The Danish National EOSC Node focuses on digital research data, infrastructure, tools, and services, initially prioritising those of sufficient generic nature, complexity, and cost to justify national or international coordination rather than local provision. Modern research increasingly relies on advanced digital infrastructures that are often too expensive, technically demanding, or strategically important for individual universities—or even countries—to develop and operate independently. Scaling such infrastructures to national or international levels is therefore essential to ensure critical mass of expertise, cost effectiveness, and high scientific quality. However, this transition may challenge national and local autonomy, creating concerns about loss of control, prestige, or decision-making authority. These concerns can lead to protectionism, duplicated efforts, inefficient resource use, and reluctance to invest in shared solutions.
The objective of this application is to prepare a Project Charter supporting a future proposal to establish a Danish National EOSC Federation Node. The Node will overcome these barriers by integrating selected Danish digital infrastructures into EOSC, prioritising key infrastructures with international added value, collaborating with other EOSC Nodes, strengthening European governance and funding, promoting shared ownership, harmonising standards, and aligning funding through transparent, sustainable cost-sharing models. The Project Charter will elaborate and operationalise these objectives.
These three use cases are chosen precisely because of the scalability and sustainability challenges they present, and where international cooperation offers the clearest advantages.
Trusted Digital Repositories (TDR). TDRs must ensure the preservation, integrity, and long-term accessibility of research outputs, but scalability is challenging as data volumes grow and preservation demands continuous investment in curation, metadata standards, and technology migration. Sustainability is strained by the need for funding that extends well beyond short project cycles. Since research is inherently global, repositories must interoperate across borders, which is central to the EOSC ambition. Aligning with EOSC standards, certification, and governance strengthens trust, prevents fragmentation, and ensures preserved data remains universally usable.
General Purpose Storage with Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS). Storage systems supporting EFSS must handle massive, distributed usage while enabling secure, high-performance collaboration. Scaling locally becomes increasingly inefficient due to rising infrastructure costs, cybersecurity demands, and the need for redundancy and resilience. Sustainability is threatened when institutions develop incompatible, isolated solutions. Cross-border research teams require seamless and secure data sharing, and providers need data sovereignty and protection against vendor lock-in. Collaboration on shared software stacks, economies of scale, and compliance frameworks is the only viable path to scalable, sustainable EFSS.
Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI) and Accounting. AAI is fundamental to secure and efficient access across digital research infrastructures, but scalability is complex: systems must support large numbers of users, institutions, and services simultaneously. Sustainability relies on trusted frameworks, legal interoperability, and continuous updates against evolving cyber threats. Excluding unauthorised users, granting access to authorised ones, and monitoring usage for optimisation and billing is technically, organisationally, and politically demanding. Federated international AAI is essential for reliable cross-border and cross-institutional access, and because AAI underpins almost every other infrastructure, scalability and sustainability here are paramount and achievable only through international cooperation.