Source: EOSC
The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) has been selected from a total of 121 initiatives across Europe as one of 13 organizations that will be part of the development phase of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Federation [1]. This marks the start of the development phase.
What Is the EOSC?
The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a ground-breaking initiative that aims to create an inclusive and open space for the sharing and use of research data in Europe, making it easier to share and reuse data [2]. The idea behind the initiative, which was launched in 2021, is to drive forward the networking and federation of existing RDM infrastructures.
Announcement on the Establishment of the EOSC Federation
The EOSC Tripartite Governance has agreed on the organisations that have been invited to the kick-off workshop of the EOSC Federation, signalling the opening act in EOSC’s build-up phase.
The naming of the 13 organisations invited to join the kick-off workshop marks the most significant milestone to date in the build-up of the EOSC Federation. Following an open call for Expressions of Interest in summer 2024, which yielded an overwhelming 121 responses, the EOSC Tripartite Governance – including representatives from the EOSC Association, the European Commission, and the Member States and Associated Countries – took up the task of narrowing and sequencing this large number of organisations interested in contributing to the build-up of the Federation.
The agreed sequencing process took into account factors such as maturity and diversity of resources, inclusivity and geographical representation, as well as organisational and technical readiness to contribute voluntarily – that is, with no additional funding – to the Federation’s build-up phase. The build-up will continue with subsequent waves of Candidate Nodes, and will continue to be guided by the four core principles that have so far defined the Tripartite’s approach to building the EOSC Federation:
- Community-driven goals;
- A flexible and evolutive approach, allowing for adaptation of a work in progress;
- Co-creation of key elements, including requirements and policies; and
- Community-wide engagement, information sharing and consultation.
The organisations invited to the kick-off workshop showcase the diversity of the European Research Area, representing potential European, national and thematic Nodes distributed across the continent:
- BBMRI ERIC
- CERN
- CNR (Blue-Cloud 2026)
- CNRS (Data Terra)
- CSC – IT Center for Science
- CVTI SR
- Life Science Research Node (on behalf of four Life Science Research Infrastructures: ELIXIR, EMBL, Euro-BioImaging ERIC, and Instruct-ERIC)
- ESRF (PaNOSC)
- EUDAT
- Foundation ICSC
- NCN
- NFDI
- SURF
The 17-18 March kick-off workshop, to be held in-person in Brussels, will be the first step in the Federation’s build-up and will include the above-named organisations, the EOSC EU Node and the Tripartite Group. Together, these groups will begin to co-develop the EOSC Federation’s work plan, based on draft individual project charters by the organisations, and establish inter-Node groups to work on specific issues. After committing to join the build-up phase, the organisations will successively form the first Candidate EOSC Nodes.
A webinar and info-share for all of the organisations that completed the first wave Expression of Interest will be held in late March. This online meeting, the first of multiple planned engagements, will offer both a retrospective and preview of the continuing opportunities to contribute to the build-up of the EOSC Federation.
A subsequent wave of Candidate EOSC Nodes will follow in the footsteps of the first. The next call to contribute to the development of the EOSC Federation is planned to be issued as soon as summer 2025. The second-wave Candidate Nodes will benefit from the experiences of the first-wave Nodes that have preceded them, as well as from the continuous feedback loop that will inform the development of the Federation. Following the second wave, it is anticipated that the processes in place will enable a continuous stream of enrolment for future EOSC Nodes. (*)
NFDI@RWTH Aachen
Several NFDI consortia, such as NFDI4Ing, NFDI4Chem, and FAIRmat, are actively involved in the development and implementation of research data management strategies at RWTH.
By participating in the EOSC, these consortia can contribute their expertise at the European level and benefit from synergies within the federation. This not only strengthens scientific exchange, but also the international visibility of research at RWTH.
Learn More
The ZBW – Leibniz Informationszentrum für Wirtschaftswissenschaften invites you to the EOSC Coffee Lecture on May 8, 2025, from 4 to 5pm, where you can learn more about the structure of the EOSC Federation. (**)
If you have any questions about the role of the NFDI in the EOSC development phase, please contact the NFDI. For general questions about Research Data Management, please contact our RDM team.
Responsible for the content of this article are Hania Eid and Lina-Louise Kaulbach.
The following sources served as the basis for this article:
[1] EOSC
[2] ZBW – Leibnitz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
[3] EOSC
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