Austrian EOSC
Mandated Organisation

EOSC Austria was created within the framework of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and the EOSC Association AISBL, here referred to as EOSC-Association. The establishment of the Austrian initiative began with four Research infrastructures: the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHM), TU Graz, TU Wien, University of Vienna (UNIVIE), Climate Change Center Austria (CCCA), Johannes Kepler University of Linz (JKU) and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. ACONET Association was appointed as the Mandated Organisation to represent national views and interests in the EOSC.

The national initiative, EOSC Austria, is legally represented by the Austrian EOSC Mandated Organization and managed by its operational body, the EOSC Support Office Austria. The partners are united by their common interest in a coordinated development of the Austrian Open Science Policy and the goals of EOSC.

The Austrian initiative is committed to the Open Science movement and the Vienna Declaration on the EOSC. Our vision is to make scientific processes more open and effective as well as to use both scientific excellence and open innovative and applied research to address current challenges, which are outlined comprehensively in the policies of the EU Commission and in the framework of the Global Sustainability Goals (UN SDGs).

Objectives

The initiative aims to make a coordinated Austrian contribution to realise EOSC. The EOSC Support Office Austria as the operational unit of the initiative supports the implementation of EOSC and its operational goals. These goals are based on the EOSC Association AISBL, coordinated with the partners and developed in annual work programs.

Other goals include the development of an EOSC Strategic Agenda Austria, the establishment of Working Groups (WGs) and ongoing monitoring activities of the Austrian research landscape and cultural heritage institutions – with the purpose of enabling “EOSC Readiness” and as well as to initiate the introduction of success indicators (KPIs).

The Guiding Principles

Our Guiding Principles, which are enumerated in the MoU, set the spirit of the Austrian EOSC Initiative. They are defined as follows:

  • Openness: The initiative is committed to an open way of working in the partner network.
  • Culture of dialogue: Dialogue between partners is encouraged to support personal networking and exchange of views.
  • Free access: The partners commit themselves to free access to the results of the joint work in the initiative.
  • Defined ownership of rights: The partners ensure the sustainability of the results through regulated ownership of rights within and outside the network.
  • Identifiable division of roles: The initiative has a regulated relationship of all partners to each other through defined administrative structures and work processes. Roles and responsibilities are clearly recognisable from inside and outside the network.
  • Structured working methods: The working methods of the working groups in the initiative are defined by regulated meetings, clear responsibilities, defined voting modes and communication.
  • Clear information infrastructure: The partners have a common, national information infrastructure in the form of a wiki with terms of use.