This preparatory grant outlines the roadmap for developing a prototype of the French National Node and enabling its integration into the EOSC Federation. The ambition is to complete both design and prototype ahead of the next federation deployment phase. Key objectives include establishing a national consortium with robust governance, defining service integration frameworks, developing high-impact use cases, and promoting EOSC adoption across French research communities.
During the project, the consortium will bring together institutional partners and their high-value national services, including catalogues, repositories, and research infrastructures, laying the technical foundations for compliance and seamless interoperability within the EOSC Federation. The overarching vision is to enable European collaboration for all French researchers, increasing the impact and innovation of research outputs across France and Europe.
The sustainability of the French National Node is anchored in long-term institutional and financial commitments. Beyond this preparatory grant, operations will be sustained through national budgetary lines dedicated to Research Infrastructures, notably Recherche Data Gouv, and the multi-annual strategic budgets of founding partners including Inria and INRAE. This approach ensures the Node is not a temporary project but a permanent pillar of France’s National Open Science Strategy.
On scalability and promotion, the project will work closely with the French EOSC College (Collège EOSC) to identify and onboard new institutional members and services. The National Competence Centre, with its network of over 500 experts, provides the human infrastructure needed to scale training and support activities across the entire French research landscape.