The EOSC Federation will consist of dozens of EOSC Nodes that are interconnected and can collaborate to share and manage scientific data, knowledge, and resources within and across thematic and geographical research communities.

The EOSC Nodes will be entry points for users to the EOSC Federation, with each node offering its own and possibly third-party services, including data reposing and accessing services.

To enable the establishment and sustainability of such a distributed system, many questions are in the process of being answered:

• What are the requirements for an entity to become an EOSC Node?
• How will the EOSC Federation be governed?
• What are the financial mechanisms that will support the resource transactions within the EOSC Federation?

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The EOSC Tripartite Governance has recognised that answering those questions is of paramount importance for all parties to come to an agreement on realistic scenarios for EOSC’s post-2027 governance and funding models.

EOSC in the EU context

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EOSC and the EOSC Federation have been called out on several occasions in 2025 as a key structural element for the advancement of European competitiveness in research and innovation, including: 

• In the European Council’s recommendations on the ERA Policy Agenda, where EOSC is reaffirmed as a key element of Priority Area 1: Deepening a truly functioning internal market for knowledge;
• In September’s European Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures, where the EC pledges to develop actions in support of “aligning and coordinating investments across Europe for trusted and secure storage, processing and sharing of critical data including through EOSC”; and
• In the recently released strategy for AI in Science, where the EOSC Federation is identified as a critical enabler of AI in science by providing access to interoperable and reusable datasets.

National EOSC Nodes

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Thematic EOSC Nodes

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e-Infrastructure EOSC Nodes

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EOSC Infrastructure Node

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Enrollment of EOSC Nodes

The Tripartite Group is working to identify and enroll candidate EOSC Nodes into the EOSC Federation. The Tripartite Governance agrees that this effort needs to be steered to ensure the coherent, sustainable and steady growth of the EOSC Federation.

A questionnaire was run by the Tripartite Governance over summer 2024 to gauge the scale and scope of interest in and readiness for the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation. Replying to the questionnaire was a first step in establishing the interest of parties to contribute to a testbed of EOSC Nodes.

Following a two-stage dialogue process in winter 2024-2025 to establish a sequence for enrolling Candidate Nodes, a group of organisations was invited by the Tripartite Governance to join the EOSC EU Node for the kick-off workshop for the EOSC Federation in March 2025. At this meeting, the EOSC Federation Build-Up Group was constituted to implement the technical and structural aspects of the Federation.

The next-wave enrollment call was launched on 03 November 2025.

EOSC Nodes, with the exception of the EOSC EU Node, are developed in-kind by their coordinating and contributing organisations.

The Tripartite Group supports the coordination and steering of the processes to establish the requirements for the EOSC Federation and the minimum set of rules and policies applicable throughout the Federation. All other relevant processes for the creation of EOSC as an operational infrastructure are to be discussed and prepared for decision making by the Tripartite Group as well.

To fulfill its role, the Tripartite Group meets monthly and may also seek expert advice and set up inclusive community consultations as needed for the execution of its tasks. The Tripartite Group will ensure that all the views of the different stakeholders are considered, and that the processes to build EOSC are inclusive, open, and transparent.

The Tripartite Group is chaired by Michael Arentoft, Head of Unit for Open Science and Research Infrastructures at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).

The Tripartite Group’s main responsibilities include:

• To refine the minimum requirements of an EOSC Node.
• To identify and enroll EOSC Nodes into the EOSC Federation.
• To discuss and endorse the EOSC-A-led developments on the EOSC Federation Handbook.

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For more information on the formation of the Tripartite Group, please read, “Towards a fully-fledged EOSC Federation”, 07 May 2024.

the Tripartite Group includes representatives from

• The European Commission’s Directorate-General Research and Innovation (DG RTD)
• Directorate-General Communications Network, Content and Technology (DG CNECT)
• The EOSC Steering Board
• The EOSC-A Board of Directors
• Technical experts mobilised by request and community consultations