EOSC, the transverse European data space for science, research and innovation - Publications Office of the EU

Abstract:  The EOSC Steering Board expert group (EOSC-SB) has initiated in 2022 a reflection on the main disruptive concepts and practices connected to the construction and future operation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The EOSC ambition is to provide European researchers, innovators, companies, and citizens with a federated and open, cross-border and multi-disciplinary data space (or data commons) where they can publish, find, and reuse data, tools and services for research, innovation, and educational purposes. EOSC is not a single monolithic organisation or resource provider. Instead, it is developed as a federation (system of systems) with involvement of many independent organisations and resource providers implementing the FAIR principles and adopting clear rules and quality standards. As such, EOSC shall ensure independence and autonomy of the participating resource providers. The uptake of EOSC by European scientists, researchers, innovators, and companies requires transformative practices in several domains: from FAIR-by-design data collection technologies to FAIR data and service exploitation skills. Such transformative practices in EOSC also represent strong cross-cutting assets for the nine new, emerging sectoral data spaces of the European strategy for data. They contribute to the articulation of EOSC with these data spaces. Specific issues were chosen and elaborated in 2022 by the Steering Board based on the perceived urgency/priority in the EOSC context. These issues are addressed individually in “Opinion Papers” elaborated by the EOSC Steering Board and communicated to the EOSC Tripartite Governance to become a living reference for the definition of EOSC policies at European, national, and institutional levels.