The Genotype-Phenotype Map (GPMap) is part of the OpenGWAS ecosystem. The following terms, privacy notice, and service description are adapted from OpenGWAS policies.
The majority of data in GPMap are kindly made available for use by many organisations and consortia spanning the global community of genetics researchers.
These terms (Terms) set out the basis on which the University of Bristol, a body incorporated by Royal Charter under number RC000648 having its administrative offices at Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH (University) agrees to provide you with access to the GPMap (Platform) and through the Platform summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS Data).
The University grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable revocable licence to access and use the Platform for private or non-commercial research purposes only. If you wish to access and use the Platform for commercial research purposes, please forward your enquiry to tom.gaunt@bristol.ac.uk.
Subject to the Licence, nothing in these Terms grants you any right to, or in, any intellectual property rights of any nature (whether existing now or in the future and whether registered or unregistered) in the Platform.
You agree to not use the data or methods in the Platform to make claims about racial superiority. You agree to strictly adhere to the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) position statement ASHG Denounces Attempts to Link Genetics and Racial Supremacy and the International Genetic Epidemiology Society Statement on Racism and Genetic Epidemiology.
You agree to adhere to the principles articulated in the final two sections articulated by the ASHG position on Advancing Diverse Participation in Research with Special Consideration for Vulnerable Populations, namely, "In the Conduct of Research with Vulnerable Populations, Researchers Must Address Concerns that Participation May Lead to Group Harm" and "The Benefits of Research Participation Are Profound, Yet the Potential Danger that Unethical Application of Genetics Might Stigmatize, Discriminate against, or Persecute Vulnerable Populations Persists."
You agree to cite any use of the Platform in the form set out in the About page. You further agree to observe and comply with any notice requiring you to cite the original source of any GWAS Data in your analyses in the form set out in such notice.
You agree that you will not attempt to download GWAS Data in bulk through API queries or otherwise use the Platform in a way that would or might adversely affect the performance or operation of the Platform for other users.
You agree not to use, combine, manipulate or transform the GWAS Data in any way that would or might enable you to identify any living individual to which the GWAS Data relates, in breach of data protection laws anywhere in the world.
We do not guarantee that (a) the Platform or any GWAS Data will always be available or uninterrupted; (b) the Platform or any GWAS Data will be accurate, complete, free from errors or omissions or secure or free from bugs or viruses; or (c) that the result of using the Platform or any GWAS Data will be accurate, adequate or fit for any particular purpose. Where the Platform contains links to other sites or resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only and you acknowledge that we have no control over the content of those sites or resources. All warranties, representations, conditions and all other terms of any kind whatsoever implied by statute or common law, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, are excluded from these Terms.
You assume sole responsibility for the results obtained from the use of the Platform and any GWAS Data and for conclusions drawn from such use. The University shall have no liability for any damage or other loss whatsoever arising out of or in connection with your use of the Platform or any GWAS Data. The University shall not be liable in any circumstances whether in contract, tort (including for negligence), misrepresentation (whether innocent or negligent), restitution or otherwise for any special, indirect or consequential loss, costs, damages, charges or expenses however arising under these Terms including but not limited to loss of funding or loss of opportunity, goodwill or reputation. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability which cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law.
The University may, at its sole discretion, suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of the Platform (in respect of any single user, group of users or all users of the Platform) without notice and whether or not arising from any breach of these Terms. The University will not be liable to you in such circumstances.
The University may revise these Terms at any time by amending this page. Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes, as they will be legally binding on you.
These Terms and any claims or disputes arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes) shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales whose courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle the same.
The University of Bristol ("The University", "We") is committed to protecting your personal data and for keeping you informed about how information about you is used.
This notice outlines how we collect and process your personal data in relation to the GPMap, and how we adhere to the requirements of UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (2018). This notice should be read in conjunction with the University's top level privacy notices.
GPMap is a cloud-based data aggregation and delivery service that aggregates genome-wide association study datasets and makes these accessible through a web interface and application programming interface (API).
We do not currently force login to the platform, so the only data we collect is from the GWAS upload form and the contact form.
The above information will be processed to inform the user of the status of their GWAS upload or to contact them if they use the contact form.
We will not use your personal information for marketing.
We will not use your personal data for automated decision making about you or for profiling purposes.
The lawful basis for us to process your personal data is Article 6(1)(b) processing is necessary to provide a service that the customer has contracted for.
Your personal data will be collected and processed primarily by the University.
We may need to share your personal data with internal parties in aggregate form (i.e. non-identifiable information) to evidence usage of the platform which is important for the sustainability of the resource.
The OpenGWAS technical team within University of Bristol acts for this activity in its capacity as the service provider. They have full access to the personal data described above. The data will also be hosted on Oracle Cloud Services and collected using Microsoft (forms), both parties are processing data on behalf of the University under a contract. Where the University is using a third-party service, it will ensure appropriate contracts are in place to ensure this is handled securely and in accordance with our instructions.
For further information on how Oracle Cloud Services process personal data please see Oracle's privacy policy.
Please note that we may need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law, and the list above is not necessarily exhaustive.
The University has put in place appropriate technical and organisational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost or used, accessed, altered or disclosed in any unauthorised way.
Access to your personal data is limited to those that have a lawful and legitimate need to access it.
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Inactive accounts will be deleted following 3 years of inactive use. Users can request deletion of their account user information through the website, and this will be deleted immediately. Due to the nature of how log files are managed it may take up to 6 months for all activity logs to be removed entirely however activity logs will only contain pseudonymised user ID's.
Under certain circumstances, you may have the following rights in relation to the data we process:
For more information on these rights please visit the University's guidance. To exercise any of the above rights please contact the Data Protection Officer via data-protection@bristol.ac.uk.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Notice, please contact: g.hemani@bristol.ac.uk.
You can also contact the University's Data Protection Officer at data-protection@bristol.ac.uk.
You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you're unhappy with how we've handled your data.
GPMap is a cloud-based data aggregation and delivery service (the Platform) provided by the University of Bristol (UoB) that aggregates genome-wide association study datasets (Datasets) and makes these accessible through a web interface and application programming interface (API).
A commercial-use license (Commercial License) provides the following:
A Commercial License does not include a license to access and use the underlying Datasets hosted on GPMap. There are two categories of Datasets hosted by GPMap:
Commercial users are free to use the GPMap API to access Datasets marked as Open Access, subject to the terms of any associated license from the Dataset owner. However, commercial users must seek permission from original providers of any Datasets marked as Restricted Access before using the GPMap API to access these. UoB does not own the Datasets and does not grant any licence or make any representation regarding rights to use any Dataset. The Customer is solely responsible for determining and obtaining any necessary rights, permissions or approvals required from the owner or licensor of the relevant Dataset, for its intended use. The Supplier does not mediate or guarantee any such rights.
GPMap is a non-profit, data resource operated by an academic research group with limited staff resource. The platform is provided on an as-is basis, subject to available funding, infrastructure, and personnel, and subject to the limitations set out in the Commercial License. The Supplier shall use reasonable endeavours to make the Services available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for:
The minimum level of service provided by GPMap is as follows:
No service level agreements, response time commitments, or long-term data preservation guarantees are provided by UoB in respect of the platform. Support is limited and provided at the discretion of UoB's operating team. Users are responsible for assessing the suitability of the platform and services for their intended use and for ensuring appropriate citation of the services and any Datasets accessed through the services (as set out in the commercial-use license and the End User License).
Last updated: March 2026.