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The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud EOSC Node federates data and services from Europe’s photon and neutron research infrastructures.

It builds on the PaNOSC and ExPaNDS projects, integrating 11 facilities and their catalogues, AAI, VREs, training, and visualisation services. The Node will enhance FAIR data availability, enable AI/ML applications, and strengthen Open Science practices across domains. It connects with EOSC EU Node and other thematic/national nodes to maximise scientific and societal impact.

Key objective:

To provide FAIR, high-quality data and services from photon and neutron RIs into the EOSC Federation, increasing scientific impact, adoption of FAIR, and cross-node collaboration.

Science areas: Photon and neutron science, including X-ray crystallography, neutron scattering, CryoEM, spectroscopy, palaeontology, imaging, materials science, life sciences.

FAIR data

The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud EOSC Node makes more than 600,000 datasets from photon and neutron research infrastructures accessible via federated catalogues (OAI-PMH, PaN Federated Search), and links them with EOSC metadata search engines, LSRI databases, and domain ontologies (PaNET).

Scientific use cases

PaN-Finder

The PaN-Finder science case presents an artificial intelligence–driven data discovery platform designed to enhance Open Science within Europe’s research communities by making data from photon and neutron facilities easier to find.

The initiative builds upon previous work undertaken through the PaNOSC (Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud) project, which aimed to interconnect data catalogues from large-scale research facilities. While the initial federated portal provided a single access point to open data, it was limited by inconsistencies in metadata, domain-specific terminology, and the need for users to possess detailed technical knowledge to perform effective searches. PaN-Finder aims to lower these barriers, making the discovery of open research data more intuitive and inclusive.

Other use cases

  1. Align PaNOSC AAI with EOSC AAI (achieved)
  2. Curated FAIR data for X-ray/neutron techniques (in progress)
  3. Link PaN data to life-science reference databases (on hold)
  4. Provide access to PaNOSC VRE (VISA) for EOSC users (in progress)
  5. Common training platform federated with Life Sciences Connect (achieved)
  6. H5Web visualisation and verification service (achieved)

Status

Candidate thematic EOSC Node (build-up phase, 2 years from March 2025) with letter of intent signed by all partners.

Director General of ESRF Jean Daillant signing the EOSC Federation MoU on behalf of 11 PaNOSC partners, 17 December 2025.

Deliverables

  1. IT Governance documentation (Charter, Architecture Design, IT Security Plan, Risk Catalogue)
  2. Data protection policies (GDPR, DPA, Risk Registry)
  3. Deployment & integration plans (configuration, charters, progress, risks, timelines)
  4. Operational quality plans (QA, capacity, testing, incident handling)
  5. Stakeholder engagement strategy (communications, documentation, training)
  6. Production roll-out of service components and APIs
  7. Datasets and repositories from 11 PaN RIs
  8. Software and tools (VISA VRE, WEBKNOSSOS, EWOKS, XRFitVis)
  9. Services (H5Web, PaN training, federated search, PaN software catalogue, VISA VRE)




Technical status

Completed

  • Federated AAI (UmbrellaID → MyAccessID, eduTEAMS, EOSC AAI compliant)
  • Management system (FitSM-aligned, IT governance, GDPR, ISO-compliant policies)

Ongoing

  • Onboarded service catalogues (PaN data catalogues, federated search)
  • Application workflow management (VISA VRE / workflow access for EOSC users integration in progress)

Planned

  • Service monitoring (target December 2026)
  • Service and research product accounting
  • Order management
  • Helpdesk (target December 2026)

Interactions with other EOSC Nodes

The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud EOSC Node collaborates with the following EOSC Nodes via multi-node workflows and FAIR data linking.


Rules of Participation

The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud RoP policy is aligned with

  • The EOSC Federation;
  • Open Data policies from LEAPS/LENS RIs;
  • FAIR data principles; and
  • GDPR and ISO security frameworks.

Federated AAI ensures EOSC User access.

Access points

Federated services

  • AAI
  • federated search
  • metadata standards (NeXuS, PaNET)
  • training catalogues
  • visualisation tools

Data repositories

Nine PaN facility catalogues linked to LSRI databases (PDB, EMDB)

Compute and storage

  • PaN VREs
  • OpenStack clusters with CPU/GPU

VRE

  • VISA
  • Webknossos
  • Neuroglancer
  • Jupyter

Other

  • CVMFS for software packaging
  • h5web for data visualisation
  • competence centres at RIs

Node organisation

Coordinator

Andy Götz (ESRF)

Operation Manager

Oliver Knodel (HZDR)

Security Officer

Jean-François Perrin (ESRF)

Scientific Officer

Zdenek Matej (MAX IV)

Privacy Officer

Jean-François Perrin (ESRF)

Legal Officer

Renata Gibson (ESRF)

Contributing organisations

HZDR, ESS, ILL, DESY, ELETTRA, MAX IV Laboratory, European XFEL, PSI, Synchrotron Soleil, ALBA, and other members of LEAPS and LENS