The ambition of the European Open Science Cloud, known as EOSC, is to develop a ‘Web of FAIR Data and Services’ for science in Europe. The implementation of EOSC is based on a long-term process of alignment and coordination pursued by the Commission since 2015.
The ambition of the European Open Science Cloud, known as EOSC, is to develop a ‘Web of FAIR Data and Services’ for science in Europe. EOSC will be a multi-disciplinary environment where researchers can publish, find and re-use data, tools and services, enabling them to better conduct their work.
EOSC builds on existing infrastructure and services supported by the European Commission, Member States and research communities. It brings these together in a federated ‘system of systems’ approach, adding value by aggregating content and enabling services to be used together.
This environment will operate under well-defined conditions to ensure trust and safeguard the public interest. Expectations of service providers and users will be made explicit to ensure appropriate behaviour.
EOSC will improve the situation for researchers in many ways, namely by:
- Enhancing scientific research by providing access to a weath of data and research outputs from various fields and institutions.
- Fostering innovation by making it easier for researchers to share, collaborate and build on each other´s work.
- Improving transparency and reproducibility of research by making data and methods more open and accessible.
- Reducing data silos and duplication of efforts by promoting data sharing and reuse.
- Facilitating interdisciplinarity research and cross-sectoral collaboration by making data and resources from different domains more easily available.
EOSC is recognised by the Council of the European Union as the pilot action to deepen the new European Research Area (ERA). It is also recognised as the science, research and innovation data space which will be fully articulated with the other sectoral data spaces defined in the European strategy for data.
Source: European Commission
The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a key enabler of the digitalisation of research infrastructures while delivering the European Data Space for research data. It has potential to become the most generally used infrastructure in Europe.
The Heitor report
Heitor et al. Align, Act, Accelerate: Research, technology and innovation to boost European competitiveness
The implementation of EOSC is based on a long-term process of alignment and coordination pursued by the Commission since 2015. This has involved a diverse range of stakeholders across the European research landscape.
2018-2020
In the initial phase of implementation (2018-2020) the European Commission invested around €250 million to prototype components of the EOSC through calls for projects under Horizon 2020. The European Commission also launched an interim EOSC Governance to prepare the strategic orientations for the EOSC implementation post-2020.
2021-2030
The current phase of implementation (2021-2030), is taking place in the context of the European Co-programmed Partnership for EOSC launched at the Research and Innovation Days 2021.
The Work Programme and priorities are defined according to the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) which is co-developed with the entire EOSC community.
EOSC is transitioning to a more stakeholder-driven approach with a shared vision, common objectives and complementary contributions at European, national and institutional levels.
A co-investment (with in-kind and financial contributions) by the EU and non-EU partners of at least €1 billion is foreseen through 2027. The EOSC Association and the Commission are engaged in a process to define the EOSC evolution and operations post-2027, including considerations of governance, funding and the future of the EOSC Partnership.
The EOSC Federation is currently in its build-up phase. The latest updates can be found on the Building the EOSC Federation page.
Source: European Commission
The European Open Science Cloud will enable researchers to find, create, share and reuse all forms of digital knowledge – such as publications, data and software – leading to new insights and innovations, higher research productivity and improved reproducibility in science. To successfully support the digital transformation of science, this important Partnership must involve all actors – the research communities, our Universities and research institutions, service providers as well as our Member States.
Mariya Gabriel, former European Commissioner of Innovation, Research, Culture, Education & Youth