In this interview, Kostas Koumantaros from the National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (GRNET) highlights the active engagement of the Greek Open Science community and emphasises the importance of European collaborations through INFRAEOSC projects in developing the EOSC ecosystem.
Kostas is the Head of the Strategy and Proposals Unit of the Directorate of European and International Infrastructure Projects at GRNET, the EOSC-A Mandated Organisation for Greece. He is also the Vice President of the Hellenic Open Science Initiative (HOSI), which currently comprises 16 members.
Conducted by Kaori Otsu (CREAF) and Isabel Caetano (EOSC-A), this interview is part of a series coordinated by the EOSC Focus project, in which we highlight the role of EOSC Association Mandated Organisations, and showcase their activities aimed at the implementation of EOSC.
What has been your role as the Mandated Organisation for Greece in EOSC-A?
The Hellenic Open Science Initiative (HOSI) aims to collectively represent the Greek Open Science community. From the initial stages of HOSI, we have believed that the role of the Mandated Organisation is crucial to democratise our community. We decide annually which organisation will be the Mandated Organisation for EOSC-A. National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (GRNET) has been appointed two times in a row. As a Mandated Organisation, we act as a liaison representing HOSI’s needs and communicating decisions of the EOSC Association.
How do you translate European and international developments into national discussions and mirror initiatives?
HOSI is based on a bottom-up approach, providing a common ground to discuss our policies and strategies to propose to ministries and research organisations. For example, GRNET operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Digital Governancethat issued the Digital Transformation Bible 2020-2025 in Greece. It includes a chapter about Open Science, which is based on a strategy developed by HOSI as one of the accelerators of digital transformation. It can be used as a baseline reference to built upon.
What is the current state of Open Science policy development in Greece?
Formally, there is no national Open Science policy for Greece. We encounter a fragmented and incomplete framework for Open Science, with the absence of a national strategy. National research infrastructures generally do not fully comply with Open Science principles unless they are a part of an EU infrastructure or were designed from the outset as open infrastructures. However, a document has been sent to all ministries, which represents HOSI’s interpretation of the Open Science strategy. It is more of a strategy that can evolve into a policy. By the end of 2024, we aim to have the second version of the National Open Science Plan (June 2020).
Do you have a specific strategy for facilitating engagement activities to increase community representation among Greek EOSC-A Members and Observers?
We do not have a strategy specifically targeting EOSC Members and Observers, but we facilitate their engagement via the General Assembly of the HOSI. Usually, we hold the virtual GA if needed to discuss this, and communicate through an email list. Then we organise annual face-to-face meetings, as a forum open to the public. Since we started operating during the pandemic, we started with virtual meetings, which are easier and faster to organise. We know each other well enough now.
Since the first Greek National Tripartite Event (NTE) in October 2022, have you been promoting the creation of an EOSC ecosystem in Greece?
We have streamlined our involvement via a plethora of INFRAEOSC projects. We are also involved in a procurement for the build-up of the EOSC EU Node. Athena RC is coordinating Lot 1 of the EOSC EU Node, which GRNET participates in. This is why we have deprioritised National Tripartite Events. Nevertheless, some of our members have participated in the EOSC-A Task Forces, and we now focus on involvement in the EOSC Opportunity Area Expert Groups.
We know that some countries have been using various funding sources and mechanisms to support EOSC development. What is your case?
Greece has not formally invested resources to directly support EOSC development. We have made an effort to use each organisation’s resources. GRNET has the mandate to be the infrastructure and service provider for all research and education institutions in Greece. We try our best to support the research communities in Greece in participating in EOSC by offering our own resources and services. Having said that, there are several organisations working for large research infrastructures. For example, the National Documentation Centre is involved in the Social Sciences & Humanities Open Cloud (SSHOC). GRNET and Athena RC are also a part of the Greek ELIXIR node. This way we contribute to EOSC indirectly since there is no clear national policy in Greece indicating that these are Open Science resources.
As we approach the 10th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10), how do you envision it supporting EOSC after 2027?
I have a feeling that we are going to see less funding for EOSC and that they will distribute a large part of the budget through procurement process to set boundaries and separate resources coming from the European Commission and the Member States. According to the Memorandum of Understanding for the Co-programmed European Partnership for EOSC (July 2021), the Tripartite has agreed that 50% of funding needs to come from the Member States, which has not materialised.
What are your key national strengths and contributions to EOSC?
Greek organisations participate in most INFRAEOSC projects, because we do not have a large national project for Open Science. INFRAEOSC projects are the way forward if we have no alternative. We are involved in at least 16 EOSC-related Horizon Europe projects. We have recently participated in Lot 1 of the EOSC EU Node, i.e. Procured core services: accounting and monitoring. We were also involved in Horizon 2020 projects, such as EOSC Future and NI4OS, to which we significantly contributed. We have heavily invested in our efforts to offer services to the best of our ability.
What is your role in the NI4OS project?
The NI4OS is a project about creating national initiatives in southeastern Europe. GRNET represents the legal entity for the consortium. In the EOSC Beyond project, pilot nodes will provide an integration point for EOSC-related services from southeastern Europe. Investments in research and development in the NI4OS partner countries of Southeast Europe are generally lower than in the rest of Europe. This regional pilot node is not yet sustainable as the organisations behind the Memorandum of only state that they will do their best to maintain the node. There is no funding allocated for the next 3-4 years, and we are actively seeking funding for this. These obstacles are in front of us.
Who are the key actors and initiatives in Greece contributing to Open Science?
Athena RC coordinates GraspOS and SciLake and will be a partner in EOSC Gravity. GRNET is involved is a long list of the projects, including EOSC Future, FAIRCORE4EOSC and EOSC Beyond. The University of Thessaloniki, that coordinates RAISE and the CERTH, has a similar list. Fotis Psomopoulos (CERTH), for example, is more involved in the software aspects of Open Science and helps to make software available in line with FAIR principles. NCSR Demokritos is involved in AI and cancer fields.
What specific funding mechanisms and policy changes are necessary to support the development of EOSC in Greece?
We need policies that would instruct governments in Europe to allocate a percentage of their research and innovation funds to EOSC. For example, Germany’s investment in the NFDI and Italy’s investment in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan can make a big change. In our case, GRNET is not able to sell or offer resources outside Greece. In the future, we could for example exchange resources outside Greece via a credit system. Solving this big issuerequires a unified and centralised approach on the level of the European Union.
Another example is that the funding allocated for EuroHPC is much bigger than what we can have in EOSC. EOSC needs to be able to build upon that and be in closer collaboration with data spaces to become more coherent. This is where we are failing. If you do not have this mechanism to exchange resources or services directly with others, then why do we need the marketplace and the EOSC Federation? What is the incentive for a provider to join the EOSC Federation?
Our final question is related to the future. How do you see the creation of the EOSC Federation?
Because we do not have funding for this in Greece, it is not easy to say that we can build a node. This is mainly because we would not be able to make it sustainable. Yet we have the expertise to do build it as we are currently operating a part of the EOSC EU Node Platform (Procurement Lot 1). There is no incentive for Greek organisations to build a national node without funding. On the other hand, from the thematic perspective, most of the organisations already are or will be a part of thematic nodes at some point. In all my professional life, I have learned that EU-funded projects are very useful for collaboration in Europe as they offer the opportunity to build a community around them.
About Kostas Koumantaros
Kostas Koumantaros Msc, obtained his Bachelor degree in Computer Science Software Engineering from the University of Essex, and his MSc in Advanced Computer Science Software Engineering from the University of Manchester. He has been with GRNET since 2002 and is currently serving as the Head of the Strategy and Proposals Unit of the Directorate of European and International Infrastructure Projects. Kostas has been involved in several projects on e-Infrastructures funded by the European Commission. When involved in the EOSC Hub project, he worked on the definition of the interoperability framework for EOSC monitoring and other EOSC core components. Kostas has also worked on the definition of EOSC profiles in the EOSC Enhance project. Kostas represented GRNET in the General Assembly of EOSC Future. Since 2010, he has represented Greece on the EGI.eu Council. In 2022, Kostas was elected as the Vice President of the Hellenic Open Science Initiative and serves as a GRNET representative to the EOSC Association, where GRNET is the Mandated Organisation for Greece.
About National Infrastructures for Research and Technology
National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (GRNET) provides advanced network, cloud computing and IT infrastructures and services to academic and research institutions, to educational bodies at all levels, as well as to agencies of the public, broader public and private sector. It holds a key role as the coordinator of all e-infrastructures in education and research, leveraging the educational and research activity in the country towards the development of applied and technological research. GRNET, supervised by the Ministry of Digital Governance, contributes to the country’s Digital Transformation via in-depth analysis, technological studies, standard solutions and specialised know-how, serving at the same time hundreds of thousands of users on a daily basis in strategic fields.
