LIH and NCCK co-lead IHDSI with NAVER Cloud, Okestro and Cipherome to break health data silos and power AI-driven, privacy‑compliant research

LIH and NCCK co-lead IHDSI with NAVER Cloud, Okestro and Cipherome to break health data silos and power AI-driven, privacy‑compliant research

(IN BRIEF) A Luxembourg–South Korea–USA consortium has launched the International Health Data Space Initiative (IHDSI) to create a federated, secure and privacy‑compliant platform for cross‑border health data integration, collaborative clinical research and translational innovation. Led by the Luxembourg Institute of Health and the National Cancer Center Korea, with NAVER Cloud, Okestro and Cipherome as technology partners, IHDSI aligns with the European Health Data Space and GAIA‑X standards. Initial projects include a prospective bladder cancer cohort for biomarker discovery and precision oncology, and a Parkinson’s disease cohort to test the federated data connector in real‑world settings. The tech partners will build GAIA‑X/EHDS‑compliant connectors, cloud‑based analytics, scalable compute and governance frameworks for privacy‑preserving AI. Quotes from LIH CEO Dr. Ulf Nehrbass and NCCK’s Dr. Geon Kook Lee highlight the initiative’s aim to dismantle data silos and enable global collaboration. Participants will contribute resources subject to funding; governance will be coordinated by a Joint Steering Committee and specialised working groups, with annual reviews to steer progress. Partner profiles emphasize LIH’s precision medicine expertise, NCCK’s national cancer leadership, NAVER Cloud’s hyperscale AI, Okestro’s cloud stack, and Cipherome’s privacy‑preserving analytics platform.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUXEMBOURG, 23-Jul-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — In a decisive move to transform data‑driven healthcare, a cross‑continental consortium of research and technology leaders from Luxembourg, the USA and South Korea has launched the International Health Data Space Initiative (IHDSI). The venture will build a federated, secure and privacy‑compliant infrastructure to integrate health data, enable joint clinical research and accelerate translational innovation—initially zeroing in on precision medicine for cancer and other complex diseases.

Co‑led by the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and the National Cancer Center Korea (NCCK), and powered by strategic technology partners NAVER Cloud Corporation, Okestro Co., Ltd., and Cipherome, Inc., IHDSI is designed to break down entrenched data silos. The goal: sovereign, legally compliant access to health data across borders, aligned with the European Health Data Space (EHDS) framework and standards such as GAIA‑X.

IHDSI lays out a long-term vision for global, patient‑centric healthcare innovation. The consortium will design and validate a federated research infrastructure that supports both digital and clinical studies, facilitates multi‑institutional translational cancer research, and enables AI‑driven analytics while safeguarding patient privacy. Ensuring secure, interoperable data access—and full compliance with EHDS principles—is central to the roadmap.

Two flagship research streams will kickstart the collaboration. First, LIH and NCCK will establish a prospective bladder cancer cohort to gather clinical and multi‑omics data for biomarker discovery and precision oncology strategies. Second, a Parkinson’s disease cohort will underpin a feasibility study to test and validate the federated data connector in a real‑world clinical research environment.

NAVER Cloud Corporation, Okestro and Cipherome will architect and deploy the project’s technological backbone. Their remit includes building a GAIA‑X/EHDS‑compliant federated data connector, delivering cloud‑based federated clinical data analytics, provisioning highly scalable compute and secure virtual workspaces, and shaping governance models that enable privacy‑preserving analytics across institutions and jurisdictions.

Dr. Ulf Nehrbass, CEO of the Luxembourg Institute of Health, underscored the initiative’s global significance:
“We are proud to co-lead this strategic initiative that will fundamentally reshape how health data is accessed and used for research. IHDSI exemplifies our shared commitment to overcoming fragmentation and enabling global collaboration to accelerate precision medicine, particularly in cancer treatment.”

Dr. Geon Kook Lee, Director of the Research Institute at National Cancer Center Korea, echoed that vision: “This partnership represents a critical leap forward in our efforts to build robust, privacy-conscious infrastructure for international clinical research. By connecting our expertise with global partners, we can unlock transformative insights for patient care that no institution could achieve alone”.

Each participating institution has pledged financial, technical and human resources to execute the programme—subject to successfully securing the necessary public, institutional or private funding. To coordinate delivery, a Joint Steering Committee (JSC) will steer strategy and high‑level decisions. Dedicated Technical and Clinical Working Groups will manage research, infrastructure and compliance outputs, while annual review meetings will monitor progress, share results and refine the next phases.

About the IHDSI partners

• Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) – A public biomedical research institute at the forefront of precision medicine, with deep expertise in translational oncology, epidemiology and systems biomedicine. LIH will lead clinical coordination of the bladder cancer cohort and leverage its extensive molecular and digital health infrastructure.
• National Cancer Center Korea (NCCK) – Korea’s central cancer authority, uniting a research institute, hospital, graduate school and National Cancer Control Institute. With comprehensive cancer big data, biospecimens and advanced clinical research capacity, NCCK sets national treatment standards and advances multidisciplinary research—bringing strong genomics, epidemiology and analytics capabilities to IHDSI.
• NAVER Cloud Corporation – A subsidiary of NAVER Corporation delivering IT infrastructure and platform services since 1999. NAVER Cloud Platform supports enterprise digital transformation and harnesses NAVER’s hyperscale LLM expertise to provide end‑to‑end AI services, data, supercomputing resources, cloud platforms and data centres.
• Okestro Co., Ltd. – Founded in 2018, Okestro is a fast‑growing South Korean cloud software company with a full‑stack portfolio (CMP, IaaS, PaaS, DevOps, AIaaS, AIOps). It enables private, hybrid and multi‑cloud operations and drives digital transformation across industries.

Cipherome, Inc. – Established in 2015 in Silicon Valley, Cipherome accelerates precision medicine and therapeutic R&D with its Compass platform, a cloud‑based, AI‑driven, privacy‑preserving analytics environment for interpreting clinical and molecular data at scale.

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SOURCE: LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF HEALTH – LIH.LU

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