At the EOSC Association’s 9th General Assembly meeting, held online on 22 November 2024, five new Members and four new Observers were unanimously voted into the Association.
These nine organisations are based in seven different countries, representing research-performing organisations, research-funding bodies and service providers. Three of the new Members (SIB, NORDUnet and RDA Europe) upgraded from their previous status as Observers, while the other six organisations are new to EOSC-A.
With these additions, along with recent resignations and transitions between membership and observership, EOSC-A now includes 170 Members and 93 Observers, totalling 263 organisations. As the change in membership status of several organisations will transition at the end of 2024, the Association will enter 2025 with 251 Members and Observers.
New Members
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte)
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa is a high-quality public university established in 1972, dedicated to the areas of management, economics, humanities, social sciences, public policy, ICT and architecture. It is ranked among >150 world’s best young universities (THE Rankings 19). Institutional quality and sustainability policies (QMS) are strategically embedded in Iscte’s mission. The QMS encompasses all teaching, learning, research, outreach and internationalisation activities, and follows the guidelines from the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). Additionally, the QMS is certified by the Portuguese Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES) and complies with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards, making it the first Portuguese university with environmental certification. Iscte serves 11,000 students, 20% of whom are international, representing 95 countries. Its student body encompasses 45% undergraduates and 55% postgraduates. There are 300 professors and 450 integrated researchers.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). UKRI brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England, which is responsible for supporting research and knowledge exchange at higher education institutions in England, and the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK. Whether through research council grants, quality-related block grants from Research England, or grants and wider support for innovative businesses from Innovate UK, UKRI works with stakeholders to understand the opportunities and requirements of all the different parts of the research and innovation landscape, maintaining the health, breadth and depth of the system.
NORDUnet
NORDUnet is a collaboration of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of five Nordic countries: Denmark (DeiC), Iceland (RHnet), Norway (Uninett), Sweden (SUNET), and Finland (Funet). Since 1980 NORDUnet has operated a world-class network and e-infrastructure service for the Nordic research and education community. The five NRENs develop and operate the national research network infrastructures, connecting more than 400 research & education institutions with more than 1.2 million users.
Research Data Alliance Association AISBL (RDA Europe)
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is an international community-driven organisation whose mission is to develop the social and technical data infrastructure needed to drive innovation surrounding data sharing and data interoperability. RDA Association AISBL (RDA Europe) is the European office of the RDA, supporting regional communities, advocating for their unique and collective interests in the European data landscape, and facilitating the connection between national and global initiatives. RDA Europe is built on the strong commitment of European countries, individuals and organisations, as well as the European Commission to the mission of the Research Data Alliance. It draws from the rich history and successes of European Commission-funded RDA projects, such as RDA EU3 and RDA EU4, as well as RDA Regional Members in Europe.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB)
The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) is an internationally recognised non-profit organisation dedicated to biological and biomedical data science. Its scientists create knowledge and solve complex questions across life science fields. They provide essential databases, software, expertise and services to academic, clinical, and industry groups. SIB also federates the Swiss bioinformatics community and contributes to keeping Switzerland at the forefront of innovation in the field.
New Observers
F6S Network Ireland (F6S)
F6S Network Ireland is a leading network and platform for growth in the commercial, corporate, government, university and other innovation sectors, helping thousands of such initiatives worldwide. It helps startups, SMEs, researchers, innovators and founders connect with these opportunities to increase project impact. F6S is experienced in creating effective recruitment campaigns to disseminate open calls far and wide, while managing a compliant and best practice selection process of applicants. F6S tracks emerging trends across industries with insights based on internal expertise and its strong network of project partners, corporates, universities and startups. F6S’ communication team leverages these assets and a strong experience in community building to deliver high-impact strategies that promote, communicate, and disseminate research activities and achievements. F6S connects projects to their target markets to maximise exploitation impact and design future sustainability pathways.
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
The Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) is an independent research institute of the Flemish government that underpins and evaluates biodiversity policy and management by means of applied scientific research, data and knowledge sharing. INBO aims to work as much as possible according to the methods of open and reproducible research – Open Science for short – in order to achieve solid and demonstrable scientific quality. INBO adopted an Open Data policy in 2014 and an Open Access policy in 2017. From 2018 onwards, the institute has developed “Open Science Goals” for the organisation. These goals detail how INBO wants to apply Open Science throughout the research cycle: from design, through data collection, storage, management and analysis to publication, archiving and encouraging reuse.
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (IRScNB – KBIN)
The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), is one of the ten federal scientific institutions that are governed and funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (Belspo). It is involved in important scientific research activities and public service missions. RBINS opens to the public through its Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels and curates several important collections with a total of nearly 38 million items, positioning it among the three largest repositories of Europe. The collections are both a reference and a research tool and are part of DISSCO, Europe’s major research infrastructure.
The Cyprus Institute (CyI)
The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is a world-class, non-profit research and educational institution with a strong scientific and technological orientation. It is a regional Center of Excellence, addressing issues of regional interest and global significance, with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary research and international collaborations. CyI is being developed as an international science and technology organisation to strengthen the research community of Cyprus and to help transform its economy to a knowledge-based economy.
