The European Open Science Cloud is quickly moving toward an operational EOSC Federation.
The EOSC EU Node is publicly available for use, and was presented to the scientific community at the EOSC Symposium in October 2024. Meanwhile, the EOSC Tripartite Governance has established a process for the sequencing of the first wave of Potential Candidate EOSC Nodes, expected to come online in the first half of 2025. The federating of the first thematic, national and organisational nodes with the EOSC EU Node will mark the start of the EOSC Federation.
- SEQUENCING OF POTENTIAL CANDIDATE NODES
Winter 2024/2025 - QUESTIONNAIRE
Summer 2024 - NEXT-WAVE CANDIDATE NODES
Agreed by the EOSC Tripartite Governance at its 07 November 2024 meeting in Budapest was a two-stage dialogue process that aims to enable the Tripartite to arrive at a first wave of Candidate Nodes by February 2025.
The build-up phase of the EOSC Federation will help the Tripartite to gain experience from cooperation between the EOSC EU Node and the individual future EOSC Nodes, and to test the different aspects of the EOSC Federation Handbook in practice.
Potential Candidate Nodes (first wave) invited to participate in first-stage dialogue meetings
| First-stage dialogue Meeting 1 | First-stage dialogue Meeting 2 | First-stage dialogue Meeting 3 | First-stage dialogue Meeting 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACTRIS ERIC ARIADNE RI CERN CLARIN ERIC CNR (Blue-Cloud) CNRS-LAPP (ESCAPE) ESRF (PaNOSC) | BITP CNRS (Data Terra) CVTI SR Foundation ICSC HUN REN Lux NDS NCN NFDI | ACOnet / EOSC Support Office Austria ARNES CSC – IT Centre for Science DeiC EUDAT NRIS SND SRCE SURF | BBMRI ERIC Elixir Hub EMBL Euro-BioImaging ERIC Instruct ERIC |
Criteria for sequencing
Grounded in the technical, organisational and scientific goals of the EOSC Federation’s build-up phase, the criteria agreed by the Tripartite include the following:
Interest to become an EOSC Node
- Respondent expresses intention to build an EOSC Node and can identify legal entity
Maturity and diversity of resources that can be offered through the EOSC Federation
- Respondent can offer a diverse set of proven resources/services
- Services/resources offered are in a mature state, with priority given to those with a track record of operating them in a production-grade environment
- Respondent is referred by other respondents as representative Candidate Node to onboard resources
Inclusivity and representation of research communities and different types of organisations
- Inclusion of organisations from the thematic domains of the five science clusters, as well as of national scope
- Inclusion of RPOs, service providers, research infrastructures, national organisations and institutions
- Broad geographic representation
- Potential for coordination amongst groups of respondents
- Take into account participation in EOSC EU Node consortium
The EOSC Tripartite Governance ran a questionnaire from June through August 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 representing the different stakeholders involved in the research communities of Europe.
Questions included in the questionnaire
- Do you intend to offer your institutional resources through a future EOSC Node of the EOSC Federation?
- Do you wish to join the build-up phase with the intention to build a potential future EOSC Node?
- Are you able to identify the legal entity that would assume legal responsibility for the potential EOSC Node?
- Please list the resources your organisation intends to make available via the node. For each entry give the Technology Readiness Level (TRL 1-9), any restrictions that apply to use of the resource, and describe their added value to the EOSC Federation.
- Are all these resources owned/operated by your organisation?
- Please estimate when you would be able to start offering resources to the EOSC Federation?
- What support/competences/training will be offered to the users of the resources made available via the potential node?
- What is the added value that you see for you and for your users in contributing to the EOSC Federation?
- Please add any additional remarks you would like to make about the EOSC Federation
- Upload supporting documents (optional)
Summary of responses to:
What is the added value that you see for you and for your users in contributing to the EOSC Federation?
- Increased visibility and reach
- Collaboration and interoperability
- Support for Open Science and FAIR principles
- Access to broader resources and expertise
- Influence on policy and standardisation
- Sustainability and economic benefits
Briefing papers
Webinars: video and slides
Following the enrolment of the first wave of Candidate EOSC Nodes, multiple subsequent enrolment waves are foreseen and will be scheduled in accordance with the capacity of the EOSC Federation.
Moreover, the process will allow for participation by those organisations which have not replied to the initial questionnaire, and will present an opportunity for respondents to inform the Tripartite concerning any updates to previously submitted responses.