Twenty institutions were part of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium. The consortium coordinated the publicly funded effort to map and sequence the human genome, bringing together major universities, government laboratories, and research centers across several countries.
Its participating institutions were located mainly in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, and China. Examples included the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research, Washington University, Baylor College of Medicine, RIKEN, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute.
The consortium used a coordinated, hierarchical shotgun strategy: large DNA fragments were mapped first, then smaller pieces were sequenced and assembled computationally. The collaboration helped produce an open reference sequence and ensured that the results were broadly available to scientists.
A common mix-up is confusing the consortium with the entire Human Genome Project, which involved many additional researchers, funders, and partner organizations. The figure of 20 refers to the principal listed institutions and research centers in the consortium.