Originally planned as a physical event, the 2nd workshop on connecting the ESFRI Research Infrastructures (RIs) to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), will now take place virtually. This is due to  restrictions on the number of participants at conferences in the host country, and the travel restrictions associated with Covid-19 outbreak. The date is unchanged, 6 & 7 October 2020.

Workshop Objectives

The main objective of the workshop is to bring ESFRI, ESFRI RIs, and EOSC stakeholders together to establish better comprehension of the EOSC concept and potential benefits to users, and ensure the optimal federation of ESFRI clusters/ RIs with EOSC. As such, participants will learn about the the next phase of EOSC governance and the latest technical developments to the platform. This will prepare them to contribute actively to the ongoing dialogue, provide feedback, and make informed decisions.

The workshop is organised by the ESFRI Task Force on EOSC, the EOSC Cluster projects, the EOSC Secretariat and the StR-ESFRI2 Project, in close cooperation with ESFRI and the EC.

View programme

Logistics

The event will be recorded and will include breakout sessions for feedback from the community. To accommodate wide participation, the plenary sessions will be open. However, to acilitate discussion and effective feedback in the breakout sessions, attendance will be limited to one person per National Delegation/ Project/ Landmark/ Organisation. 

Registration is mandatory, and should be completed by 25 September

Register here 

Please note that registration is also required for pre-registered participants, as it facilitates the break out session selection step.

Information on the outcomes of the 1st ESFRI RIs-EOSC Workshop (London, 30.1.2019), is available here.

Draft Agenda

Present latest EOSC documents and outcomes of consultations:

• EOSC Partnership agreement and EOSC Association
• EOSC Partnership Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SRIA) (including planning for the next cycles of funding)
• EOSC Sustainability WG latest report “Iron Lady”

Showcase EOSC concept and added-value for its users with concrete use cases, good practices and approaches for federating thematic resources into EOSC – around 3 main areas:

• Thematic Clusters/RI data and tools
• Horizontal federated e-Infrastructure resources uptake 
• Open Science and FAIR data sharing within and across domains

Present latest technical developments and outputs of e-Infrastructure/EOSC providers:

• Resources and services/tools for thematic providers and end users (network, computing, data, middleware/other services)
• Developments around incentives and policies on open and FAIR Data & Services, their sharing and towards a cultural change, and work on skills 

Reflect from the users’ perspective on the status, outputs and discussions in the EOSC WGs, with focus on:

• Architecture
• FAIR data 
• Rules of Participation (RoP) 
• Other basic findings from other groups will be covered, including: the Minimal Valuable EOSC (MVE) concept. In particular, how the Clusters/RIs data producers/service providers are connected/federated (either integrated or interfaced); skills and training

Background Information

European Research Infrastructures (RIs) foster the definition, implementation and further development of advanced solutions for the effective provisioning and use of high-quality scientific data, with effective metadata descriptors, ease of access, interoperability and reusability, fully implementing the FAIR (‘Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles. 

ESFRI Landmarks and other internationally open RIs, not only produce scientific data that are used by highly competitive international research communities, but also assure a robust quality control of the produced data sets. In addition, the ability of RIs to develop interoperability concepts becomes critical not only for effective data sharing, but also more generally, it will direct the capability of RIs to address the multidisciplinary character of the societal challenges and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These efforts must be recognized, properly analysed and utilized to contribute to shaping the EOSC ecosystem.

EOSC provides a chance to increase data sharing beyond RIs, since it is an infrastructure that includes not only RIs but also data, users and service providers from different national and regional backgrounds. EOSC provides a chance to increase data sharing beyond RIs, since it will provide European researchers with seamless access to a wealth of data, along with a wide range of value-added services from different national and regional backgrounds. The experience gathered by ESFRI and ESFRI initiated RIs, should be utilized to the maximum extent in the EOSC implementation, including the various alternatives for governance models and fully reflecting the engagement and responsibility of RIs in and for Open Science.

EOSC should have clear extra value for its end users. These include primary scientific advantages, such as enhanced data and service connections, better ability to address interdisciplinary and societal challenges, and improved e-infrastructure services and tools for RIs and their data consumers. On top of that EOSC should feature political, social and cultural advantages, for example improved political decision-making capabilities, increased societal awareness and leading a change in culture towards Open Science. Further, qualifying factors such as transparency, high data quality, research acknowledgement/credit, and training are important.

EOSC requires a long-term and sustained funding to ensure relevance, uptake and its continued existence. This funding should also reflect the evolving needs of the supported communities, with necessary periodic updates and related development initiatives. 

The EOSC cluster projects play an important and multi-faceted role for both EOSC and RIs, being on one side providers of data and services of all kinds (e.g., data services, research products services) and on the other side as users of services provided by EOSC. The relationship between direct funding for RIs and EOSC-derived funding for the horizontal services and resources provided for the RIs need to be considered, with the precise specification for each facility.

EOSC is working on a change of culture towards open research data, and based on the FAIR data principles. Such a cultural change can be achieved through targeted education and training, incentives and reward mechanisms. 

Promotion, outreach and training can ensure that the added value of EOSC is clearly visible for its end users, including the many benefits of Open Science, and the ‘added value’ for RIs. Further, an understanding of the costs associated with Open Science is needed. For this, funding models, legal entity concepts and statutes, as well as access models are being defined by EOSC. 

The RI community should act as a key player in these efforts, leading the change of culture, driving data quality and more open access to data. Together with the scientific community of users, the RIs have a key role to help deploy the EOSC.

Further reading
- ESFRI White Paper
- EU Council Conclusions on EOSC
- Keynote speech by President von der Leyen at the World Economic Forum
- EC Implementation Roadmap for EOSC