The vision for EOSC is to put in place a system in Europe to find and access data and services for research and innovation. This is to help researchers store, share, process, analyse and reuse FAIR research outputs within and across disciplines and borders.

The deployment of a network between data repositories and services will be instrumental for Open Science to progress in Europe. For this, the EOSC Federation of nodes is being created.

The ongoing build-up phase is the first phase of development of an operational EOSC Federation.

Organisations participating in the workshop for the kick-off of the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation
Contributing to the build-up phase of the
EOSC FEDERATION

In March 2025 the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation kicked off with a workshop in Brussels, followed by the publication of the first edition of the EOSC Federation Handbook.

The EOSC Federation will consist of multiple 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 of such a distributed system many questions are in the process of being answered:

  • What are the minimum requirements for an entity to be an EOSC Node?
  • What are the rules for enrolment of Nodes into the EOSC Federation?
  • How will the EOSC Federation be governed?
  • What are the financial mechanisms that will support the resource transactions within the EOSC Federation?

And this is to only mention a few.

EOSC-A Board Position Paper on the EOSC Federation and the role of EOSC Nodes (Nov. 2023)

The “Tripartite Group”

The EOSC Tripartite Governance has recognised that answering those questions will be of paramount importance for all parties to come to an agreement on realistic scenarios for EOSC post-2027. As the decision-making body for EOSC, the EOSC Tripartite Governance should oversee the structure, governance and operations of the EOSC Federation. 

The EOSC Tripartite Governance has emphasised that a coordinated effort by the three parties is necessary to build the EOSC Federation, and this is why a new “Tripartite Group” to advance the creation of EOSC has been established.

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
EOSC NODES
ROLE OF THE TRIPARTITE GROUP
RESOURCES