DataSHIELD - Vantage6 Partnership

Partnership with vantage6

The federated learning landscape is evolving incredibly fast. This is in large part due to its fantastic community, which is pushing the boundaries of what decentralized analysis can do. Moreover, the intrinsic nature of this technology promotes collaborations across different parties.
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As one of these collaborations, we are thrilled to announce a partnership between DataSHIELD and vantage6. In case you don’t know, vantage6 is a priVAcy preserviNg federaTed leArning infrastructurE for Secure Insight eXchange. It is a modern and flexible architecture capable of supporting various data sources and study types that is being continuously developed by the federated learning community and is mostly maintained by IKNL (the Integraal Kankercentrum Netherland, or Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization). You can learn more about them here.

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What is the purpose of this partnership?

Our objective is to leverage the best of these two solutions: we want to make the extensive DataSHIELD toolset available through vantage6. In other words, users of vantage6 will be able to use the well curated and carefully reviewed analysis methods in DataSHIELD, all while keeping the data of each party safe. Going a little bit more into detail, the above diagram shows the proposed general concept.

At its core, each node would accommodate two DataSHIELD Docker images: a client and a gateway. On one hand, the client would contain the analysis scripts (i.e., the actual algorithm used to answer the research question being investigated). It is worth mentioning that DataSHIELD has already implemented a large toolbox of relevant operations and functions. On the other hand, the gateway would be configured to access the data (through a platform such Opal or Armadillo). This way, parties could approve only Docker images that comply with their privacy requirements, ensuring that the algorithms have non-disclosive access to the data.

Please note that this is work in progress and is subject to modifications in the future. If you want to be part of the conversation or, even better, want to actively contribute, don’t hesitate to reach out!

When 1 + 1 = 3

We believe that the synergy between these two solutions will greatly benefit the federated learning field, by providing even more (open-source) options to execute their analyses. We are very excited about this partnership and really looking forward to seeing the value that these tools will bring to the community.

Contact information - vantage6


Contact information - DataSHIELD

Contact information - Opal

Contact information - Armadillo

  • Prof. Dr. Morris Swertz

  • Head of Genomics Coordination Center and MOLGENIS / Professor of Bioinformatics

  • m.a.swertz@rug.nl 

References