diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5476422ef13e9df66e855db9e4d6bea34b1e3915..712b98cf9f5267ff9fc6896f7def336e52514f40 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -301,6 +301,7 @@ $RECYCLE.BIN/
 /workflow/work/*
 /workflow/output/*
 /.nextflow/*
+/data/*
 /work/*
 /output/*
 pipeline_trace*.txt*
diff --git a/data/.gitkeep b/data/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391