EOSC’s current phase of implementation (2021-2030) is taking place in the context of the EOSC European Co-programmed Partnership. The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), which is co-owned by the EOSC Association (EOSC-A) and the European Commission, defines the general framework for future research, development, and innovation activities in relation to EOSC. The Multi-Annual Roadmap (MAR) forms an integral part of the SRIA, and is embedded in the SRIA as Chapter 8. Horizon Europe Work Programmes and priorities are being defined according to the input from the SRIA, and especially the MAR.
Earlier in 2022, the Members of EOSC-A, the EOSC-A Task Forces, and the broader EOSC Community gave their input for defining the MAR for the period 2023-2024. The MAR 2023-2024 is scheduled to be integrated into the SRIA in the fourth quarter of 2022, resulting in SRIA 1.1, after being ratified by the General Assembly of EOSC-A and the Partnership Board of the EOSC Co-programmed Partnership.
The European Commission draws from the SRIA to a draft next version of the Horizon Europe Work Programme, with respect to “Destination Enabling an operational, open and FAIR EOSC ecosystem” (INFRAEOSC) within the chapter of Research Infrastructures. The INFRAEOSC destination aims to continue to develop the EOSC in a more cohesive and structured manner so that it becomes a fully operational enabling ecosystem for the whole research data lifecycle.
A draft version of the Research Infrastructures chapter of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024, available from the website of Science Business, was used to cross-reference the MAR 2023-2024 with the INFRAEOSC part of the draft Work Programme 2023-2024. We found that all six items under the call HORIZON-INFRA-2023-EOSC-01 and all five items under the call HORIZON-INFRA-2024-EOSC-01 touch on priority activities defined on European level in MAR 2023-2024. This is the case across all three main Objectives of the SRIA, i.e.:
- Objective 1 – Open Science as the new normal
- Objective 2 – Definition and development of standards and tools
- Objective 3 – Establish a sustainable and federated infrastructure
Although the Research Infrastructures chapter of the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024 we used for the cross-referencing was a draft, it is already clear that the voice of the EOSC community has been heard. The draft Research Infrastructures chapter shows that the joint work of the Members of EOSC-A, the EOSC-A Task Forces, and the broader EOSC Community to define the priorities for the next phase in the MAR 2023-2024 has paid off and will bring great opportunities for the next couple of years for our community to jointly work on contributing to the further development and strengthening of the European Open Science Cloud. This is a full success of EOSC-A in the framework of the Co-programmed Partnership.
