On Friday, 30 September, the European Commission’s DG RTD hosted the “Horizon Europe projects coordination meeting in the context of the EOSC European Partnership” in Brussels.
Representatives from 12 EOSC-related Horizon Europe (HE) projects, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD), and the Commission’s European Research Executive Agency (REA), as well as the EOSC Association, all met for a lively and interactive discussion on how to efficiently and effectively organise this broad cooperation to the best advantage of the EOSC Partnership’s objectives.
The day-long meeting was opened by Michael Arentoft, Head of Unit for Open Science at DG RTD, Sari Vartiainen-Mathieu, REA’s Head of Unit for Reforming European R&I and Research Infrastructures, and President of the EOSC Association Karel Luyben. Each of the 12 projects were then called on to present themselves. Of these, nine are funded through the first Horizon Europe INFRAEOSC Call:
The other three participating projects are all supporting EOSC with Horizon Europe funding, and include:
- e-IRGSP7 (call: INFRADEV)
- BY-COVID (call: INFRA-EMERGENCY)
- WorldFAIR (call: WIDERA)
A first public version of the EOSC-A “Vademecum, a Handbook for Effective Collaboration within the EOSC Co-Programmed Partnership”, was distributed to the 12 projects before the meeting and served as a basis for discussion in the meeting. In the Vademecum, five areas of cooperation and alignment are detailed:
- Governance
- Administration
- Communication and Stakeholder Management
- Monitoring
- Technical Developments
The Vademecum describes the benefits of collaboration in each of these areas and identifies a number of specific Actions for the projects. The Vademecum also includes five Annexes corresponding to the areas of cooperation. Each can be used as a stand-alone document and contains a workflow diagram along with the scope and rationale for each Action. The Vademecum is available at: https://eosc.eu/sites/default/files/2022-10/Vademecum%20HE%20EOSC-related%20Projects.pdf.
Based on the discussions during the plenaries, the break-out sessions, and the interactive coffee and lunch breaks, many participants voiced that this was a fruitful kick-off of the complex collaboration, and there was general agreement to gather for a follow-up meeting. The 12 projects and EOSC-A will hold their next coordination and alignment meeting during the EOSC Symposium 2022, to take place in Prague, 14-17 November. More information about the EOSC Symposium 2022, including a link to the pre-registration, is available at:
https://www.eosc.eu/events/eosc-symposium-2022
The meeting ended with an informal get-together at the EOSC Association Secretariat’s offices at 3 Rue du Luxembourg, a short walk from the CDMA building, with those that had a little extra time before traveling home for the weekend.
