Events
06/10/20

2nd ESFRI RIs-EOSC Workshop “Research Infrastructures shaping EOSC”

The 2nd Workshop on the connection of ESFRI Research Infrastructures (RIs) to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC),“Research Infrastructures shaping EOSC” that was planned to take place as a physical event will be transformed into a virtual event.

Event’s report, programme and presentations

This is due to the restrictions on the number of participants in physical conferences in the host country, the travel restrictions across Europe and the great uncertainty and dynamic evolution of the Covid-19 outbreak. The virtual event is planned to take place on the same dates, namely on 6 & 7 October 2020.

The main objective of the workshop is to bring together ESFRI, ESFRI RIs and EOSC stakeholders, in order to showcase and better comprehend the EOSC concept and value proposition for its users, and ensure the optimal federation of ESFRI clusters/ RIs with EOSC. The latest developments on the EOSC next phase governance and the technical areas will be presented, so that the thematic infrastructures can actively contribute and provide feedback to the on-going dialogue, being able to take 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.

The event will be recorded and will include breakout sessions for feedback from the community. The plenary sessions will be open to accommodate wide participation. However, due to limited capacity of the breakout sessions, the attendance will be limited to one (1) person per National Delegation/ Project/ Landmark/ Organisation. This is mainly to facilitate discussion and effective feedback in these sessions.

Registration is mandatory, and should be done via the online form. Breakout sessions have reached their capacity and therefore no nore registrations are accepted for these.

For more information on the outcomes of the 1st ESFRI RIs-EOSC Workshop (London, 30.1.2019), please click here.

Background

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.

Objectives

The main objective of the workshop is to bring together ESFRI, ESFRI RIs and EOSC stakeholders, in order to showcase and better comprehend the EOSC concept and value proposition for its users, and ensure an optimal federation of ESFRI clusters / RIs with EOSC.

Present the current state of EOSC and see how the thematic RIs/ESFRI clusters fit into the developing landscape, including the tri-party partnership with the new legal entity (EOSC Association) and its Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SRIA). Convey ESFRI RIs/Clusters/ and ESFRI Task Force on EOSC positions into shaping EOSC:

Present the EOSC latest documents and the outcome of their 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 from ESFRI RIs and Clusters the 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 the 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

Main concepts

Work around the themes of ‘Present and Future’, both from the thematic projects (RI/Clusters) and horizontal projects (e-Infrastructures) perspectives.

  • Present: where are we now both in terms of latest policy and technical developments. Policy with regards to the tri-party partnership, the new legal entity and the SRIA document, along with the EOSC Sustainability WG “Iron Lady” document. Regarding technical developments portray characteristic use cases both from horizontal and thematic projects, reflecting also the ESFRI White Paper related points. 
  • Future: What is expected in the next period, both policy and technically, following up on the current state. On the one hand study the evolving legal landscape of EOSC next phase (post 2020) and envisage the role of the thematic stakeholders, and on the other hand focus on user-related technical aspects and expectations; what services are planned to be available in the Minimum Valuable EOSC (MVE) when EOSC is launched on 1st Jan 2021 compared to what services users are expecting? EOSC Governance to present the current state of play; thematic stakeholders/clusters/RIs to reflect on their role in the developing landscape; clusters to present key services/good practices to be federated in EOSC, showcasing the EOSC potential and added-value; horizontal projects to present also a set of horizontal services, again showcasing the EOSC potential and added-value.

Main focal and other points: 

  • Present latest EOSC Governance plans, including the EOSC partnership and extract user expectations on governance.
  • Present use cases for end users to understand EOSC and to attract them to use it. 
  • Go into the details in specific topics in round table discussions and identify key benefits for the users: e.g. unified data formats, service level agreements, MVE services, training/skills, AAI.

Provide highlights-“flavours”- good practices: Need to provide highlights and “flavours” (use cases, good practices, etc.) in close cooperation with the clusters showcasing/ demonstrating breadth of issues.

Informed by ESFRI White Paper, including: 

  • ESFRI vision/mission and the strategic orientations for a renewed ERA.
  • Implementation of a healthy RI ecosystem in Europe with high-quality open research data from RIs for EOSC federation.

Workshop report: A report from the event needs to be prepared, along with the presented case studies/use cases with the identified benefits for their users, which can possibly act as input into the  future developments of EOSC (that can also act as a tool to attract users to join the EOSC, thus supporting uptake/integration within this community).

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

SOURCE: ESFRI website