What is EOSC
European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is an initiative aimed at creating a virtual environment that fulfills the principles of the Open Science paradigm. EOSC is designed to provide not only scientific data but also advanced tools and resources for storing, sharing, processing, and managing that data in a simple and transparent way. These resources are intended to support effective research, innovation implementation, and education. The multidisciplinary environment is targeted at European researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and society at large. The data sharing policy in EOSC is based on the FAIR principles: findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.
Origins of EOSC
The origins of EOSC date back to the 2015 European Commission communication titled "A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe," which laid the foundation for the integration of European digital research infrastructure. The initiative gained momentum with the 2016 communication "European Cloud Initiative – Building a competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe," in which the European Commission proposed the creation of the European Open Science Cloud.
In 2017, the EOSC Declaration outlined guiding principles and invited stakeholders to support and engage in the development of EOSC. The implementation phase officially began with the establishment of the EOSC Governance Board and Executive Board in 2018. The EOSC Strategic Implementation Plan and the EOSC Partnership under the Horizon Europe programme are key milestones shaping the initiative's development since 2021.
Entities forming EOSC
As an initiative created to facilitate the practical implementation of open science and to support the entire scientific process in Europe and beyond, EOSC brings together a significant number of key entities and stakeholders:
- European Commission: As the driving force behind EOSC, the European Commission provides funding, policy guidance, and coordination. Key roles are played by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT),
- EOSC Association: Established in 2020, the EOSC Association includes research-performing organizations, service providers, and industry representatives. It oversees the strategic implementation and operation of the EOSC ecosystem, ensuring alignment with the needs of the European research community,
- National governments and funding agencies: National governments and funding bodies, such as the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), provide financial support and policy alignment. They facilitate infrastructure development at the national level,
- National Research and Education Networks (NRENs): Organizations such as EGI, EUDAT, OpenAIRE, GÉANT, and their technology partners provide the connectivity backbone of EOSC, linking institutions across Europe and enabling seamless data exchange and service access,
- Research infrastructures: Institutions like CERN, EMBL-EBI, and ESA contribute expertise, large datasets, and advanced research tools, ensuring EOSC meets cutting-edge scientific needs,
- Libraries and data repositories: Entities such as LIBER and university libraries advocate for open access and ensure data repositories comply with FAIR principles. They also support and train researchers in effectively engaging with EOSC,
- Academic and research institutions: Universities and research institutions actively provide data, develop tools, and adopt EOSC infrastructure to enhance research efficiency. They participate in pilot projects and community-building activities.
EOSC projects and the role of Cyfronet
Within EOSC, connections are being established between existing research and scientific e-infrastructures. Integration is achieved, among other things, through the unification of access and authorization rules for researchers from different countries.
Thanks to the achievements of EOSC-Hub, one of the EU-funded projects building EOSC, a platform was created to fulfill this task. The EOSC Portal serves as a meeting point between providers of scientific services and resources and researchers, who can benefit not only from the resources themselves but also from technical support and training. The ACK Cyfronet AGH team played a key role in this area, becoming the portal provider and developing the Marketplace service, an extensive catalog of services and documentation shared by EOSC partners.
Key goals for the further development of EOSC include expanding the Portal and integrating services from a greater number of providers.
The EOSC Enhance project, carried out from 2019 to 2021, aimed to improve the Portal in terms of usability and speed. Work led by our specialists included advanced user behavior analytics to create and implement best user experience practices. At the same time, new functionalities were introduced.
From September 2019 to October 2022, the EOSC Synergy project was implemented to introduce EOSC standards to nine additional national e-infrastructures. In addition to coordinating activities at the national level, Cyfronet supported the planning process by seeking new, effective solutions for integration in other countries.
EOSC Future (2021–2024) was a continuation and expansion of previous efforts. The project aimed to enhance the quality of the EOSC ecosystem to better support European science and encourage researchers to use the available resources. This goal was pursued through continued work on the Portal, integration of additional infrastructures and scientific initiatives. Additionally, EOSC Future aimed to ensure the long-term stability of EOSC. As part of the project, Cyfronet was responsible for developing one of the three main components of the Portal: the user-facing part, particularly its elements supporting Marketplace functionalities.
The ongoing FAIRCORE4EOSC project (2022–2025) aims to expand EOSC infrastructure with components that support the FAIR paradigm. In this case, Cyfronet's role is to provide expert support in data management and personalized EOSC resource search (including scientific objects) using AI methods (primarily Machine Learning), as well as to implement the solutions developed in the project into the EOSC user portal.
Since 2024, another project has been underway: EOSC Beyond, which aims to deliver new solutions for open science and tools for science in the context of EOSC by providing new functionalities for the EOSC Core platform. Cyfronet is responsible for expert support and delivering solutions for new EOSC functionalities for researchers.
Alongside the development of the Portal and accompanying platforms within EOSC, work is being carried out to establish transparent collaboration rules with both service providers and end users. The creation of governance structures is coordinated by the EOSC Secretariat, which organizes discussion-based working groups. Their goal is to gather requirements and develop communication formats and procedures.
Activities for EOSC are carried out by various teams at ACK Cyfronet AGH, with a leading role played by the Laboratory of Data Processing.
The EOSC Portal is available at: https://eosc-portal.eu/.
Below are descriptions of individual EOSC-building projects available on our website: