PHA4GE Working Groups bring together public health agencies, laboratories, researchers, and global partners to strengthen genomic epidemiology and support a faster, more coordinated outbreak response. Together, we build practical data standards, share implementation-ready best practices, and develop tools that improve interoperability, reproducibility, and real-world adoption across public health settings.
Our work is organized into technical Working Groups, with deliverables shaped by current public health needs.
Standardized data structures and formats are critical to the development of an open software ecosystem that will empower users to analyze and govern their own data.
Increasingly, public health requires access to reliable, flexible high-performance computing resources such on-premise, cloud or both.
Promoting portable, standardized, reproducible assays and workflows across environments, contexts and resource conditions.
Developing resources to help create a workforce that can effectively implement pathogen surveillance and epidemiology.
To support the collective effort of ethics and affiliated researchers in a global community that works in an inclusive and equitable way.
Developing technical recommendations to improve the utility and usability within the broader landscape of pathogen data systems.
The AI Working Group brings together experts to explore how artificial intelligence can transform genomic epidemiology and improve public health response.
PHA4GE Working Groups are open to global contributors. If you’re interested in contributing to standards, tools, guidance, or training resources, you’re welcome to join and participate in collaborative deliverables.
PHA4GE Working Groups are open to global contributors, including public health agencies, laboratories, students, researchers, software developers, and other stakeholders involved in pathogen genomics and outbreak response.
Use the “Join a Working Group” link on this page to express interest. Complete the PHA4GE Membership Form and the secretariat will follow up with next steps and information on how to get involved.
Time commitments vary by Working Group and Project. Most contributors participate in periodic meetings and asynchronous review or drafting between meetings, depending on the current deliverables.
Working Group participation is an in-kind contribution—members volunteer their time, expertise, and feedback to help develop standards, guidance, and tools that benefit the global public health genomics community.
Working Groups develop practical deliverables shaped by public health needs, such as data standards, implementation guidance, best practices, training resources, and community tools to support interoperable and reproducible genomic epidemiology.
Deliverables are determined by public health needs and shaped through collaboration with global stakeholders, including public health institutions and community members.