Open Commons Consortium

What Open Commons Consortium does

Open Commons Consortium (OCC) is a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, operating as a division of Center for Computational Science Research Inc. (CCSR), that manages and operates cloud computing and data commons infrastructure for scientific, medical, healthcare, and environmental research. Founded in 2008 with a governance model broadly based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), OCC serves federal agencies (VA, DoD, NCI, NOAA, NASA), academic institutions (University of Chicago CTDS, Rush University Medical Center, Loyola Medical Center), and research consortia. The organization operates with a small core team of approximately 8-10 employees and is not venture-backed.

OCC's core technology is the open-source Gen3 Data Commons Framework, a microservices-based platform with components including Fence (authentication/authorization), IndexD (data indexing), Gen3 Workspaces, the Discovery Portal, and metadata services. The platform is deployed across AWS (primary, via EKS clusters managed through a Commons Services Operations Center using Terraform, Rancher, and ArgoCD for GitOps-driven deployments) and Google Cloud Platform, with compliance under NIST 800-53 supporting FISMA Moderate designation. OCC operates multiple domain-specific data commons on this foundation, including BloodPAC (liquid biopsy research), the VA Data Commons and Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons (VPODC), the Murtha Cancer Center Data Platform (MC2DP), the Prometheus Data Platform (PDP) for military exposures research, the Pandemic Response Commons, the Canine Data Commons, and a retired Environmental Data Commons. These platforms interoperate via shared APIs harmonized with the NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC), Proteomic Data Commons (PDC), and The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA).

The business model is primarily grant-funded: OCC has received grants from the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative (2020, 2022) and the Walder Foundation B3 Grant (2023-2025), with secondary revenue from consortium membership fees and usage-based compute payments through a Direct Pay portal jointly operated with UChicago CTDS and AWS Pro Services. Distribution occurs through consortium membership agreements, direct partnerships with research institutions, and (as of December 2024) AWS Marketplace. OCC distributes its services through a global Gen3 Community Forum and partnerships with operators including Australian BioCommons, NeSI (New Zealand), and Oregon Health and Science University.

Name

Open Commons Consortium

Legal name

Open Commons Consortium

Website

https://occ-data.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Commons Consortium is a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit that operates the open-source Gen3 Data Commons Framework, managing multiple domain-specific data commons (cancer, veteran health, COVID-19, liquid biopsy) for federal agencies, universities, and research consortia.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Data Commons / Biomedical Data Platform

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Data Access, Sharing & Marketplace Platforms (incl. TEFCA/QHIN enablement) (HLACAIAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data Sharing, Data Exchange & Data Marketplace Platforms (HDAEABAH), Data Security & Access Governance for Data (Entitlements/Policy Enforcement) (HDAEADAH), Data Virtualization & Federation (HDAEACAH), Cloud Compliance, Audit & Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM/GRC) (HDABAHAI)

Keywords

• Research data commons
• Biomedical data platforms
• Open-source data sharing
• Cloud research infrastructure
• FAIR data management

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Grants: Primary funding from foundations and government grants including AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative, Walder Foundation B3 Grant for biorepository innovation, and NIH/VA/DOD research partnerships.
2. Consortium Membership: Membership fees from research groups and organizations that benefit from cloud computing and data commons infrastructure. Members include companies, universities, and not-for-profits involved in data commons.
3. Cloud Services (Direct Pay): Payment portal for compute services enabling researchers to pay for cloud compute resources used in data commons workspaces. Joint initiative with UChicago CTDS and AWS Pro Services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Open Commons Consortium operates the open-source Gen3 Data Commons Framework and runs multiple domain-specific cloud-based data commons (e.g., BloodPAC, VA Data Commons, Pandemic Response Commons, VPODC, MC2DP, Prometheus Data Platform) for scientific, medical, healthcare, and environmental research. It provides secure, FAIR-compliant data sharing, federated analysis workspaces, cloud operations (CSOC), and direct-pay compute services to research institutions, government agencies, and healthcare partners.

Product overview

Open Commons Consortium (OCC) is a division of Center for Computational Science Research Inc. (CCSR), a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit that manages and operates data commons and cloud computing infrastructure for scientific, medical, healthcare, and environmental research. OCC operates as a platform-plus-services organization, centered on the open-source Gen3 Data Commons Framework, which serves as the core technology for building and operating data commons and data meshes. On this foundation, OCC operates multiple domain-specific data commons: BloodPAC Data Commons (liquid biopsy research), Veterans Affairs Data Commons, Canine Data Commons, Pandemic Response Commons, Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons (VPODC), and the Environmental Data Commons (retired). Additional offerings include the Murtha Cancer Center Data Platform (MC2DP) and Prometheus Data Platform (PDP) built on Gen3 infrastructure, Gen3 Workspaces for cloud-based analysis, the Commons Services Operations Center (CSOC) for cloud management, and the Direct Pay payment portal for compute services. OCC also provides consortium management, governance frameworks, security and compliance services, and contributes to the Data GUID community.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BloodPAC Data Commons: Data commons supporting liquid biopsy research for cancer patients, operated in partnership with the Center for Data Intensive Science at University of Chicago.
• Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons
• Pandemic Response Commons
• Commons Services Operations Center (CSOC)

Products and services

• Gen3 Data Commons Framework Open-source cloud-based platform for building and operating data commons and data meshes, enabling secure, FAIR-compliant sharing, management, and analysis of large research datasets across institutions.
• BloodPAC Data Commons Data commons supporting liquid biopsy research, combining data from academic, government, and industry partners to accelerate discovery and validation of liquid biopsy assays for cancer.
• Veterans Affairs Data Commons Data commons enabling researchers to explore genetic variations and health conditions using US military Veteran medical and genomic data, featuring GWAS analyses on harmonized data.
• Canine Data Commons Data commons for analyzing genomic architecture of modern dog breeds and canine cancer data, with visualizations for data-driven discovery.
• Pandemic Response Commons Collaborative data ecosystem supporting COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics research, epidemiological models, and back-to-work models through private-public partnership.
• Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons (VPODC) Data commons supporting management, analysis, and sharing of veteran oncologic data for precision oncology research, therapies, and diagnostic development.
• Murtha Cancer Center Data Platform (MC2DP) Data and compute mesh supporting collaborative research across the PROMETHEUS Network, built on Gen3 infrastructure with integrations to VPODC, NCI GDC, PDC, TCIA, and other cancer data sources.
• Prometheus Data Platform (PDP) Data platform for PROMETHEUS (Military Exposures and Toxin History Evaluation), integrating federal scientific platforms with public-private innovators for cancer research related to service-related exposures.
• Commons Services Operations Center (CSOC) Cloud operations infrastructure using Terraform, AWS CDK, OpenTofu, Rancher, and ArgoCD for multi-tenant Gen3 environments across isolated EKS clusters with GitOps-driven deployment.
• Direct Pay Payment portal enabling direct payment for compute services on the Gen3 Biomedical Research Hub, supporting additional payment methods for data meshes and data commons.
• Gen3 Workspaces Cloud-based analysis workspaces within the Gen3 platform enabling researchers to analyze data, run notebooks, and perform collaborative research workflows.

Quantifiable outcome

• Managed petabyte-scale environmental data commons for NASA/NOAA
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

AI capability1 record

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• KrumwarecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2025Partnership starting February 1, 2025 to better support OCC mission. Krumware team collaborates on Gen3 implementation tutorials, security practices, and data mesh/commons development. Colin Griffin (Founder & Chief Engineer) leads joint technical initiatives including Helm chart implementations and cloud-native Kubernetes environments.
• Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS) at University of ChicagocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing strategic partner in operating Gen3 data commons. CTDS provides academic leadership under Director Robert Grossman while OCC handles consortium management and operations. Joint initiatives include Biomedical Research Hub, PROMETHEUS/PDP, and Gen3 Community Forum co-hosting.
• Rush University Medical CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in Walder Foundation B3 Grant for biorepository innovation. Led by Jeffrey Schneider, Rush collaborated with Loyola Medical Center and OCC to develop COVID-19 biobank metadata management platform using Gen3 Discovery Portal.
• Loyola Medical CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in B3 Grant managing virtual biobank sample metadata between Rush and Loyola Medical Centers. Platform enables searchable access to biorepository data for COVID-19 research community.
• Burwood GroupminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerTechnology consulting firm that collaborated with OCC and Google Cloud on Gen3 Workspaces implementation on GCP. Published case study on democratizing scientific research on Google Cloud Platform.
• Center for Computational Science Research Inc (CCSR)coreOthersOCC is a division of CCSR, a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit that supports analytic, scientific, biomedical, and environmental research and applications.
• National Cancer Institute (NCI) Data CommonscoreTechnology or IntegrationOCC data platforms (MC2DP, PDP) interoperate with NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC), Proteomic Data Commons (PDC), and The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) via APIs for seamless data integration supporting cancer research.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• DNAnexus: Cloud-based biomedical data analysis and management platform serving pharma, federal, and academic research customers. Closely comparable to OCC's Gen3 because both offer federated, compliant data commons for genomic and clinical research at scale.
• NHLBI BioData Catalyst: NIH-funded federated data ecosystem for heart, lung, blood, and sleep research. Comparable to OCC's VA and NCI data commons in providing cloud-hosted analysis environments and shared APIs for NIH-aligned research communities.
• Terra (Broad Institute / Verily): Cloud-based research platform co-developed by the Broad Institute and Verily for biomedical and genomic data analysis. Directly comparable to Gen3 as an open ecosystem where researchers co-locate data and compute, and a key competitor for OCC's NCI and academic customers.
• Sage Bionetworks: Nonprofit biomedical research organization operating data commons and analysis platforms (e.g., Synapse) for collaborative genomics and disease research. Comparable to OCC in nonprofit mission, open-science stance, and consortium-style data commons delivery.
• NCI Cancer Research Data Commons: Federated cancer data ecosystem operated by NCI that integrates GDC, PDC, and TCIA. Directly comparable to OCC's MC2DP and PDP, and a key partner/competitor depending on funding decisions.
• Velsera (formerly Seven Bridges): Biomedical data analysis platform with a federated data commons product (formerly Seven Bridges). Directly comparable to OCC's Gen3 in supporting multi-omics research workflows for federal and academic customers.

Broad incumbents

• Palantir Foundry: Enterprise data integration and analytics platform widely used across federal health, defense, and research agencies. Comparable to OCC as an alternative data platform for VA/DoD and biomedical research, though broader and not research-domain-specialized.

Regional players

• ELIXIR: European intergovernmental organization coordinating life sciences data infrastructure across member states. Comparable to OCC in operating a federated research data commons network, but for European research communities.
• Australian BioCommons: Australian nonprofit operating Gen3-based data commons for life sciences. Comparable to OCC as a peer Gen3 operator in a different geography; shares community contributions via the Gen3 Community Forum.

Others

• Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS), University of Chicago: Academic research center that co-developed Gen3 and shares leadership with OCC (Robert Grossman holds dual roles). Comparable as a strategic ecosystem participant rather than a commercial competitor; critical for OCC's product direction.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/OCC_Data
• GitHubgithub.com/occ-data
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/open-commons-consortium-occ-

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Open Commons Consortium