News

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 opening of the 2nd OSCARS Open Call has been delayed due to pending legal advice from the European Commission regarding eligibility criteria. A new opening date will be announced as soon as it is confirmed.

The Day of Good Data Graz (Grazer Tag der guten Daten) took place at the University of Graz on 11 February 2025, as part of the Love Data Week 2025. The theme of the international action week was ‘Whose Data Is It, Anyway?’, which also set the theme for this day. The keynote by Dr. Katja Mayer (University of Vienna) explored the ownership and use of open research data in AI development, addressing challenges like transparency and ethical standards. Alexander Muhr (TU Graz) provided a legal overview of data ownership, copyright, and challenges like the AI Act. Walter Scholger (Uni Graz) presented best practices for managing research data in the digital humanities, highlighting initiatives by DARIAH-EU and CLARIAH-AT. Emily Kate Genatowski (Uni Vienna) discussed a project developing citation standards for digital resources in the humanities. Finally, Michael Freidl (Uni Graz) introduced the university’s new data governance policy, setting standards for data ownership and responsibilities to promote innovation and integrity.

From 21-23 January 2025, 150 participants from across the EOSC landscape flocked to Seville (Spain) to attend the second EOSC Winter School, an event organized by the EOSC Association and the EOSC Focus project. Participants, including representatives from EOSC-related projects, the European Commission, and the EOSC-A Board and Secretariat, convened under the banner “Convergence towards the EOSC Federation: Encouraging collaborative efforts among stakeholders”. The event confirmed the community’s strong interest in a bottom-up support for the emerging EOSC Federation as it advances toward operational readiness in 2025.

The Research Data Cluster Expo took place at TU Wien with over 200 guests. With presentations, a panel discussion, product demonstrations, time for exchange and specific community meetings on the following day it was colorful event. A total of 14 exhibitors were on site with their products and services, while a further 20 infrastructures, tools and services were represented with posters.

The recent General Assembly was a resounding success, bringing together key national and international voices to reflect on the progress and future of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) in Austria. With (international) speakers from the EOSC Support Office Austria (EOSC SOA) bodies, the Czech Republic, the EOSC Association, and a perspective from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), the event highlighted the continued growth of the initiative, underpinned by the strength of its expansive network at both national and international levels.

As the new year begins, nine new EOSC-related Horizon Europe projects will join the group of 23 ongoing projects contributing to the development and deployment of EOSC. The nine new projects have ambitious objectives ranging from climate change adaptation to providing new innovative EOSC Exchange services.

In line with the sequencing process established by the Tripartite Governance in November 2024, the first-stage dialogue meetings were held with all 29 Potential Candidate Nodes at the end of the year. On 13 December 2024, the Tripartite issued an online questionnaire to the 29 Potential Candidate Nodes as a follow-up to the first-stage dialogue meetings. The questionnaire is an integral part of the first-stage dialogues, and will serve as input to the Tripartite’s plan to identify a reduced number of Potential Candidate Nodes that will participate in the second-stage dialogues this month. Following these dialogues, anywhere from seven to ten Candidate Nodes will be selected to be onboarded in February as the first wave of the Federation.

Take a look at the updated slide deck on EOSC-related Horizon Europe projects’ stakeholder engagement activities and see if you spot any synergies with your own work!