. 2022 Aug 31;9(4):24.

Table 2.

An Overview of Enablers and Challenges Related to COG-UK Resources

Influence: Resources—Funding, Physical and Data Infrastructure, Human Resources
Financial resource support: Timely access to substantial funding from the NIHR, MRC/UKRI and Wellcome Sanger Institute enabled COG-UK to rapidly set up operations at scale across the UK. Support from the Chief Scientific Advisor helped convey the need for funding a pathogen genomics network to key national-level decision makers and ensure COG-UK's timely establishment. Physical and data infrastructure: Pre-existing facilities and equipment helped support genome sequencing and research, while additionally purchased equipment helped bolster capacity across sequencing sites. CLIMB's pre-existing data infrastructure, skills and goodwill bolstered its capacity to host sequencing data from diverse and distributed sites. COG-UK's operational policies made it mandatory to upload sequencing data to the CLIMB data repository before payment could be authorised. Human resources: Diverse research, technical, administrative, management and leadership staff were fundamental to COG-UK's ability to deliver on its aims.	Financial resource challenges: Initial scepticism from some individuals with influence related to the value of pathogen genomics sequencing needed to be overcome. Although securing initial funding happened very promptly, overcoming some initial scepticism was relevant in relation to prioritising and targeting the utilisation of funds over time secure initial and subsequent funding. (Awareness-raising, support by influential individual champions and demonstrating early signs of value for policymakers helped in this regard). Challenges related to the gradual transition of sequencing activity and associated funding from academic institutions to PHAs impacted those individuals who had paused their careers to focus on COG-UK and were dependent on its financial support. Physical and data infrastructure challenges: Challenges with onboarding sites, securing ethical clearances and arranging for the transport of samples to respond to the surge in sequencing demand were experienced in the consortium's early stages. Global shortages early in COG-UK's experience hindered access to the consumables needed for sequencing. Efforts to optimise data sharing, flow and linkage faced some obstacles due to the lack of an integrated data platform and fragmented data systems, rules and governance across organisations in the four nations. Limited time and capacity to translate data into user-friendly formats to feed back to the NHS hospital sites providing samples were also experienced. Human resource challenges: Capacity challenges due to the scale of demand and the speed and pace at which the consortium needed to carry out sequencing, research and analyses occurred. These were primarily tackled by mobilising individual and institutional goodwill to deliver in unprecedented circumstances.

Influence: Resources—Funding, Physical and Data Infrastructure, Human Resources

Key Enablers

Key Challenges

Financial resource support:

Timely access to substantial funding from the NIHR, MRC/UKRI and Wellcome Sanger Institute enabled COG-UK to rapidly set up operations at scale across the UK.
Support from the Chief Scientific Advisor helped convey the need for funding a pathogen genomics network to key national-level decision makers and ensure COG-UK's timely establishment.

Physical and data infrastructure:

Pre-existing facilities and equipment helped support genome sequencing and research, while additionally purchased equipment helped bolster capacity across sequencing sites.
CLIMB's pre-existing data infrastructure, skills and goodwill bolstered its capacity to host sequencing data from diverse and distributed sites.
COG-UK's operational policies made it mandatory to upload sequencing data to the CLIMB data repository before payment could be authorised.

Human resources:

Diverse research, technical, administrative, management and leadership staff were fundamental to COG-UK's ability to deliver on its aims.

Financial resource challenges:

Initial scepticism from some individuals with influence related to the value of pathogen genomics sequencing needed to be overcome. Although securing initial funding happened very promptly, overcoming some initial scepticism was relevant in relation to prioritising and targeting the utilisation of funds over time secure initial and subsequent funding. (Awareness-raising, support by influential individual champions and demonstrating early signs of value for policymakers helped in this regard).
Challenges related to the gradual transition of sequencing activity and associated funding from academic institutions to PHAs impacted those individuals who had paused their careers to focus on COG-UK and were dependent on its financial support.

Physical and data infrastructure challenges:

Challenges with onboarding sites, securing ethical clearances and arranging for the transport of samples to respond to the surge in sequencing demand were experienced in the consortium's early stages.
Global shortages early in COG-UK's experience hindered access to the consumables needed for sequencing.
Efforts to optimise data sharing, flow and linkage faced some obstacles due to the lack of an integrated data platform and fragmented data systems, rules and governance across organisations in the four nations.
Limited time and capacity to translate data into user-friendly formats to feed back to the NHS hospital sites providing samples were also experienced.

Human resource challenges:

Capacity challenges due to the scale of demand and the speed and pace at which the consortium needed to carry out sequencing, research and analyses occurred. These were primarily tackled by mobilising individual and institutional goodwill to deliver in unprecedented circumstances.