The MORGAM Project

MORGAM (MOnica Risk, Genetics, Archiving and Monograph) is a multinational collaborative study based on harmonization of data from population-based cohort studies. MORGAM includes cohorts examined in the standardized WHO MONICA risk factor surveys and other similar cohorts which have been followed up for cardiovascular diseases and death. It was established in the late 1990's to explore the relationships between the development of cardiovascular diseases and their classic and genetic risk factors. Since the mid 2000s, MORGAM has also measured biomarkers from frozen sera, partly as part of the BiomarCaRE Project. Most of the cohorts participating in MORGAM are from Europe. The baseline periods of the cohorts vary between 1982 and 2014, and the longest follow-up periods are about 30 years.

After the initial funding from EU's Biomed programme, MORGAM subsequently participated in GenomEUtwin (a Network of Excellence for Genomics in Europe, FP5), ENGAGE (European Network in Genetic And Genomic Epidemiology, FP7), CHANCES (Consortium on Health and Ageing: Network of Cohorts in Europe and the United States, FP7), BiomarCaRE (Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe, FP7), and currently participates in euCanSHare (An EU-Canada joint infrastructure for next generation multi-Study Heart research, Horizon 2020) and AFFECT-EU (Digital, risk-based Screening for atrial fibrillation in the European Community, Horizon 2020)