomic and other biomedical data. | Public (PU) |
| D4.1 | KDE datasets and methods: first release | Open dataset including newly predicted links from the HEREDITARY knowledge graph using several knowledge graph embedding methods. | Public (PU) |
| D4.3 | Learning models and spatio-temporal harmonization | Design and first implementation of multimodal learning algorithms, self-supervised methods, and initial harmonisation libraries. | Public (PU) |
| D5.2 | Demonstrator of visualization components for sequences, networks, text, and high dimensional data | Software libraries implementing visualisation components for heterogeneous data types, including sequences, networks and text. | Public (PU) |
| D5.4 | Prototype of the visualization components for spatial, image, and simulation data | Prototype visualisation libraries addressing spatial data, biomedical images and simulation-based datasets. | Public (PU) |
| D5.7 | Requirement analysis and user studies: Initial results | Initial requirements analysis and early evaluation results derived from user studies of WP5 visual analytics tools. | Public (PU) |
| D5.10 | First evaluation challenge: report on the data, results, and integration with EOSC | Report on the first evaluation challenge, including datasets, results, open lab proceedings and integration within EOSC. | Public (PU) |
| D6.7 | World café outcome: Priorities and gaps | Synthesis of stakeholder perspectives collected during the World Café, identifying priorities and gaps relevant to HEREDITARY. | Public (PU) |
| D8.5 | Mid Term IPR plan | Mid-term Intellectual Property Rights plan outlining preliminary protection and exploitation strategies for project results. | Sensitive (SEN) |
Check them all in the Deliverables section of the website.
by Admin | Nov 28, 2025 | Events, Hereditary
The HEREDITARY project is launching the GutBrainIE Task #6 of the BioASQ Lab as part of the CLEF 2026 conference, to be held from September 21-24, 2026 at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena, Germany.
The GutBrainIE is a Natural Language Processing (NLP) challenge focusing on advancing information extraction from biomedical literature. In this edition participants will be asked to develop and benchmark NLP systems capable of extracting structured knowledge from PubMed abstracts related to the gut-brain axis and its associations with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and mental health.
Subtasks Overview
The GutBrainIE task is divided into two main subtasks. In the first task, participants are asked to identify and classify specific text spans into predefined categories, while in the second one they have to determine if a particular relationship defined between two categories holds or not.
These tasks are also divided into 4 four subtasks covering entity recognition, disambiguation, and relation extraction:
- Subtask 6.1.1 – Named Entity Recognition (NER)
Participants must identify text spans and classify them into one of 13 predefined categories, such as bacteria, chemical or microbiota.
- Subtask 6.1.2 – Named Entity Recognition and Disambiguation (NERD)
Following the Subtask 6.1.1, entity mentions must be linked to concept identifiers from selected biomedical reference resources.
- Subtask 6.2.1 – Mention-Level Relation Extraction (M-RE)
Teams must detect relations between specific entity mentions within abstracts.
- Subtask 6.2.2 – Concept-Level Relation Extraction (C-RE)
This subtask is related to the concept level, enabling systems to capture deeper knowledge connections.
Each task requires participants to submit structured tuples following clearly defined formats, with examples available in the official submission guidelines.
Growing International Participation
Interest in GutBrainIE continues to expand. Last year, 17 teams worldwide took part in entity and relation extraction challenges within BioASQ. The 2026 edition significantly extends the scope by introducing:
- A new entity linking task.
- One of the largest domain-specific relation extraction collections.
- Enhanced annotation efforts involving 10+ domain experts.
- Collaboration with 70+ trained layman annotators.
- A revised and improved dataset building upon previous editions.
Early registrants receive priority access to the training datasets, making this a valuable opportunity for research groups working on entity extraction, relation extraction, or entity disambiguation in specialized domains.
Registration for CLEF 2026 is open until April 2026!
by Admin | Oct 20, 2025 | Citizen Science and Public Engagement, Events, Hereditary
Last week, the HEREDITARY Project took part in two major European health innovation events: the X RIES Forum in Galicia, Spain, and the 5th Brain Innovation Days in Brussels, Belgium, both held on 15–16 October 2025. The project presence reaffirmed its commitment to collaboration and ethical data use across Europe.
The RIES Forum is a leading platform that brings together leaders from across the healthcare value chain to address international challenges in the health ecosystem. Organised by the Cluster Saúde de Galicia (CSG), the forum focuses on digitalisation, sustainability, and internationalisation of healthcare and promotes debate, innovation, and international cooperation.
The Brain Innovation Days, organised by the European Brain Council (EBC), are an international forum that gathers researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and industry stakeholders to discuss advances in brain research, neuroscience, and healthcare innovation. The 2025 edition focused on “The Adaptive Brain in a Fast-Evolving World”, exploring how science, technology, and society interact to support brain health.
RIES Forum 2025: International Challenges of the Health Ecosystem
During RIES2025, the HEREDITARY project took part in the roundtable “Health 2030: Advancing Towards Precision Medicine,” a dynamic session that brought together leading voices from healthcare innovation, data science, and genomics. Moderated by Anna Forment, Director of Digital Health and Head of Precision Medicine at NTT DATA Europe, the discussion explored how data-driven technologies are reshaping the future of healthcare.
The panel featured María Brión Martínez (Xenoma Galicia Project Coordinator), Abeer Fadda (Bioinformatics Lead at the European Genome-phenome Archive and researcher in the HEREDITARY project), Román López Seoane (PM4GOV, Ministry of Health’s Genomic Node SIGenES), and Prabs Arumugam (Clinical Innovation Lead, AWS UK Public Sector Healthcare). Together, they shared insights into how precision medicine is evolving through the smart and ethical use of genomic and clinical data.
A central theme of the conversation was the crucial role of data in building the future of precision medicine. Health systems generate vast and diverse datasets, but the real challenge lies in making them interoperable and secure, ensuring both privacy and accesibility. The panel also emphasized the need for multidisciplinary professional profiles that combine biomedical and genomic knowledge with data science and digital skills. Speakers underlined the huge opportunity to advance data sharing across hospitals, regions, and countries through federated data models, as HEREDITARY aims to do in the Federated Networking Infrastructure.
Finally, some areas in which precision medicina is doing great advances were highlighted, such as oncology and the study of rare diseases. The discussion perfectly reflected the collaborative and forward-looking spirit driving initiatives like RIES2025 and the European research landscape.
In addition, HEREDITARY engaged visitors at its exhibition stand, managed by FEUGA, the project’s communication leader, showcasing the project’s activities, vision, and expected impact, and providing a platform for dialogue with attendees from diverse fields of the health ecosystem.
HEREDITARY World Café at Brain Innovation Days
HEREDITARY hosted a World Café session at the Brain Innovation Days on 16 October, designed as an interactive format where participants rotated across tables to discuss key topics such as data privacy, multimodal health data integration, and AI-powered solutions. The session brought together a diverse group of patients, innovators, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and researchers, fostering open dialogue on how data-driven innovation can better serve people and improve brain and health outcomes.
Discussions underscored the importance of integrating diverse health data, to enable more personalised and human-centred care. Participants also emphasised the need for equitable representation in research, ensuring that data and clinical studies reflect the diversity of European populations.
Another key theme was co-creation and collaboration, recognising that innovation in healthcare requires all voices at the table, including patients whose lived experience can shape more relevant and impactful solutions. Conversations also explored the design of ethical and trustworthy AI, built with patients to ensure transparency, fairness, and clinical value, as well as the delicate balance between privacy and scientific progress.
At the end of the day, a HEREDITARY representative reported key insights from the session on the main stage, highlighting the value of collaborative dialogue in advancing brain and health research.
With its participation in both the RIES Forum and Brain Innovation Days, the HEREDITARY Project continues to expand its European reach, reinforcing networks and partnerships while promoting responsible and innovative approaches to genomic and health data.
by Admin | Sep 26, 2025 | Events, Hereditary
The HEREDITARY Project will be present at two major events this October: the X RIES Forum in Galicia (Spain) and the V Brain Innovation Days in Brussels (Belgium), both on 15-16 October 2025.
Each participation aims to strengthen collaboration and foster dialogue with key stakeholders across the European health ecosystem.
RIES 2025: International Challenges of the Health Ecosystem
HEREDITARY will join the X Fórum RIES, focus on International Challenges of the Health Ecosystem, held at La Toja Island, O Grove (Galicia, Spain). Organised by the Cluster Saúde de Galicia (CSG), RIES has become a leading forum that brings together leaders across the entire healthcare value chain. Celebrating its 10th edition, the event will once again serve as a platform for debate, innovation, and international cooperation, with a strong focus on digitalisation, sustainability, and the internationalisation of the health ecosystem.
As part of the event’s second day, on October 16 at 10:15, the roundtable on genomic medicine will feature Abeer Fadda, bioinformatics lead at the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) and researcher in the HEREDITARY project. She will join other speakers from NTT Data, Xenoma Galicia Project, PM4GOV and AWS to discuss advances in data-driven healthcare, explore how cutting-edge technologies are transforming genomic research, and reflect on the challenges of ensuring secure, ethical, and scalable applications of genomic data in clinical and health contexts.
Also, HEREDITARY will be present with a stand in the exhibition area, offering participants the opportunity to learn more about the project’s vision, activities, and expected impact.
If you are interested in attending the event, here is a link with the tickets information: https://ries2025.serglo.es/
HEREDITARY World Café at Brain Innovation Days
In parallel, HEREDITARY will also take part in the 5th edition of the Brain Innovation Days, organised by the European Brain Council (EBC) in Brussels under the theme “The Adaptive Brain in a Fast-Evolving World”.
As part of the programme, it will be hosted a special session HEREDITARY-targeted: HEREDITARY World Café on 16 October from 09:15 to 10:30 CET. Designed as an informal and interactive format, the session will bring together participants from diverse backgrounds to explore key questions related to brain and health. Small groups will rotate across tables every 20 minutes, generating fresh insights and perspectives. At the end of the day, a HEREDITARY project representative will report back the discussions on the main stage of the Brain Innovation Days.
More information, on the concept note here.
To get a head start on the topics to be explored during the World Café, we encourage participants to check out the podcast launched this summer as part of the Brain Talks series, also organised by the Brain Innovation Days. The podcast introduces several of the key themes that will be discussed during the session, such as data privacy, multimodal health data or AI powered solutions, providing valuable context and sparking new ideas ahead of the session.
With its active presence at both RIES Forum and Brain Innovation Days, the HEREDITARY Project continues to expand its international reach, fostering collaboration and knowledge Exchange across the European health ecosystem.
Recent Comments