This session is a cross-community workshop designed to address a critical, real-world challenge: the translational gap between genomic research ecosystems, governed by GA4GH standards like Beacon v2.0, and clinical care systems, anchored in HL7 FHIR. While both worlds must interoperate to realise the promise of genomic medicine, enabling clinical trial matching, the return of actionable findings, and large-scale genomic screening, there is currently no clear, production-ready path. Researchers and GA4GH implementers often do not understand the constraints, capabilities, and existing infrastructure of clinical data exchange. Conversely, healthcare technology vendors cannot natively support bespoke research APIs, creating a costly and unscalable integration burden.

This hands-on session aims to foster mutual understanding and co-create practical solutions. It will bring together experts from GA4GH (Discovery, Clin/Pheno Work Streams) and HL7 FHIR, including clinical informaticists, EHR implementers, and Driver Project representatives. The format will move beyond theoretical comparisons. We will begin by illuminating the “why” — using concrete scenarios like exchanging a genomic test order or searching for patients with a specific BRCA2 variant and treatment history to demonstrate current workflows, constraints, and costs in both research and clinical environments.

Participants will then break into small, interdisciplinary groups to tackle a core design challenge: mapping the Beacon API to existing FHIR operations and resources. The goal is not to reinvent clinical data exchange but to build a pragmatic "Beacon-on-FHIR" translational layer — a specification that can serve as a short-term, incremental bridge while informing a longer-term, elegant design. The session will leverage existing work, such as the Biocommons VRS-FHIR translation efforts, to ground the discussion.

The urgency is clear: global Driver Projects and national health systems are actively seeking to operationalise genomic medicine and need this interoperability path now. This workshop directly supports GA4GH's strategic priority of Integration by fostering the deep, collaborative engagement required to build a viable, scalable bridge between two essential communities. The output will be a prioritised set of interoperability patterns, a draft scope for a potential “Beacon-on-FHIR” profile, and a stronger, shared foundation for ongoing collaboration.