Strengthening the potential of the EOSC for knowledge valorisation and industry-academia collaboration (EOSC Partnership)
2026-06-15
Expected Outcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

Better overview of the identified opportunities and barriers of the EU’s current legal framework on intellectual property (patents, copyright, licenses etc.) for researchers to valorise knowledge resources provided and/or processed in the EOSC Federation.
Organisations contributing resources to the EOSC Federation have improved capacity, stronger incentives and better legal and technical conditions to valorise these knowledge resources and engage in open innovation practices and industry-academia collaboration.
Organisations contributing to the EOSC Federation have clearer frameworks and incentives to offer their resources to innovators, deep-tech startups and startups emerging from academia.
Organisations contributing to the EOSC Federation have established channels in EOSC to promote knowledge valorisation with the private sector, including SMEs and industry.

Scope:
This topic aims to support increasing and exploiting the potential of EOSC as a driver of innovation and a platform for researchers to develop new technologies and solutions that can be brought to the market.
Knowledge valorisation is one of the EU’s key priorities for the European Research Area, aiming to ensure that the increasing amount of research results generated in the EU, mostly with full or partial public funding, are transformed to products, services and solutions that benefit society and contribute to economic competitiveness.
Many initiatives have already been taken at EU level to boost knowledge valorisation, including the guiding principles, codes of practice and a platform to build a community to share experiences[1].
The EOSC Federation brings together and makes available to researchers, large volumes of knowledge resources, including data, publications, software, tools and services from different research and data infrastructures and scientific services providers across Europe. It therefore has the potential to facilitate and provide appropriate frameworks for knowledge valorisation, open innovation practices and industry-academia collaboration especially for what concerns results that stem from cross-discipline or cross-country research. Activities funded under this topic should aim to support the capacity of the EOSC Federation and its community to better valorise research results in line with the EU’s code of practice on intellectual assets management[2] and standardisation in the European Research Area[3].
A key element in this effort is to clarify the legal conditions to valorise knowledge resources, including resources provided in the EOSC Federation. As knowledge resources have various degrees of copyright protection, it is often challenging for researchers to navigate in what they are allowed to do with the knowledge resources and how they can be used in industry-academia collaboration. A better overview of requirements and more legal clarity will therefore incentivise researchers to valorise the knowledge resources of the EOSC Federation.
This effort should also take into account the specific needs of different research communities contributing to the EOSC Federation, ensuring they have the possibility to set better legal terms for knowledge valorisation through appropriate choice of licenses etc. More guidance is therefore needed to ensure that contributors can share their knowledge resources in the EOSC Federation with fewer legal strings attached.
Proposals under this topic should include the following activities:

Analyse opportunities and barriers emerging from the provisions of the EU’s current legal framework on intellectual property and relevant types of licenses that set the legal conditions for researchers to valorise knowledge resources in EOSC Federation.
Gather requirements and needs, develop and analyse potential business models and access schemes for innovators and start-ups in Europe to access and use resources available in the EOSC Federation.
Develop a number of case studies of identified EOSC stakeholders valorising their results and/or establishing collaboration links with the private sector.
Map out and evaluate the possibilities of relevant types of licenses for knowledge resources to facilitate knowledge valorisation and engage in open innovation and industry-academia collaboration.
Organise workshops, webinars and awareness-raising campaigns, and develop guiding material targeted at EOSC users and communities contributing to EOSC on how to facilitate and engage in knowledge valorisation and industry-academia collaboration based on the knowledge resources of EOSC Federation.
Develop recommendations and best practices, based also on the case studies, for further development of the EOSC Federation to facilitate knowledge valorisation and industry-academia collaboration.

To ensure complementarity with and use of the latest EU guidelines and research results, proposals should build on ongoing and previous Horizon Europe-funded projects, including IP4OS, EU guiding principles for knowledge valorisation, Knowledge Valorisation Platform and code of practice for intellectual property management and standards. This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership for the European Open Science Cloud[4].
[1] https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/eu-valorisation-policy/knowledge-valorisation-platform
[2] http://data.europa.eu/eli/reco/2023/499/oj
[3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reco/2023/498/oj
[4] https://eosc.eu/partnership/

Trusted frameworks for secure and efficient data sharing in EOSC (EOSC Partnership)
2026-06-16
Expected Outcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

Countries, research communities and institutions are equipped with data sovereignty frameworks harmonised within EOSC and aligned with EU legislation and international agreements.
Improved mechanisms and solutions for effective control over sensitive data and for enabling lawful data use and sharing across EU member states, scientific disciplines and third countries with EU adequacy decision in place.
More harmonised guidelines, support and training to researchers and data stewards on applying EU and national legislation and international agreements for data access, sharing, reuse, licensing and associated services within EOSC.
Increased interoperability with relevant solutions of other European data spaces for secure data management and processing.

Scope:
Research data sovereignty refers to the possibility for effective control by data owners of data usage and sharing when necessary. Effective and transparent community-driven data sovereignty frameworks are important enablers of open science, in particular ensuring safe and trusted management of personal or sensitive data, safeguarding the quality of curated research datasets and the effective application of related EU and national digital and data legislation. Data sovereignty mechanisms can also improve the resilience and preparedness of research and data infrastructures against risks related to access to and preservation of critical data and services, including risks related to data generated and stored outside the EU/EEA.
The exponential growth of available research data and the increasingly collaborative and cross-disciplinary research has accentuated challenges related to secure, efficient and lawful cross-border data sharing for research purposes. Removing barriers to data sharing while ensuring data sovereignty is crucial to realise the potential of EOSC to foster trusted cross-country and cross-discipline scientific collaboration.
This topic aims to support data sovereignty while enabling seamless and trusted data sharing and access across scientific disciplines, EU Member States and third countries where the EU considers sufficient data protection is in place, tackling different regulatory regimes and procedures.
Proposals should include the following activities:

Development and implementation of national, community and/or institutional research data sovereignty frameworks, including policies for data sharing and access, harmonised and aligned with EU digital and data legislation and international agreements such as adequacy decisions and digital partnership agreements, as well as best practices from EOSC, related common European data spaces and international data-sharing standards and initiatives.
Demonstration and validation of concrete adoption cases of data sovereignty policies by national, community or institutional actors, aligned with open science and the FAIR data principles.
Development of harmonised governance frameworks, ensuring smooth enforcement of data sovereignty policies.
Development of comprehensive data provenance tools to trace and verify the quality and lineage of data used in research, and demonstration through identified use cases within relevant selected thematic areas.
Development of templates and guidelines for secure and sovereign data management, including template agreements on data sharing, publication, and reuse, and guidelines for licensing.
Development of guidelines for classifying critical data and services based on sensitivity and relevance to scientific communities and European policies, and for managing risks related to access to and preservation of such critical data and services.
Analysis of data categories and definitions across scientific disciplines, incorporating compliance with security requirements set out in EU and national legislation.
Development of recommendations for the establishment of a support centre, linking with relevant national and thematic competence centres, focused on compliance of data management with EU and national legislation, and proof of concept of its integration and sustainable operation in the EOSC Federation.

Projects are encouraged to explore synergies with relevant EU initiatives such as other common European data spaces that address sensitive data or data critical for research. To ensure complementarity and use of latest research results, proposals should build on ongoing and previous INFRAEOSC projects such as those funded by topics 2023-EOSC-01-06, 2023-EOSC-01-04 and 2024-EOSC-01-04 and align with the EOSC Federation policies and standards[1]. This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership for the European Open Science Cloud[2].
[1] As described in the EOSC Federation Handbook and other relevant documentation potentially adopted by the EOSC Federation
[2] https://eosc.eu/partnership/

Uptake of FAIR data management practices and of EOSC by research communities and research infrastructures (EOSC Partnership)
2026-06-16
Expected Outcome:

Increased adoption of open science and research data management practices in line with the FAIR principles by researchers and across research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe.
Increased uptake of the EOSC Federation by researchers through the long-term sustainable provision in the Federation of scientific services and high-quality, FAIR research data, and their integration in scientific workflows addressing current gaps and needs of research communities.
Research communities, as well as ESFRI and other European research infrastructures increase their alignment with EOSC standards and policies, and their capacity to integrate in the EOSC Federation.

Scope:
This topic aims to further increase across Europe the adoption of open science and research data management practices in line with the FAIR principles, and to support the development of a user-focused and science-driven EOSC Federation.
It capitalises on the previous work by Science Clusters in enabling open science practices, FAIR implementation and managing open calls for multi-disciplinary science projects. It also builds on the experience by several RIs and other organisations as active participants in building the EOSC Federation, either through the establishment of EOSC nodes or the onboarding of resources to EOSC nodes[1], to support the engagement of underrepresented RIs and research communities into the EOSC ecosystem.
Proposals should cover both the following activities:
1) Accelerate FAIR adoption and the contribution to and use of EOSC resources by multiple research communities through open science projects.
This activity should be implemented through open calls that provide grants to third parties for open science projects through a cascading grant mechanism. The open calls should encourage, where applicable, cross-RI and/or cross-domain collaborations, including for data access, use and reuse.
Open science projects should address questions of high scientific impact, adopting best practices for FAIR data and service management and demonstrating their benefits. Their activities may include developing, annotating, curating and making FAIR high-value datasets, developing direct pipelines to integrate large-scale experimental data in repositories federated in EOSC, operationalising data access for AI-based applications, reusing existing datasets, enhancing existing and developing new vocabularies, data standards, metadata mappings and crosswalks, developing software, tools and services, or supporting open science community building.
They should cover a broad range of (academic and/or industrial) research communities and scientific disciplines, including those less represented in the EOSC Federation. They should make use of resources available in the EOSC Federation and adopt existing EOSC policies and standards[2], where possible. Projects should strive to ensure the sustained, beyond the projects’ duration, integration, deployment and operation of relevant outcomes in the EOSC Federation.
At least EUR 29 million of the EU contribution to this topic should be used in this activity[3]. The financial support to third parties for the open science projects must be provided in the form of grants that should be between EUR 100 000 and 250 000 per grant for a duration of 12 to 24 months. The consortium shall put in place adequate measures to support the integration of the open science projects’ results into the EOSC Federation. These could include mentoring, training and any other activities providing effective linkage to the EOSC Federation and EOSC Nodes, as needed for the specific nature of each project.
2) Support the integration of thematic research and RI communities in the EOSC Federation
The following activities should be included:

Coordinating, aligning and networking existing community-based competence centres on FAIR and open science practices developed within the EOSC ecosystem.
Developing training programmes, modules and material on FAIR and open science practices tailored to the specific needs of different thematic research communities. This activity should include feedback mechanisms to ensure that the training services are responsive to the evolving needs of EOSC user communities.
Developing frameworks for the provision and continuous evolution of high-impact services and data repositories onboarded to the EOSC Federation, fostering interoperability and integration of data and resources from diverse scientific domains and promoting their sharing through the EOSC Federation.
Establishing mechanisms for the integration and long-term sustainable provision of all relevant outcomes into the EOSC Federation, as well as for continuous feedback and adaptation, ensuring evolving requirements of researchers and RIs are met within the EOSC ecosystem.
Engaging underrepresented thematic research and RI communities to increase their integration in EOSC.

Proposals are expected to cooperate and align with activities of the EOSC Partnership and to coordinate with relevant initiatives and projects, including actions awarded under topics HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-01, HORIZON-INFRA-2025-01-EOSC-02 and HORIZON-INFRA-2027-01-EOSC-01. This may include the upgrade, deployment and adoption where appropriate of existing community-endorsed pilot, tools, services and standards developed by past and ongoing INFRAEOSC projects. To this extent, proposals should provide for dedicated activities and earmark appropriate resources.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement. This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership for the European Open Science Cloud[4].
[1] Relevant information and documentation about the EOSC Federation can be found in the EOSC Federation Handbook and other relevant documentation adopted by the EOSC Federation.
[2] As described in the EOSC Federation Handbook and other relevant documentation potentially adopted by the EOSC Federation.
[3] Including reasonable administrative and management costs related to the open calls for the financial support to third parties.
[4] https://eosc.eu/partnership/

Förderprogramm: Digitale Transformation
2026-08-31 | Online
Zielsetzung
Seit der Initiative “Kulturerbe digital” ist es gelungen, Institutionen aus dem GLAM-Sektor (Galeries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) in einem ersten Schritt zur Öffnung ihrer Sammlungen für den digitalen Raum zu gewinnen. Dieses Ziel, welches in der “Strategie Kulturerbe digital” strategisch verankert ist, soll durch das Förderprogramm “Digitale Transformation” nachhaltig unterstützt werden.
Gefördert werden:
Digitale Erfassung von Sammlungen des österreichischen Kulturerbes durch die

Digitalisierung analoger Bestände (z. B. Objekte, Archivalien, Fotografien, audiovisuelle Medien) von Kulturinstitutionen und analoger Bestände (z. B. Objekte, Archivalien, Fotografien, audiovisuelle Medien) aus Nachlässen österreichischer Kunst- und Kulturschaffender;
Etablierung der entsprechenden technischen Workflows und digitaler Repositorien.

Verbesserung der Datenqualität insbesondere durch

Standardisierung und Anreicherung von Metadaten;
Anwendung kontrollierter Vokabularien, Normdaten und anerkannter Datenstandards;
Qualitätssicherung, Datenbereinigung und Konsistenzprüfungen;
Verbesserung der technischen und semantischen Interoperabilität.

Ressourcen und Informationen zu allen Fragen rund um die Digitalisierung von Sammlungen des österreichischen Kulturerbes finden Sie in der Kulturpool Wissensdatenbank.
Förderkriterien

Konzept und Umsetzung: Bewertet werden Inhalt, Methodik und technische Umsetzung, Innovationsgrad und Durchführbarkeit.
Relevanz und Wirksamkeit: Bewertet werden die Verfügbarkeit im digitalen Raum, Vermittlungsaspekte, der Mehrwert für die Kunst- und Kulturlandschaft sowie der Standortkontext.
Qualifikation und Eignung: Bewertet werden die fachliche Qualifikation, Erfahrungen und gegebenenfalls Referenzen, wirtschaftlich-organisatorische Struktur des Vorhabens sowie die digitale, soziale und ökologische Nachhaltigkeit.
Kosten und Finanzierung: Bewertet werden die Angemessenheit und Ausgewogenheit der Kostenplanung, die Finanzierungsstruktur sowie der Förderbedarf.
Zudem wird ein besonderer Fokus gelegt auf:
Nachhaltigkeit des Projekts in Bezug auf Nachnutzung und Absicherung möglicher Folgekosten nach der Projektlaufzeit;
Bereitschaft, die Daten der Öffentlichkeit unter einer möglichst offenen Lizenz zugänglich zu machen und diese, sofern keine zwingenden urheberrechtlichen oder persönlichkeitsrechtlichen Beschränkungen vorhanden sind, auch dauerhaft auf Kulturpool anzubieten. Infos und Beratung zur Teilnahme finden Sie auf Kulturpool: Schritte zur Teilnahme.

Förderhöhe

Förderhöhe: max. EUR 50.000
Nach Maßgabe seiner wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit hat der Förderungswerber eine finanzielle oder sachliche Eigenleistung zu erbringen.
