Contributing to the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation

The 23 April 2026 meeting of the EOSC Node Coordinators Committee (NCC) brought together members, invited experts, and observers to review operational progress, governance developments, and the next steps for expanding the EOSC Federation, including the onboarding of second wave nodes.

Progressing toward an operational Federation

A report from the Node Operations Committee (NOC), highlighted steady progress across technical working groups. Notable advances were reported in the Federated AAI and Federated Catalogue areas, while work on Architecture and Federated Policies is still being established and requires broader participation from nodes.

Efforts are also ongoing to formalise the NOC’s Rules of Procedure, expected to be finalised within the coming month and submitted to the NCC for endorsement. Updates on federating capabilities showed encouraging progress, with several nodes ready to integrate Help Desk services following a recent webinar and survey. A similar approach is being taken for Monitoring capabilities, with further discussions planned.

Training activities, including FitSM Foundation sessions delivered in April, received positive feedback and may be extended to additional participants, including second wave nodes.

A key discussion point focused on the definition of nodes being “in production,” underlining the need for clearer alignment between technical readiness, policy requirements, and governance frameworks.

Second-wave Nodes: Enrolment and integration

Fourteen applications—covering national, thematic, and e-infrastructure nodes—were positively evaluated by the Tripartite and approved to begin the enrolment process.
Enrolment will start in May 2026 and the support for the new nodes will be implemented in three phases (batches) through April 2027, ensuring manageable technical support and coordination. The process aims to bring nodes to the point of signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), rather than full production readiness.

Key requirements for enrolment include participation in a testing environment, implementation of core federation capabilities such as AAI and the Federated Catalogue, a registered node identity, and at least one operational use case.

Second wave nodes will also be asked to update their project charters in line with their assigned enrollment support phase. An initial coordination meeting is scheduled for 5 May, and these nodes will begin participating as observers in NCC meetings from 21 May onwards.

Coordination with EOSC Projects and sustainability considerations

The meeting also addressed the evolving landscape of EU-funded EOSC projects, which are expected to support both first and second wave nodes.

Looking ahead

The Committee agreed on several next steps, including updates to first wave node project charters by mid-June and further planning for the upcoming face-to-face meeting. Given the increasing scope and complexity of activities, the possibility of more frequent meetings and extended discussion formats will also be considered.

The next NCC meeting, scheduled for 21 May 2026, will mark the first participation of second wave nodes as observers and provide further updates on enrolment progress and coordination efforts.

The EOSC Node Coordinators Committee adopted its updated Rules of Procedure during its third meeting on 26 March 2026, marking an important step toward a more structured and transparent governance framework. As part of this process, Bob Jones, EOSC-A’s special envoy for the EOSC Federation, was formally appointed as Chair and Matteo Zanaroli of ICSC as Co-Chair of the Committee. Additional co-chairs and secretariats for key Working Groups were confirmed across technical and operational areas.

• Andy Götz (EOSC-A/ESRF/PaNOSC) presented a plan for the development of the EOSC User Forum, which the Committee proposed should be launched in coordination with the Federation’s transition into production. The forum will be a platform to give users of the EOSC Federation a stronger voice in shaping Federation services.
• The Node Operations Committee reported progress toward a more practical and results-oriented mode of work through improved coordination between Nodes, analysis of existing tools and services, and support for the prioritised and phased implementation of Federation capabilities to ensure that new functionalities are introduced in line with available resources and readiness across Nodes.

The second meeting of the EOSC Node Coordinators Committee was held online on 26 February and focused on strengthening the Federation’s governance structure, advancing technical coordination across the Nodes, and launching the new working groups to support the operational maturity of the EOSC Federation.

The mandates of two working groups were approved: 1) The Architecture & Federating Policies Working Group will review technical policies and federating architecture, ensuring interoperability while preserving node autonomy; and 2) the Training & Competencies Working Group will strengthen operational capacity by improving discoverability, interoperability, and reuse of training resources across Nodes.

At the Build-up Group’s face-to-face meeting on 26-27 January 2026 in Nice, the EOSC Federation formally consolidated its new operational structure under the Federation’s MoU.

The new EOSC Node Coordinator and Operations Committees, together with the newly mandated working groups, represent an interim structure designed to bridge the Federation from prototype to production by the end of the year. The new structure is defined by the Memorandum of Understanding that served to launch the Federation in November 2025, and which has been signed by the 13 candidate EOSC Nodes and the EOSC Association.

The EOSC Federation MoU has now been signed by the 13 candidate EOSC Nodes, including BBMRI-ERIC, CERN, Digital Twin of the Ocean, EUDAT, Finland, Germany, Italy, Life Sciences Connect, PaNOSC, Poland, Slovakia, and SURF. The signing of the MoU with EOSC-A formalises the commitment of each candidate EOSC Node to collaborate on service integration and interoperability within the EOSC Federation.

On 03  November 2025 at the EOSC Symposium, EOSC took a major step toward its consolidation as Europe’s research and innovation data space. The 14 coordinators of the EOSC Federation’s first wave of EOSC Nodes joined EOSC-A President Klaus Tochtermann and Co-Chair of the EOSC Federation’s Build-up Group Bob Jones on the stage to introduce the Federation’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). 

The MoU marks the culmination of eight months of hard work and coordination carried out on an in-kind basis by the dozens of European organisations standing behind the EOSC Nodes. It establishes a shared operational and interim coordination framework for the piloting phase of the Federation.

The day after EOSC-A’s signing of the Federation’s MoU, mini signing ceremonies were held for the Dutch (SURF), German (NFDI) and Finnish (CSC) national EOSC Nodes. Following this, the CERN EOSC Node joined the ranks with its official signing on 10 November. More Nodes are expected to follow in the coming weeks.

Web pages for each of the 14 first-wave EOSC Nodes are now live. Here you can learn more about each Node’s key objectives, scientific domains, use cases and impact, their status and capabilities, and their cross-node interactions. Where applicable, direct links to the Nodes are provided and you can connect directly with the Node coordinators to explore potential collaboration opportunities. The pages also feature interviews with the Node coordinators. With the exception of the EOSC EU Node, all candidate EOSC Nodes are being developed in-kind by their coordinating and contributing organisations, a testament to the collaborative spirit driving the EOSC Federation.

The EOSC Federation is moving decisively from blueprint to reality. The Federation Build-up Group gathered in Helsinki on 01–02 October for its 7th meeting in order to prepare for the Federation’s debut at the upcoming EOSC Symposium in Brussels. The meeting, hosted by CSC – IT Center for Science, showcased significant progress across the candidate EOSC Nodes, while flagging technical and organisational hurdles.

Much of the Federation’s progress stems from the work of specialised sub-groups assembling critical building blocks for enrolling and federating the Nodes and onboarding external resources. Several of these sub-groups reported on their activities around, for example, interoperability, metadata guidelines, governance and cybersecurity.

At the heart of the Federation’s promise are its cross-node scientific use cases. Updates on those already in progress–including AI-enabled screening for prostate cancer and the development of common workflows for researchers in the life sciences and high-energy physics domains, among others–were presented to the Build-up Group in order to assess their progress and readiness level. A full report and photos can be found here.

The EOSC Tripartite Governance has published the Corporate Design Guidelines of the EOSC Federation Build-up Phase.

These guidelines have been established for the purposes of branding the EOSC Federation Build-up Group and its sequenced or enrolled EOSC Nodes and resource providers for the duration of the EOSC Federation’s build-up phase. The document’s purpose is to familiarize the Build-up Group members with the ways the EOSC Federation presents itself through its design, and how the sequenced and enrolled EOSC Nodes in particular can optimise their use of the EOSC brand throughout the Federation’s build-up phase.

The guidelines have been co-developed within the EOSC Tripartite Governance, which includes representatives of the European Commission, the EOSC Association, and the EU Member States and Countries Associated to Horizon Europe.

The Build-up Group held its 6th meeting online on Thursday, 28 August 2025. The Group reviewed progress on scientific use cases, node deployment, EOSC Federation branding, and preparations for upcoming events. Regarding deployment of the 13 candidate EOSC Nodes, Node coordinators reported steady progress on their August 2025 milestones, with several noted as complete, while others are pending review.

The Build-up Group also endorsed a common approach to EOSC Federation branding, which will be submitted for approval to the EOSC Steering Board this month. Interviews with candidate Node coordinators are in progress to support the production of informative videos and dedicated Node webpages, which will offer greater visibility into the candidate Nodes’ plans and scientific impact. In addition, FAIR Data aspects have been embedded in the candidate Nodes’ use case framework in order to highlight the contributions of data-providing Nodes.

The 4th meeting of the Build-up Group on 17-18 June at NCN in Krakow brought together 60 participants for their first face-to-face meeting, which was leveraged to advance both technical and structural aspects of the Federation’s implementation.

The Build-Up Group is steadily working toward the anticipated launch of the EOSC Federation at the EOSC Symposium in November. Their next in-person meeting will be 01-02 October in Helsinki.

The group will continue to meet monthly, supported by EOSC-A.