ROH-ON

Research Objects (ROs) provide a way to describe and aggregate diverse research outputs, from datasets and workflows to semantic artefacts, and to establish meaningful relationships among them and their metadata. Community standards like RO-Crate show how ROs can act as FAIR Digital Objects (FDOs) to facilitate sharing and improve the reproducibility of experiments.

This project onboards ROHub and FAIROs as federated services within the EOSC Federation, through the EOSC PL Node operated by the National Science Centre (NCN) in Poland. ROHub is an RO-Crate management platform providing a holistic solution for the storage, lifecycle management, publishing, and preservation of scientific investigations via FDOs. FAIROs, integrated within ROHub, assesses the FAIRness of Research Objects and FDOs by aggregating existing assessment tools: F-UJI for datasets, FOOPS! for ontologies, and custom evaluators for software and RO metadata. Together, they enable the Federation to create FDOs using the RO-Crate 1.2 specification, verify their FAIRness, and access advanced ROHub capabilities including automated semantic enrichment, recommendation, and analytics such as claim analysis, challenge-solution extraction, and question generation.

The relevance of these services is demonstrated through two complementary use cases drawn from ongoing EU-funded projects.

Use Case 1: Cross-domain Image Analysis (OSCARS-FIESTA). The FIESTA project addresses a common challenge: communities in bioimaging, astronomy, and environmental sciences share image analysis needs but remain siloed due to incompatible formats and disconnected tools. The project will transform FIESTA resources into FDOs managed through ROHub, including image datasets described with shared RO-Crate profiles, segmentation workflows packaged as reproducible FDOs, and composite FDOs linking inputs, workflows, and outputs. FAIROs will validate compliance using the FAIR Testing Resource Vocabulary specification from EOSC OSTrails. The practical payoff is direct: a segmentation workflow on bioimages can be re-executed on satellite imagery when FDOs describe inputs consistently through standardised profiles.

Use Case 2: Climate Change Adaptation (FAIR2Adapt). The EOSC FAIR2Adapt project has developed a FAIRification framework for climate change adaptation communities, with ROHub as its default FDO repository. Two demonstrators validate the onboarded services: a GIS pipeline generating urban heat and flood risk maps for Hamburg, packaged as a reproducible RO-Crate transferable to other cities (Bremen, Graz); and a coastal ocean modelling pipeline demonstrating ROHub’s capacity for large-scale geospatial data via EGI DataHub.

The project will contribute three training assets to the EOSC Academy: a best-practice guide on capturing FAIR requirements and documenting standardisation across communities; a tutorial on creating and validating FDOs using ROHub and FAIROs; and reproducible use case documentation reusable by other EOSC communities.

This project directly supports several EU policies and EOSC strategic priorities. It contributes to the EOSC Federation build-up through the onboarding of two mature services implementing the FAIR Digital Object (FDO) paradigm, a cornerstone of the EOSC Interoperability Framework. Using RO-Crates as the FDO implementation format, the project aligns with the EOSC Data Type Registry and the cross-platform alignment recommendations of the FDO Connect initiative.

ROHub brings a strong and continuous track record across INFRAEOSC projects. In RELIANCE, the RO-Crate approach was consolidated and ROHub was onboarded into the first EOSC platform. In OSTrails, which developed the FTR specification adopted by FAIROs, ROHub underpins the Polish pilot. In FAIR2Adapt, it serves as the default FDO repository for climate adaptation communities. This continuity ensures technical maturity, community validation, and readiness for federation-wide deployment.

The addition of FAIROs enables ROHub to validate generated FDOs against FAIR community-specific requirements. Through adoption of the FTR specification, assessment results become comparable with other tools such as F-UJI, FAIR-Checker, and FAIRChampion, and apply not only to datasets but also to software and semantic artefacts. FAIROs will be available both as a ROHub-integrated service and as a standalone offering.

The dual use-case approach demonstrates the horizontal applicability of these services. The OSCARS-FIESTA use case bridges multiple EOSC Science Clusters, spanning bioimaging (Euro-BioImaging), astronomy (ESCAPE), and environmental sciences, while the FAIR2Adapt demonstrators address the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. By showing that the same FDO management and assessment services work across these diverse contexts, the project makes a compelling case for ROHub and FAIROs as core EOSC Federation services for any community adopting the FDO paradigm.

ROHub has been involved in multiple INFRAEOSC projects, including RELIANCE, OSTrails, and FAIR2Adapt, and is included in the service portfolio of the PIONIER network operated by PCSS, a key component of Poland’s national research and IT infrastructure. Its deployment on the EOSC PL Node will expand its user base, scale service uptake, and ensure institutional continuity beyond the lifetime of individual projects. PCSS, as a national research infrastructure provider and EOSC EU Node subcontractor, provides the hosting, maintenance, and operational framework necessary for long-term sustainability. UPM will continue maintaining FAIROs as part of its ongoing commitment to FAIR assessment services within the EOSC ecosystem.

The services are built to scale across multiple dimensions. Technically, ROHub supports multiple storage backends including EOSC-related services such as ownCloud and B2Drop, integrates with added-value services like Notebooks, Binder, and Argos DMP, and can be extended with new RO-Crate profiles for additional communities. FAIROs is modular, allowing new assessment tools and community-specific metrics to be added as plugins. Organisationally, the RO-Crate profiles and FDO schemas developed for FIESTA and FAIR2Adapt serve as reusable templates for other communities.

After the project, ROHub and FAIROs will continue operating as EOSC Federation services maintained by PCSS and UPM respectively. FDOs created during the project will remain accessible via persistent identifiers (W3ID/DOIs), and training materials will be contributed to the EOSC Academy for ongoing reuse. Results will be disseminated through the established channels of the OSCARS and FAIR2Adapt consortia, reaching communities across the five EOSC Science Clusters and the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. With FAIROs available as open-source software and ROHub offering openly accessible client libraries, other EOSC Nodes can integrate these components into their own infrastructures, strengthening interoperability and amplifying impact across the EOSC Federation.