The European Open Science Cloud is a Europe-wide initiative to promote open science and open innovation. It is a network of organizations and infrastructures from different countries and communities that supports the open creation and dissemination of knowledge and scientific data.
The EOSC is a vision of a federated, globally accessible, multidisciplinary environment in which researchers, innovators, businesses and citizens can publish, search, use and reuse data, tools, publications and other outputs for research, innovation and education purposes (Report on governance and financial schemes for the European Open Science Cloud).
The intention of the EOSC is to bring together existing scientific data infrastructures, which are now fragmented between scientific disciplines and EU Member States. This will facilitate and streamline access to scientific data (Realizing the European Open Science Cloud).
EOSC information video
To get acquainted with the European Cloud for Open Science, you can watch the information video prepared by the EOSC secretariat in cooperation with the Austrian partner FFG:
EOSC What do you need to know?
The National Working Group for EOSC was established in November 2019 at the CVTI SR, in cooperation with the Section of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Slovak Republic. CVTI SR also represents the SR in the structure of the EOSC Governance Board (EOSC Executive Board).
The National Working Group will serve as a professional strategic and advisory body for the formation of opinions and positions of the Slovak Republic within the EOSC initiative.
List of members of the EOSC National Working Group
EOSC Partnership Proposal (Draft proposal for a European Partnership under Horizon Europe European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) PartnershipVersion, 28 May 2020)
EOSC partnership draft proposal 28.5.2020
European data strategy
The European data strategy published by the EC on 19 February 2020 focuses on the creation of a single data market that will ensure Europe's global competitiveness and data sovereignty.
In order to ensure the EU's leading position in the global data economy, the objectives of this European Data Strategy are:
- Take legislative measures on data management, access and re-use, for example to share data between businesses and public administrations in the public interest.
- Make data more widely available by opening up high-value publicly stored data across the EU and allowing it to be re-used free of charge;
- Invest EUR 2 billion in a European project with a high impact on the development of data processing infrastructures, data sharing tools, architectures and management mechanisms for cost-effective data sharing and the pooling of energy-efficient and trusted cloud infrastructures and related services;
- Enable access to secure, fair and competitive cloud services by facilitating the creation of a market for the procurement of data processing services and creating a clear regulatory framework for the cloud;
- Enable users to have control over their data and invest in capacity building for SMEs and digital skills;
- Support the deployment of common European data spaces in key sectors such as industrial production, green shops, mobility or health.
As part of the data strategy, the European Commission has published a report on data sharing between business and government (B2G). The report from the High Level Expert Group contains a set of policy, legal and financial recommendations that will help make the sharing of B2G data in the public interest a scalable, responsible and sustainable practice in the EU.
Documents for download: European_data_strategy_sk; European_data_strategy_en; EC Press release
Open consultation
The Commission would like to hear views on the published European data strategy through a public online consultation launched on 19 February. The results of this survey will be used to propose Commission initiatives on access to and re-use of data in the coming months and years. The survey is available until 31 May 2020.
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/policies/building-european-data-economy
EOSC Strategic Implementation Plan
In July 2019, the European Executive Council for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) issued the EOSC Strategic Implementation Plan, which sets up the first five working groups and outputs, which will directly address the priority areas for the creation of a scientific cloud.
The Strategic Implementation Plan presents the activities that will contribute to the implementation of the EOSC for the period 2019-2020. It is intended primarily for stakeholders involved in building a European cloud for open science. This document provides a comprehensive overview of the implementation of the EOSC with action lines and timetables for the period. The list of activities includes the most recently approved EOSC-related Horizon 2020 projects.
EOSC Strategic Implementation Plan 2019 - 2020
EOSC Work Plan 2019-2020
The EOSC Executive Board has issued the first version of the EOSC Work Plan. The plan defines the key outputs and their timetables planned in the first phase of EOSC implementation - from mid-2019 to the end of 2020. The work plan will be regularly updated, starting in the first quarter of 2020.
EOSC Work Plan 2019-2020
Preparation of the EOSC and preparation of the EOSC partnership for Horizon Europe
Information from 5.6.2020
The EOSC Partnership will be one of about 50 proposed European partnerships under the Horizon Europe program.
The current governance of the EOSC consists of the Executive Board and the Governance Board (EOSC). These structures worked with the European Commission to consolidate the EOSC Partnership Proposal document. This version has already been published by the Commission as a living document, together with all the other proposals of the partnership candidates.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/european-open-science-cloud-eosc_en
Proposals for membership of this partnership are currently being accepted.
The EOSC partnership will be a co-programmed partnership, which requires the existence or the establishment of a legal entity to conclude a contract with the European Commission.
The mandate of the current governance of the EOSC will expire on 31 December 2020. The new legal entity will be registered in Belgium in the form of the International Non-Profit Association (AISBL), with legal personality granted by royal decree. This registration process can take 4 to 6 months, depending on the granting of a royal decree by the Belgian Ministry of Justice.
The EOSC needs to be set up quickly, as it can take up to 6 months. For the sake of efficiency of the process, the responsible authorities agreed that there should be only four founding members, i. j. organizations that sign with a notary to register the EOSC.
This accelerated process will allow the organizations concerned to join the association as soon as possible after its establishment. This procedure should allow for the rapid establishment of an EOSC, while ensuring the inclusiveness required by the EOSC community.
Organizations interested in joining the partnership can register their interest in joining the EOSC at this stage of the partnership preparation.
The EOSC Management Board will discuss the draft Statutes of the Partnership at its next meeting, to be held on 1 July 2020.
EOSC Secretariat launches accelerated call for funding for open science COVID-19 research activities in Europe (published 10.4.2020)
Information on EOSC related calls H2020 (April 2020)
Running calls H2020
INFRAEOSC-03-2020: Integration and consolidation of the existing pan-European access mechanism to public research infrastructures and commercial services through the EOSC Portal
The aim is to consolidate and scale up the EOSC Portal and its underlying service platform in order to: 1) strengthen the EOSC Portal so that it continues to provide an increasing portfolio of high quality standard compliant and interoperable services of proven user interest and scientific relevance from a wide range of national, regional and institutional public research infrastructures in Europe as well as from commercial service providers in its catalog; 2) reinforce the role of the marketplace as the access channel to integrated, composable and reliable services; 3) attract more users, within the research community and beyond, by enhancing the user experience and seamlessly accommodating their needs; and 4) ensure its long-term sustainability taking into account all the relevant governance and business frameworks.
Proposals should build on the outcomes of past and current EOSC-related projects and address the following activities:
o Operation, maintenance and enhancement of the EOSC Portal
o Fostering and enabling secure service composability
o User enhanced experience using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques
o Widening the EOSC user base
o Widening the service offer with commercial services
o Support activities: Outreach and skills & Support to RDA’s contribution to the EOSC.
Grants awarded under this topic are expected to carry out an analysis regarding energy consumption and environmental impact of technologies used in the context of the project.
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations aiming at ensuring exploitation of its results: proposals must state the participants' commitment to: a) use open source software, b) make tools, standards, specifications and all other relevant outputs generated in the action available, through a well-defined mechanism, to the EOSC governance and any other institution responsible for the continuity of the of the EOSC Portal beyond the lifespan of the Grant Agreement.
The budget of the call amounts to EUR 40.9 million euro. The deadline for application is on 18 June 2020.
INFRAEOSC-07-2020: Increasing the service offer of the EOSC Portal
The aim is to effectively coordinate at pan-European level the provision through the EOSC Portal of state-of-the-art research enabling services from a wide range of national, regional and institutional public infrastructures in Europe, covering diverse thematic domains, and further non-research resources in order to: 1) scale up the EOSC Portal; and 2) set-up a model for interaction between service providers and the EOSC Portal operators through pan-European e-infrastructure entities, based on transparency and effectiveness of cost compensation.
Proposals should build on the competences of pan-European e-Infrastructures of diverse domains to ensure multidisciplinary research and synergies with national and regional programs. Consortia should identify one and only one of the following areas:
o Distributed and cloud computing resources
o Data services
o Services supporting scholarly communication and open access
o Above the net services
o Services and resources from non-research public sector data providers
o Additional research enabling services (not described above).
Grants awarded under this topic are expected to carry out an analysis regarding energy consumption and environmental impact of technologies used in the context of the project.
The following additional dissemination obligations for interoperability apply: consortia must make active efforts to freely share, in a timely manner and as appropriate, standards, specifications and methodologies from their activities with the other projects awarded under the same topic in order to foster to the maximum extent interoperability between the different services.
The budget of the call amounts to 24 million euros. The deadline for application is on 18 June 2020.
Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI)
Lamačská cesta 8/A
81104 Bratislava
Tel.: +421 2 69253 175
www.cvtisr.sk
Mgr. Jitka Dobbersteinová
email: jitka.dobbersteinova@cvtisr.sk
RNDr. Ing. Anna Krivjanská
email: anna.krivjanska@cvtisr.sk
