The global sharing of pathogen genomic data is essential for timely responses to public health emergencies. Yet, equitable data sharing requires more than open access. It requires transparency and accountability. Knowing where data originated and how it has been used in research, diagnostics, and development, including whether benefit-sharing obligations have been met, depends on robust infrastructure to trace provenance and track downstream use without restricting the open access that emergency responses require. Without this infrastructure, governance and contractual commitments to equity remain unverifiable in practice.

Building on community feedback from the GA4GH October Connect 2025 session, where participants identified traceability as essential to operationalising equitable pathogen data sharing, the GA4GH/PHA4GE Pathogen Data Sharing Group has since developed a framework outlining five institutional strategies for equitable data sharing. Tracing data provenance and tracking downstream use are foundational to that framework. Yet, despite the recognised importance of traceability across scientific communities and ongoing international policy negotiations, no systematic account exists of whether the databases through which pathogen genomic data flows currently have the governance frameworks and technical infrastructure to support the practice. Which major international pathogen genomic databases have governance processes capable of supporting traceability? What technical tools and standards exist, and where are the critical gaps?

This session brings the Regulatory & Ethics Work Stream (REWS) and Infectious Disease communities together to present preliminary findings from a comparative review of governance frameworks and technical infrastructure for traceability across a selection of major international pathogen genomic databases. The session aims to test and refine these findings with the GA4GH community, and to collectively assess which gaps GA4GH and PHA4GE are best positioned to address. Given the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions’ significant and growing role in global pathogen genomic surveillance, we will actively engage participants from these genomics communities, including through the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative and the Africa Pathogen Genomic Surveillance Network, to ensure findings include perspectives of contributing communities. Drawing on the database review, we aim to develop a manuscript and, in time, guidance on governance and technical standards for pathogen genomic data traceability, as the first phase of a broader guidance program for the group's five institutional strategies.