MOLGENIS Armadillo: a lightweight server for federated analysis using DataSHIELD

Summary. Extensive human health data from cohort studies, national registries, and biobanks can reveal lifecourse risk factors impacting health. Combining these sources offers increased statistical power, rare outcome detection, replication of findings, and extended study periods. Traditionally, this required data transfer to a central location or separate partner analyses with pooled summary statistics, posing ethical, legal, and time constraints. Federated analysis – which involves remote data analysis without sharing individual-level data – is a promising alternative. Here we present MOLGENISArmadillo: a lightweight server for federated analysis solutions such as DataSHIELD. Availability and Implentation. Armadillo has been deployed successfully across multiple consortia and is maintained as part of the long-running MOLGENIS open-source project for scientific software. It is available at https://github.com/molgenis/molgenis-service-armadillo.