VIENNA—The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research served as host to the very first EOSC National Tripartite Event, held in Vienna on Monday afternoon, 23 May. The hybrid event, EOSC-Café-AT, featured an exchange of presentations from the three parties – European Commission, EOSC Association and EOSC Steering Board – and the various Austrian national organisations contributing to the development of EOSC.
Participants included, among others, Stefan Hanslik of the Austrian Research Ministry, Secretary General of the EOSC Association Ute Gunsenheimer, Paolo Budroni, Chair of the GA of Austrian EOSC Partners, representing from ACONET, the Austrian Mandated Organisation for EOSC, Ilire Hasani-Mavriqi from the Austrian EOSC Support Office, Caroline Schober, a member of the Expert Group on Open Science/Science 2.0. of the European University Association, and Karin Vohland, member of the Steering Board of the Austrian EOSC Initiative.
The group used the various presentations—structured as alternating points of view from Brussels to Austria and from Austria to Brussels—as a springboard to discuss the national and European implementation plans for EOSC within the context of the contributions and inputs of the Austrian Ministries and Austrian Funding Agencies.
The Austrian Counterpart focused on these relevant questions: How can relevant Austrian communities engage with the EOSC? How can Austrian EOSC Stakeholders contribute to the structuring of these co-creation processes? How can the addressed communities help to prepare the transition to a new “Stakeholder-based governance” at domestic level?
The EOSC Steering Board and Association representatives, Hanslik and Gunsenheimer, teamed up on a presentation to introduce the National Tripartite Event initiative, which will be propagated across EU Member States and Associated Countries in the months to come, and to present the Tripartite “formula” from the point of view of the EOSC Association.
“The EOSC National Tripartite Events are motivated by the need for the Association to get out in the field and take the temperature of this enormous collaboration,” said Gunsenheimer “We do this first by hearing first-hand what the activities, perspectives and concerns are from the respective national representatives, and by offering in turn updates on the ongoing initiatives and priorities of the Association and its board.”
The Austrian National Tripartite Event follows on the success of the large December 2021 gathering for the European Tripartite Event, where consensus on key implementation priorities was achieved.
The EOSC Tripartite Governance is a concept of strategic coordination between the EU, represented by the Commission, the EOSC Association, and the Member States and Associated Countries involved in the EOSC Steering Board. The objective is to resource and support the implementation of the EOSC environment in Europe, advancing an open science system and aligning national and EU policies to improve the production of FAIR research output. The Tripartite Governance ensures dialogue and strategic coordination of the policy implementation objectives of the EOSC and its framework conditions as a pilot action to deepen the European Research Area (ERA).
The next National Tripartite Events will be held in October in the Nordic region, in Slovenia, and Poland.
