Landscape of EOSC-related infrastructures and initiatives : report from the EOSC executive board working group (WG) landscape : version 2.
Date: 2020-11-19
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: EU Member State, board of directors, cloud computing, open access publishing, open data, open science, research project

Landscape of 
EOSC-Related 
Infrastructures 
and Initiatives 

Report from the 
EOSC Executive 
Board Working 
Group (WG) 
Landscape 
Version 2 

EOSC Executive Board 
Landscape WG 

November 2020 

EUR [number] EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

European Commission 
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 
Directorate G — Research and Innovation Outreach 
Unit G.4 — Open Science 
Contact Corina Pascu 
Email  

Corina.PASCU@ec.europa.eu 
RTD-EOSC@ec.europa.eu 
RTD-PUBLICATIONS@ec.europa.eu 

European Commission 
B-1049 Brussels 

Manuscript completed in November 2020.  
2nd edition. 

The European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication.  
The views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily  reflect the views of the 
European Commission. 

More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu). 

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Landscape of EOSC-Related 
Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Report from the EOSC Executive Board Working 
Group (WG) Landscape 

Edited by: The EOSC Executive Board 

2020  

  Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table of Contents 

1.6.1.  Industry involvement 

1.7.1.  EU-funded H2020 projects 
1.7.2.  Horizon 2020 INFRAEOSC-5B 

1.4.1.  Policy makers 
1.4.2.  Funders 
1.4.3.  Other relevant stakeholders 

1.8.2.  Coalition of Doers 
1.8.3.  European Countries with Research Data Alliance (RDA) nodes 
1.8.4.  Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP) 
1.8.5.  Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) 
1.8.6.  GO FAIR 
1.8.7.  European Data Portal 
1.8.8.  Big Data Value Association 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... 5 
HOW TO READ THIS REPORT ............................................................................................ 6 
DEFINITIONS OF STAKEHOLDER TYPES IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS REPORT ............................ 7 
1.  BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................ 8 
1.1.  The Council and the EOSC ................................................................................... 8 
1.2.  EOSC governance............................................................................................... 9 
1.3.  EOSC building initiatives and environment ............................................................. 10 
1.4.  EOSC relevant stakeholders ................................................................................. 11 
11 
12 
12 
1.5.  EOSC-in-practice use cases ................................................................................. 12 
1.6.  EOSC Supporting services ................................................................................... 13 
14 
1.7.  EOSC-relevant EU projects .................................................................................. 15 
15 
15 
1.8.  Other important EU and global initiatives .............................................................. 16 
17 
17 
17 
18 
18 
18 
19 
2.  EOSC RELEVANT INFRASTRUCTURES AND INITIATIVES ................................................... 19 
2.1.  E-Infrastructures ................................................................................................ 20 
2.2.  Networking and other services ............................................................................. 22 
22 
23 
2.4.  Computing infrastructures ................................................................................... 31 
2.5.  Thematic infrastructures ..................................................................................... 34 
36 
38 
40 
45 
46 
47 
48 
2.6.  EIROforum and other intergovernmental organisations ........................................... 49 
2.7.  e-infrastructures with identified potential to be federated / accessible to the EOSC..... 52 
52 
53 
56 
56 
57 
58 

2.5.1.  ESFRI clusters and other consortia 
2.5.2.  Environmental research infrastructures 
2.5.3.  Health and food research infrastructures 
2.5.4.  Physical sciences research infrastructures 
2.5.5.  Energy research infrastructures 
2.5.6.  Astronomy and Astroparticle research infrastructures 
2.5.7.  Social sciences, cultural heritage, digital humanities and languages RIs 

2.7.1.  Austria 
2.7.2.  Belgium 
2.7.3.  Finland 
2.7.4.  France 
2.7.5.  Germany 
2.7.6.  Greece 

2.2.1.  European networking infrastructure 
2.2.2.  National networking infrastructures 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

2.7.7.  Italy 
2.7.8.  Norway 
2.7.9.  Poland 
2.7.10. Portugal 
2.7.11. Serbia 
2.7.12. Spain 
2.7.13. Switzerland 
2.7.14. United Kingdom 

58 
58 
59 
59 
59 
60 
61 
61 
2.8.  Other EOSC-relevant initiatives and projects ......................................................... 61 
2.9.  Overview of country sheets ................................................................................. 64 
65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 
2.10.  National strategic documents ............................................................................... 72 

2.9.1.  Current policy on open science and FAIR data 
2.9.2.  Policy regarding publications 
2.9.3.  Policy regarding data / services 
2.9.4.  Policy regarding research evaluation 
2.9.5.  Policy regarding open learning 
2.9.6.  References to EOSC in the current policies 

3.1. 

3.  DESCRIPTIVE EXAMPLES OF EUROPEAN, NATIONAL AND REGIONAL STRUCTURES AND 
INITIATIVES ................................................................................................................... 76 
IT services and data management mechanisms ..................................................... 76 
76 
3.1.1.  FAIR data generation 
78 
3.1.2.  Data processing and data preservation 
3.2.  Data storage and data repositories ....................................................................... 80 
3.3.  Data processing and data preservation ................................................................. 82 
3.4.  Persistent identifiers ........................................................................................... 84 
84 
85 
85 
85 
3.5.  Regional surveys ................................................................................................ 86 
86 
88 

3.4.1.  Managed DOI-assignments in Italy 
3.4.2.  UK National Persistent Identifier Project 
3.4.3.  Persistent identifiers in Belgium 
3.4.4.  The ORCID Austrian Consortium 

3.5.1.  EOSC-Synergy Survey 
3.5.2.  EOSC-Pillar Survey 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

EOSC EXECUTIVE BOARD, NOVEMBER 2020 

Karel LUYBEN: Executive Board Co-Chair, CESAER Representative 

Cathrin STÖVER: Executive Board Co-Chair, GÉANT Representative 

Jean-François ABRAMATIC: Architecture WG chair, Individual Expert 

Juan BICARREGUI: Rules of Participation (RoP) WG Chair, Research Data Alliance (RDA) 
Representative 

Jan HRUŜÁK: Landscape WG Chair, Individual Expert  

Sarah JONES: FAIR WG Chair, Individual Expert 

Rupert LÜCK: Sustainability WG Co-Chair, EBML Representative 

Lidia BORRELL-DAMIAN: Sustainability WG Co-Chair, Science Europe Representative 

Natalia MANOLA: Skills and Training WG Chair, OpenAIRE Representative 

John WOMERSLEY: European Spallation Source ERIC Representative 

Ron DEKKER: CESSDA Representative 

Jeannette FREY: Observer, LIBER Representative 

Jose Luis de Miguel: Observer, EOSC Association AISBL Representative 

Federico Ruggieri: Observer, EOSC Association AISBL Representative 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The  Landscape  Working  Group  (WG)  of  the  EOSC  Executive  Board  has  surveyed  and 
documented the landscape of infrastructures, initiatives and policies across Europe relating 
to the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) system.  

This report describes activities in the Member States (MS) and Associated Countries (AC) 
related to EOSC. It summarises existing policies and investments based on input from the 
MS and AC and using the expert knowledge of the WG members and delegates to the EOSC 
governing  board,  is  complemented  by  information  from  Horizon  2020  research  projects 
and from open sources.  

The goal of the EOSC is to make research data and software in Europe open and accessible 
to all researchers - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable (FAIR). EOSC will 
be implemented by joint efforts between the European Commission (EC), the EU MS and 
AC, research communities, and other stakeholders. EOSC is a federated structure with a 
central  core  of  standards  and  services  that  interlinks  with  national  and  institutional 
resources and research infrastructures providing data and services. It is these resources 
and infrastructures that the WG has focused on in this report. A flexible and sustainable 
governance model for EOSC must ensure the long-term sustainability of services regarding 
data  storage,  management,  analysis  and  re-use  across  disciplines,  which  requires 
alignment of national policies towards open science. Consequently, the WG has also looked 
at the landscape of open science policies across Europe. 

The  work  builds  on  existing  surveys  and  information  provided  by  national  authorities, 
various  stakeholder  communities  and  the  relevant  H2020  projects  in  close  collaboration 
with  the  Member  States  (MS)  and  Associated  countries  (AC).  Initial  reference  material 
includes the recent report of the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group1  (e-IRG), findings of 
the Commission expert group on National Points of Reference on Scientific Information2, 
the  surveys  carried  out  by  the  OpenAIRE  project,  the  EOSC-Pillar  project,  analysis  of 
preliminary  mapping  of  the  UK’s  research  and  innovation  infrastructure  landscape,  the 
experience  of  European  Strategy  Forum  on  Research  Infrastructures  (ESFRI)  on  cross-
disciplinary collaboration of ESFRI Landmarks, other relevant documents identified by the 
WG members, and outcomes of the survey (country sheets) performed by the Landscape 
WG itself. The WG has collated input from e-infrastructures, including data and HPC and 
Distributed Computing facilities, from European and national research networks (NRENs), 
pan-European research infrastructures and ESFRI roadmap projects and clusters, and from 
interest groups such as the Research Data Alliance. Moreover, to enable full mapping of 
the landscape, the collection of some countries’ specific information was completed by T6 
Ecosystems, which also provided valuable contributions on good practice examples. At the 
time of writing, information has been collated on 47 MS and AC.   

A  virtual  Validation  Workshop  was  held  online  on  27  and  28  April  2020,  to  validate  the 
provided contributions.  

While it has proved difficult to obtain definitive and quantitative data on national levels of 
investment,  it  is  already  clear  that  the  majority  of  the  countries  surveyed  have  made 
significant investment  in  national  e-infrastructures  of  one  kind  or  another  that  could,  in 
principle, either be federated as part of EOSC, or made accessible to users through EOSC. 
The  same  applies  to  many  of  the  data  intensive  ESFRI  landmark  infrastructures.  Such 
investment over the past decade now totals billions of Euros, much more than the planned 

1 (n.d.). e-IRG. Retrieved 13 July 2020, from http://e-irg.eu/ 

2 

(n.d.).  Commission  expert  group  on  National  Points  of  Reference  on 

....  Retrieved  13 

July  2020, 

from 

https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=3477 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

central  investment  into  the  EOSC  core.  This  shows  that  EOSC  will  only  reach  its  true 
potential  through  effective  federation  of  national  and  research  infrastructure  (RI) 
resources.  

The WG has also surveyed the landscape of policy development across Europe regarding 
open  science  and  EOSC.  In  keeping  with  best  practice,  most  countries  have  research 
evaluation  policies  in  place.  We  found  that  the  majority  (61%)  of  the  MS  and  AC 
respondents have policies in place regarding open access to scholarly publications, but only 
34% have a policy in place regarding FAIR data (although encouragingly, 44% have one 
either  in  planning  or  under  development).  Few  countries  seem  ready  to  mandate  that 
research data should automatically be made open. Relatively few countries (21%) mention 
EOSC in their policies, but 38% plan to do so in future; but only three countries so far (BG, 
DK,  RO)  include  mention  of  EOSC  as  part  of  their  funding  criteria.  More  than  half  of 
responding countries have nominated contact points for open science (53%) and for EOSC 
(42%). 

Taken together, there has been significant investment across Europe in e-infrastructures 
and data-oriented research infrastructures. For the EOSC to reach its full potential, such 
investment needs to be either federated as part of the EOSC or made accessible to users 
through the EOSC. There has also been a significant, although not yet universal, adoption 
of policies towards open science and FAIR data. While EOSC has not been very visible up 
to now as part of national investment strategies, there is evidence that future policies and 
strategies will increasingly align around the concept.   

HOW TO READ THIS REPORT 

This  report  has  been  produced  by  the  EOSC  Executive  Board  (EB)  WG  Landscape.  It 
represents a snapshot of the EOSC Landscape at Q1 2020, providing sufficient information, 
links and references to provide an introduction to the topics. It is intended as a reference 
tool  and  entry  point  for  the  other  EOSC  WGs3  defining  EOSC  architecture,  rules  for 
participants, FAIR principles, skills and training and sustainability models, and has sourced 
background  from  infrastructures  and  initiatives  that  make  up  the  EOSC  landscape.  This 
version at hand has been updated and can be considered as version 2 of the Landscape of 
EOSC-Related  Infrastructures  and  Initiatives.  The  complete  list  of  changes  compared  to 
the first version can be found listed in the Annex III.  

The report is structured as follows: 

Chapter 1 - Background provides an overview of the EOSC policy development, including 
the  current  status  of  the  EOSC  implementation  and  the  contribution  of  EOSC  related 
projects and other important EU and global initiatives. 

Chapter  2  -  EOSC  relevant  infrastructures  and  initiatives  presents  an  overview  of 
relevant EOSC infrastructures and other initiatives relevant to EOSC. 

Chapter 3 - Descriptive examples of European, National and Regional Structures 
and Initiatives, summarises specific information about EOSC-relevant e-infrastructures 
(Data and Computing infrastructures and Networking), thematic infrastructures  from  EU 
MS  and  AC,  and  the  EOSC-related  projects  from  the  Horizon  2020  (H2020)  framework 
programme. The aim is to present an up-to-date overview of the available infrastructures 
and initiatives in all EU MS and AC (with references). The report builds on information from 

3 (n.d.). EOSC Working Groups | EOSCSecretariat. Retrieved from https://www.eoscsecretariat.eu/eosc-working-groups 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

open sources, contributions from the WG members, participation of the Governance Board 
members, the active engagement of the EOSCSecretariat and other EOSC-related projects. 
Results  of  some  INFRAEOSC-5B  project-mapping  exercises  have  been  added  that  were 
available earlier during the year 2020. 

Chapter 4 - Abbreviations contains a summary of the terms used in the document.  

Chapter  5  -  contains  three  annexes:  Annex  I  summarises  the  information  on  EOSC-
related projects, and Annex II includes the empty country sheet template for information. 
Annex III shows the changes made for updating the first version of this report. 

This  report  is  followed  also  by  the  second  official  deliverable  from  the  Landscape  WG 
Country Sheet Analysis that will be published in November 2020. 

DEFINITIONS OF STAKEHOLDER TYPES IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS 
REPORT 

This  chapter  proposes  common  terminology  for  stakeholder  types  used  throughout  this 
report. Some terms have built on the definitions provided in the Single Market Glossary4, 
but most are derived by WG members based on EOSCpilot project deliverable D2.1 Draft 
Stakeholder Map5. Whilst an overarching EOSC Glossary6  is now available to provide clear 
and unambiguous understanding of common terminology amongst the EOSC community, 
it was considered useful to include some specific definitions in this report.  

As  EOSC  will  offer  services  to  the  whole  research  community,  every  participant  or 
supporting  entity  of  the  research  community  can  be  considered  as  a  stakeholder.  To 
support  efficient,  flexible  and  inclusive  governance,  the  stakeholders  need  to  be 
categorised, highlighting key groups and areas of influence. A suitable starting point for 
this was to engage established communities, organisations and other infrastructures, which 
have been categorised in the following groups: 

European  
e-Infrastructures 

Data/Research 
Initiatives 

Cloud Providers 

The  comprehensive  ICT  infrastructure  that  is  needed  to  enable  complex, 
multidisciplinary  research.  It  capitalises  advances  in  ICT,  integrates  hardware 
for computing, data and networks, observatories and experimental facilities, and 
provides an interoperable suite of software and middleware services and tools. 
Such an infrastructure is necessary for researchers to store, analyse and process 
unprecedented amounts of (heterogeneous in general) data and information, to 
enable  world-scale  scientific  collaborations  and  access  to,  and  sharing  of, 
scientific resources and information regardless of their type and location in the 
world7. Existing key European e-infrastructures, such as EUDAT, EGI, OpenAIRE, 
GÉANT and PRACE are the natural starting point for engaging stakeholders. They 
represent activities that are closely linked to e-infrastructures, including cloud 
operations. Moreover, they are already organised for further integration.  
There  are  a  variety  of  organisations  and  initiatives,  e.g.  the  Research  Data 
Alliance,  interest  and  working  groups  that  constitute  established  research 
communities with a specific stake in cloud services.  
Cloud services providers (public and private) are key stakeholders by definition. 
Engaging  major  companies,  e.g.  Amazon8,  which  provide  services  to  a  wide 
range of research activities is important in order to bring together the needs of 
the research communities and the offered services, as well as to address data 
privacy issues. 

4 (n.d.). Glossary | Shaping Europe's digital future. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/glossary 

5 (2017, May 15). EOSCpilot Deliverable Template. Retrieved from https://eoscpilot.eu/sites/default/files/eoscpilot-d2.1.pdf 

6 (n.d.). EOSC Glossary | EOSC Portal. Retrieved 10 July 2020, from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/glossary 

7 (n.d.). Glossary | Shaping Europe's digital future. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/glossary 

8 (n.d.). Research - About Amazon. Retrieved from https://www.aboutamazon.com/research 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Research 
Funders 

Cloud 
Community  

Research 
Communities  

Research 
Performing 
Organisations 

Research 
Infrastructures 

Policy Makers 

Funding bodies at both the national and EU level are major stakeholders in EOSC. 
as  they  support  research  in  all  its  stages.  Despite  variance  in  funding  and 
organisational  structure  in  different  countries,  EOSC  needs  to  actively  engage 
them to support the future direction of EU cloud infrastructures. 
The research community working with cloud technologies and participating in EU 
cloud projects is a valuable ally in designing the framework for cloud services in 
the EU. Identifying key players in this sector is an important challenge. 
As main consumers of cloud services, research communities are a basic pillar in 
EOSC as they define the consumer side of the cloud ecosystem. This is a broad 
class of consumers and identifying key contact points and the right organisation 
scheme to engage community members is a complex task. Some of them are 
already organised at EU scale, such as the HPC Centre of Excellence (CoE). 
There  are  different  types  of  Research  Performing  Organisations  (RPO),  as 
universities and research institutes, government labs, Research and Technology 
Organisations (RTOs) and large-scale Research Facilities (LRFs), such as CERN. 
They  are  both  consumers  and  providers  of  data,  services  and  infrastructures. 
Many are already organised at European level in associations such as European 
Universities Association (EUA) or European Association of RTOs (EARTO). 
The Research Infrastructure (RI) projects of the EC complement the existing EU 
RI  landscape,  by  providing  thematic  (vertical)  infrastructures  in  contrast  with 
the  generic  (horizontal)  e-infrastructure.  RIs  are  the  key  starting  point  for 
engaging  communities  since  they  are  already  organised  in  an  operational 
structure and use or provide cloud services. 
Policy makers affect cloud infrastructures in profound ways, even when they do 
not act as funders. For example, the impact of regulatory bodies on data privacy, 
competition  and,  of  course,  on  research  can  shape  the  future  of  the  EOSC 
ecosystem  in  the  EU.  The  EOSCpilot  has  to  identify  the  most  closely  related 
policy makers and investigate the more productive way to engage them9. 

Table 1 Terminology of stakeholder types 

1.  Background 

1.1. 

The Council and the EOSC 

Ministers from EU member states responsible for research and innovation (R&I) who met 
at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels on 29 May 2018, and adopted resolutions on 
the  EOSC10,11,  considered  the  need  for  an  open  and  trusted  environment  for  managing 
research data, and confirmed the need to proceed with EOSC implementation along the 
lines  proposed  in  the  EC  staff  working  document  Implementation  Roadmap  for  the 
European  Open  Science  Cloud12.  These  Council  conclusions  and  the  Implementation 
Roadmap built the foundation for subsequent EOSC development.  

Significantly, the Council unambiguously stressed the importance of coordinating activities 
between the various projects funded by the eighth EU Framework Programme for Research 
and Innovation (H2020), including transnational initiatives aligning their activities to EOSC.  

The Council highlighted the need to  respect established practices and existing principles 
developed  by  research  communities,  the  European  Strategy  Forum  on  Research 
Infrastructures  (ESFRI),  the  RIs,  the  e-infrastructures,  and  the  national  infrastructures 
when implementing the EOSC. To this end, the Council agreed on a federated model for 

9 (2017, May 15). EOSCpilot Deliverable Template. Retrieved from https://eoscpilot.eu/sites/default/files/eoscpilot-d2.1.pdf 

10 

(2018,  May  18).  9029/18  MVG/evt  1  DG  G  3  C  1.  The  European 

... 

-  Open  Data.  Retrieved 

from 

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9029-2018-INIT/en/pdf 

11 (2018, May 29). EOSC. Retrieved from https://www.era.gv.at/object/document/4013/attach/CC_EOSC_final.PDF 

12 (2018, March 14). Implementation Roadmap for the European Open Science .... Retrieved from 

https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/pdf/swd_2018_83_f1_staff_working_paper_en.pdf 

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the EOSC and encouraged the EU MS to take actions which enable national stakeholders 
to connect to the EOSC. Existing experiences and knowledge of initiatives, such as ESFRI13, 
the  e-Infrastructure  Reflection  Group  (e-IRG)14,  GO  FAIR15  and  others  should  also  be 
considered.  

Given the evolutionary character of the EOSC, the Council believed that participation in it 
should be voluntary and stakeholders should be free to decide which services or data sets 
are to be shared. The EU MS are invited to identify jointly with the EC national research 
data  infrastructures  initiatives,  which  could  be  federated.  Sound  governance  and  a 
sustainable business model are considered as key elements for EOSC implementation. In 
that sense, a two-phase approach is viewed as essential. 

1.2. 

EOSC governance 

In accordance with the agreed implementation, the EC formally launched the EOSC at the 
University of Vienna16 in November 2018: the EOSC Portal17 was inaugurated; the EOSC 
Executive Board (EB)18 was established; and the process for forming the EOSC Governance 
Board  (GB)19,  which  completes  the  EOSC  governing  structure,  was  initiated.  Both 
governing bodies are now fully operational, have held their first meetings and started to 
contribute to the implementation of the EOSC roadmap. In addition, the EOSC Stakeholders 
Forum20 brings together user communities, research institutions, RIs and e-infrastructures, 
and specialised EU agencies. 

The Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP)21,22 has been prepared, approved by both bodies 
and published on the EC portal. This document, building on the accepted EOSC principles 
and  refining  the  tasks  set  out  in  the  EOSC  Implementation  Roadmap,  defines  the  six 
priority areas that were identified by the EB in agreement with the GB, and which have 
become  the  target  areas  of  the  EB  Working  Groups.  The  following  Working  Groups  and 
their respective role, established during the first phase of the EOSC implementation include 
the   following: 

  WG Landscape: Mapping of the existing RIs, which are candidates to be part of the 

EOSC federation. 

  WG  FAIR:  Implementing  the  FAIR  data  principles  by  defining  the  corresponding 
requirements for the development of EOSC services, in order to foster cross-disciplinary 
interoperability. 

  WG Architecture: Defining the technical framework required to enable and sustain an 

evolving EOSC federation of systems. 

13 (n.d.). www.esfri.eu. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/ 

14 (n.d.). e-IRG. Retrieved from http://e-irg.eu/ 

15 (n.d.). GO FAIR. Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/ 

16 (2018, November 23). EOSC Vienna Declaration - (EOSC). The launch. Retrieved from https://eosc-launch.eu/declaration/ 

17 (n.d.). EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/ 

18 (n.d.). EOSC Executive Board | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/governance/executive-board 

19 (n.d.). EOSC Governance Board | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/governance/eosc-board 

20 (n.d.). EOSC Stakeholders Forum | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/governance/stakeholders-forum 

21 (2019, July 24). European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) strategic .... Retrieved from https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/202370 

22 (2019, July 24). European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) strategic .... Retrieved from https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-

/publication/78ae5276-ae8e-11e9-9d01-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-114548231 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

  WG Rules of Participation: Designing the Rules of Participation that shall define the 
rights and obligations governing EOSC transactions between EOSC users, providers and 
operators. 

  WG  Sustainability:  Providing  a  set  of 

the 
implementation of an operational, scalable and sustainable EOSC federation after 2020. 

recommendations  concerning 

  WG  Skills  &  Training23:  Building  competences  and  capabilities  for  the  EOSC,  agree 
upon key components for skills development and training, determine how these can be 
embedded in different levels of EOSC, and identify what structures are needed to make 
EOSC a viable success. 

The  SIP  also  defines  a  clear  timeline  for  the  expected  outcomes  of  these  WGs  and 
schematically indicates the connections, links or interdependencies between them. 

1.3. 

EOSC building initiatives and environment 

The  EOSC  is  not  a  new  infrastructure  or  software  package,  it  is  a  process  of  making 
research  data  in  Europe  accessible  to  all  researchers  under  the  same  terms  of  use  and 
distribution. The initiative aims to push Europe towards a culture where open research data 
(including  publications,  and  underlying  data)  are  FAIR24,  which  will  allow  all  European 
researchers to expand their use of data-driven science. As stated at the EOSC Summit in 
June  201725,  ‘The  EOSC  is  not  a  physical  space  but  a  diverse  ecosystem  of  connected 
services  and  infrastructures.  Emphasis  should  shift  from  project-based  development  to 
sustainable collaborative ecosystems.’  

The  EOSC  envisions  a  European  data  infrastructure,  integrating  high-capacity  cloud 
solutions, eventually widening the scope of these services to include the public sector and 
industry. Efforts focusing on the development of sustainable collaborative ecosystems, as 
foreseen by the EOSC,  are particularly made in the fields of data culture,  research data 
services, federated architecture and co-funding.  

The  EOSC  results  from  two  complementary  movements:  community-driven  and  multi-
governmental. Therefore, all kinds of national initiatives are invited to link up with existing 
pan-European initiatives, infrastructures and bodies (ESFRI26, e-IRG27, RDA28, GO FAIR29, 

23 This WG started in January 2020 and has a 12-month initial duration. 

24 Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable 

25 (2017, June 12). European Open Science Cloud Summit | Research and .... Retrieved from 

https://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?eventcode=44D86060-FBA1-1BD1-9355822B162BB0EE&pg=events 

26 (n.d.). European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-

innovation/strategy/european-research-infrastructures/esfri_en 

27 E-IRG: e-IRG is a strategic body to facilitate integration in the area of European e-Infrastructures and connected services, within and 

between member states, at the European level and globally. The mission of e-IRG is to support both coherent, innovative and strategic 

European  e-Infrastructure  policymaking  and  the  development  of  convergent  and  sustainable  e-Infrastructure  services.  (n.d.).  e-IRG. 

Retrieved from http://e-irg.eu/  

28 RDA: In 2013, the Research Data Alliance (RDA) was launched as a community-driven initiative by the European Commission, the United 

States Government’s National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Australian Government's 

Department  of  Innovation  with  the  goal  of  building  a  social  and  technical  infrastructure  that  enables  open  sharing  and  re-use  of  data. 

(2016, March 22). About RDA - Research Data Alliance. Retrieved from https://www.rd-alliance.org/about-rda 

29  GO  FAIR:  GO  (Global  Open)  FAIR  is  a  bottom-up  initiative  that  aims  at  making  fragmented  and  unlinked  (research)  data  findable, 

accessible, interoperable and thus reusable (FAIR).  (n.d.). GO FAIR Initiative - GO FAIR. Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/go-fair-

initiative/    

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

EGI30,  EUDAT31,  EOSC-Pilot32,  EOSC-Hub33,  OpenAIRE34),  as  well  as  expert  groups  and 
advisory  groups  to  the  EC,  such  as  the  High-Level  Expert  Group  on  the  EOSC35  or  the 
Standing Working Group on Open Science and Innovation of the European Research Area 
and Innovation Committee (ERAC)36. The overall aim is to encourage EOSC participants to 
contribute to an Internet of FAIR Data and Services governed by European public interests. 

1.4. 

EOSC relevant stakeholders 

1.4.1.  Policy makers 

Numerous  policy  makers  from  around  the  world  have  articulated  a  clear  and  consistent 
vision of global open science as a driver for enabling a new paradigm of transparent, data-
driven science as well as accelerating innovation. In January 2020, Ursula von der Leyen 
stated in Davos: ‘Europe is launching the Europe Open Science Cloud - a trusted space for 
researchers to store their data - a pool of information leading to a web of insight. We are 
the  first  in  the  world  to  do  so.’37  The  EOSC  has  emerged  as  a  clear  policy  priority  for 
European R&I. It has been strongly supported by the European scientific community in the 
EOSC Summit38 and Declaration39, by the Council in Council Conclusions (May 2016)40 and 
by a European Parliament Resolution (January 2017)41. It also received favourable opinions 
from the Economic and Social Committee (September 2016)42 and from the Committee of 
the Regions (October 2016)43. At the strategic layer EOSC Governance Board (EOSC GB)44, 

30 EGI: EGI is a federation of 21 cloud providers and hundreds of data centres, spread across Europe and worldwide. EGI delivers advanced 

computing  services  to  support  scientists,  multinational  projects  and  research  infrastructures.  (n.d.).  EGI.eu.  Retrieved  from 

https://www.egi.eu/ 

31  EUDAT:  EUDAT’s  vision  is  Data  is  shared  and  preserved  across  borders  and  disciplines.  Achieving  this  vision  means  enabling  data 

stewardship within and between European research communities through a Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI), a common model and 

service  infrastructure  for  managing  data  spanning  all  European  research  data  centres  and  community  data  repositories 

https://eudat.eu/what-eudat   

32 EOSC-Pilot: The EOSCpilot project will support the first phase in the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). (n.d.). 

About EOSCpilot | eoscpilot.eu. Retrieved from https://eoscpilot.eu/about-eoscpilot   

33 EOSC-Hub: The EOSC-hub brings together multiple service providers to create the Hub: a single contact point for European researchers 

and innovators to discover, access, use and reuse a broad spectrum of resources for advanced data-driven research. (n.d.). About us | 

EOSC Hub. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-hub.eu/about-us  

34  OpenAIRE:  The  mission  of  OpenAIRE  is  to  encourage  more  openness  and  transparency  in  scholarly  communication  and  to  facilitate 

innovative ways to communicate and monitor research. (n.d.). OpenAIRE.eu. Retrieved from https://www.openaire.eu/   

35 (n.d.). High Level Expert Group on the European Open Science Cloud. Retrieved from 

https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/index.cfm?pg=open-science-cloud-hleg 

36 (n.d.). WG on Open Science and Innovation - ERA Portal Austria. Retrieved from https://era.gv.at/directory/243 

37 

(2020, 

January  22).  Keynote  by  President  von  der  Leyen  at 

the  World  Economic  Forum.  Retrieved 

from 

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_20_102 

38 (2017, June 12). European Open Science Cloud Summit | Research and .... Retrieved from 

https://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?eventcode=44D86060-FBA1-1BD1-9355822B162BB0EE&pg=events 

39 (n.d.). EOSC Declaration - European Commission. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/pdf/eosc_declaration.pdf 

40 

(2016,  May  27).  9526/16  AFG/evt  1  DG  G  3  C  Delegations  will 

find 

... 

-  Open  Data.  Retrieved 

from 

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9526-2016-INIT/en/pdf 

41 (n.d.). European Parliament. Retrieved from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ 

42 (n.d.). European Cloud Initiative – Building a competitive data and knowledge economy in Europe EESC. Retrieved from 

https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/opinions-information-reports/opinions/european-cloud-initiative-building-competitive-data-

and-knowledge-economy-europe 

43 (2020, March 12). European Committee of the Regions. Retrieved from https://cor.europa.eu/en 

44 (n.d.). EOSC Governance Board | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/governance/eosc-board 

11 

 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

policy  makers  are  involved  to  combine  state-of-the-art  expertise  on  scientific  cloud 
infrastructures. The Board will therefore include EU MS and AC representatives in order to 
make strategic decisions on the development and evolution of the EOSC45. 

1.4.2.  Funders 

According  to  the  European  Commission  staff  working  document  on  the  Implementation 
Roadmap for the European Open Science Cloud46, Horizon 2020 would be used to support 
the development of the services for open science. On this basis, the EC is supporting the 
implementation of the EOSC as a federated model. Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument 
implementing  the  core  of  actions  around  which  the  EOSC  implementation  Roadmap 
unfolds. Also, other programmes (such as Digital Europe), tools, institutions, businesses 
or funding bodies contribute to funding EOSC both directly and indirectly through state-of-
the-art expertise and investment in national infrastructures. Continuation of funding EOSC 
activities beyond 2021 is envisaged through Horizon Europe. 

1.4.3.  Other relevant stakeholders 

Other stakeholders are also crucial for a working EOSC ecosystem, such as researchers as 
the  primary  target  group  of  data  provision  and  use.  Moreover,  an  expanded  range  of 
stakeholders beyond policy makers and funders could benefit from EOSC services, such as 
RPOs,  libraries,  universities,  business  initiatives  (e.g.  Gaia-X),  service  providers, 
institutions, citizens or some ESFRI projects. 

1.5. 

EOSC-in-practice use cases 

The  following  use  cases,  or  success  stories,  of  EOSC-in-practice47  highlight  how  EOSC 
services  and  resources  can  support  the  daily  work  of  researchers  and  innovators.  For 
example,  the  EOSCpilot  Science  Demonstrators  project  showed  the  relevance  and 
usefulness  of  the  EOSC  Services  to  enable  the  reuse  of  data  as  a  driver  of  EOSC 
development  by  helping  to  establish  new  means  of  data  access,  share  and  reuse  for 
research communities (Photon Neutron Virtual Platform48; VisIVO: Data Knowledge Visual 
Analytics  Framework  for  Astrophysics49;  LOFAR  -  Astrophysics  Data50;  eWaterCycle  & 
SWITCH-ON - FAIR data for hydrology51; EPOS/VERCE - Earthquake Data Environment52; 
ENVRI  −  Radiative  Force  Integration53;  Pan-Cancer  Analyses:  portable  federated  cloud-

45 (n.d.). Governance | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/governance 

46 (2018, March 14). Implementation Roadmap for the European Open Science Cloud. Retrieved from 

https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/pdf/swd_2018_83_f1_staff_working_paper_en.pdf 

47 (n.d.). Use Cases | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://eosc-portal.eu/eosc-in-practice/use-cases 

48 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: Photon Neutron Virtual Platform. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-

science-demonstrator-photon-neutron-virtual-platform 

49 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: VisIVO: Data Knowledge Visual Analytics Framework for Astrophysics. Retrieved from 

https://eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-demonstrator-visivo-data-knowledge-visual-analytics-framework-astrophysics 

50 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: LOFAR - Astrophysics Data. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-

demonstrator-lofar-astrophysics-data 

51 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: eWaterCycle & SWITCH-ON - FAIR data for hydrology.  Retrieved from https://www.eosc-

portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-demonstrator-ewatercycle-switch-fair-data-hydrology 

52 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: EPOS/VERCE - Earthquake Data Environment. Retrieved from https://eosc-

portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-demonstrator-eposverce-earthquake-data-environment 

53 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: ENVRI - Radative Force Integration. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-

science-demonstrators-envri-radative-force-integration 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

based solution54; EGA - FAIR Genomic datasets55; CryoEM - Life Science data workflows56; 
PROMINENCE - HPCAAS for fusion57; DPHEP - Data Preservation in High Energy Physics58).  

Moreover, the EOSC offers scalable computing infrastructures for communities as varied 
as:  Earth  Observation59;  the  pufferfish 
in  the  Mediterranean  Sea  − 
demonstrator60;  the  CLARIN  demonstrator61;  ICOS  −  Integrated  Carbon  Observation 
System62; EOSC-hub and OpenAIRE-Advance: Published or Private: How to do both?63 and 
Advancing research together64; EOSCpilot demonstrator: TEXTCROWD65. 

invasion 

1.6. 

EOSC Supporting services 

The current offer of services and resources is managed by the EOSC Portal66 via the EOSC 
Catalogue and Marketplace67. The EOSC Portal serves as an entry point to EOSC services 
and  resources  from  various  domains  by  enabling  users  to  access  and  request  e-
infrastructure services supplied at institutional, national and regional levels, enabling them 
to process and analyse data in a distributed computing environment68. In order to develop 
a rich platform offering a wide range of services and resources through the EOSC Portal, 
EOSC requires the participation of service providers. Services and resources are provided 
and maintained by different providers under a variety of licences and access requirements 
(such  as:  accessible  by  users  outside  their  original  community;  described  through  a 
common  template  focused  on  value  proposition  and  functional  capabilities;  at  least  one 
service  instance  running  in  a  production  environment  should  be  available  to  the  user 
community;  publication  of  research  data  is  FAIR;  release  notes  and  sufficient 
documentation  are  available;  helpdesk  channels  are  available  for  support,  and  bug 
reporting and requirements gathering must also take place.)69 At the moment, the EOSC 
Catalogue  provides  access  to:  254  services;  4.4M  datasets;  141k  software  and 
applications;  34.6M  publications;  and  3M  other  research  products,  offered  by  73 

54 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: Pan-Cancer Analyses: portable federated cloud-based. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-

portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-demonstrator-pan-cancer-analyses-portable-federated-cloud-based-solution 

55 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: EGA - FAIR Genomic datasets. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-

demonstrator-ega-fair-genomic-datasets 

56 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: CryoEM - Life Science data workflows. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-

science-demonstrator-cryoem-life-science-data-workflows 

57 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: PROMINENCE - HPCAAS for fusion. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-

science-demonstrator-prominence-hpcaas-fusion 

58 (n.d.). EOSCpilot Science Demonstrator: DPHEP - Data Preservation in High Energy Physics. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-

portal.eu/eoscpilot-science-demonstrator-dphep-data-preservation-high-energy-physics 

59  (n.d.).  The  EOSC  as  a  scalable  computing  infrastructure  for  Earth  Observation.  Retrieved  from  https://eosc-portal.eu/eosc-scalable-

computing-infrastructure-earth-observation 

60  (n.d.).  The  pufferfish  invasion  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea  -  EOSC  Portal.  Retrieved  from  https://eosc-portal.eu/pufferfish-invasion-

mediterranean-sea-demonstrator 

61 (n.d.). From language data  to insight: the CLARIN demonstrator. Retrieved from  https://www.eosc-portal.eu/language-data-insight-

clarin-demonstrator 

62 (n.d.). ICOS - Integrated Carbon Observation System | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/icos-integrated-carbon-

observation-system 

63 (n.d.). EOSC-hub and OpenAIRE-Advance: Published or Private: How to do both? Retrieved from https://eosc-portal.eu/eosc-hub-and-

openaire-advance-published-or-private-how-do-both 

64 (n.d.). EOSC-hub and OpenAIRE-Advance: Advancing research together. Retrieved from https://eosc-portal.eu/eosc-hub-and-openaire-

advance-advancing-research-together 

65 (n.d.). EOSCpilot demonstrator: TEXTCROWD | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://eosc-portal.eu/eoscpilot-demonstrator-textcrowd 

66 (n.d.). EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/ 

67 (n.d.). EOSC Marketplace - EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://marketplace.eosc-portal.eu/ 

68 (n.d.). Services & Resources | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/services-resources 

69 (n.d.). For providers | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://eosc-portal.eu/for-providers 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

service/resource providers and aggregators70. The services are grouped in the following 13 
categories:  Aggregator,  Analytics,  Application,  Compute,  Consulting,  Data,  Networking, 
Operations, Security, Software, Storage, and Training and Other71. 

1.6.1.  Industry involvement 

Through the involvement of industry in EOSC, interaction between research and industry 
is supported through the use of the data and services Marketplace (accessed via the EOSC 
Portal). Here, industries can offer value-added services using research data of commercial 
relevance but may also consume scientific output72. The basic value proposition that can 
be  made  to  the  private  sector  as  a  service  provider/developer,  is  that  EOSC  offers  a 
commercialisation channel to promote services via the EOSC Catalogue and Marketplace, 
a simplified procurement channel for selling to public research sector organisations, and a 
means  of  interacting  with  researchers  to  improve  services.  Moreover,  the  EOSC  value 
proposition to the private sector as consumer is to offer a mechanism to access: publicly 
funded open access/FAIR datasets; a  range  of  services that can help them exploit open 
access/FAIR datasets; and a means of interacting with the groups producing the datasets 
and services. 

In addition to initiatives where national states are deeply engaged, European Open Science 
Cloud  (EOSC)  also  supports  the  collaboration among  institutions  and the  private  sector. 
For this reason, it has been created the EOSC Digital Innovation Hub (DIH), a mechanism 
working  at  European  level,  for  private  companies  to  collaborate  with  public  sector 
institutions in order to access technical services, research data and human capital. 

In 2019 the EOSC DIH project published the report of EOSC DIH Success Stories73 about 
main results and achievements of initiatives powered by private companies. The publication 
outlines the main experiences in terms of added value that Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) 
and private stakeholders have achieved thanks to the open science approach. As written 
in the report: “The success of these initial business pilots demonstrates the tangible value 
that the EOSC DIH can bring to the private sector industry, especially start-ups and SMEs. 
These kinds of joint ventures prove that we are stronger by working together, leveraging 
the  services,  skills  and  knowledge  available  in  the  public  sector,  coupling  with  the 
innovation and business acumen of the private sector to directly stimulate economic growth 
and impact”. 

Accordingly,  some  best  practices  have  been  selected  and  discussed  but  they  are 
heterogeneric in terms of approach and results. In some cases, pilots have been aimed at 
creating advanced platforms. Platforms may have different scopes; in one case it is aimed 
at processing and analysing ecological data. In another case the aim is to support decision-
making for port authorities improving port  efficiency,  competitiveness and safety.  Other 
pilots have created infrastructures for storing and providing access to data related to space 
weather conditions or have developed tools to collect, analyse and visualize online content 
or a web-application to monitor performance of an athletic gesture.  

The  benefits  for  these  initiatives  have  been  several,  among  the  others:  access  to 
infrastructures  to  validate  the  pilots,  access  to  cloud  computing  and  supercomputing  to 
process data but also access to networking and relevant contacts. On the other hand, due 

70 (n.d.). EOSC Catalogue - EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://catalogue.eosc-portal.eu/ 

71 (n.d.). Browse service categories - EOSC Catalogue - EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://catalogue.eosc-portal.eu/browseCategories 

72 (n.d.). prompting an EOSC in practice - EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-

portal.eu/sites/default/files/KI0318339ENN.en_.pdf 

73 (n.d.). EOSC DIH Success Stories | EOSC Hub. Retrieved from https://eosc-hub.eu/publications/eosc-dih-success-stories 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

toto these opportunities, private companies have been able to develop new business and 
innovative services that would not be possible without the powerful capacity of EOSC DIH. 

As a good practice example such approach would be a good strategy to implement the art 
regional and national level to foster the use of open science cloud approach to local SMEs, 
start-ups and firms active at local scale. 

1.7. 

EOSC-relevant EU projects 

This report builds heavily on the findings and results of previous EU projects funded by the 
Directorate‑General  for  Communications  Networks,  Content  and  Technology  (DG 
CONNECT)  and  the  Directorate-General  for  Research  and  Innovation  (DG  RTD)  from 
H2020.  

1.7.1.  EU-funded H2020 projects 

As  many  projects  have  been  and  are  funded  under  H2020  and  other  sources,  it  was 
considered  useful  to  gather  a  list  of  50  major  projects,  which  can  be  found  in  Annex  I. 
Some project durations overlap with the first phase of EOSC governance implementation, 
and these projects are very prominent sources of information for this report. In particular: 
EOSCpilot74, EOSC-Hub75, OpenAIRE Advance76, FREYA77 and eInfraCentral78. In addition, 
the report benefits from the self-coordination79 of EOSC-related projects, which resulted 
from  the  two  concentration  meetings  in  Brussels  and  in  Budapest  in  2019.  An  ongoing 
initiative is a dedicated web page published on the EOSCsecretariat.eu website, which will 
include  the  public  contact  information  to  all  the  EOSC  Projects,  and  where  one  can  find 
also the EOSC relevant project outputs (deliverables and milestones, including the delivery 
date). 

1.7.2.  Horizon 2020 INFRAEOSC-5B 

In October 2017, as part of its Digital Agenda, the EC made public the EOSC Declaration, 
inviting EU MS, scientific communities and industry to participate in the construction of the 
EOSC. The EOSC is thus the instrument of Europe to support the paradigm of open science. 
In this context, the EC launched the INFRAEOSC-5B call aimed at providing the support to 
integrate  EOSC-relevant  national  initiatives  across  Europe80.  In  view  of  those  projects 
tackling  landscaping  activities,  synergies  between  the  5B-projects  and  the  Landscape 
Working  Group  exist.  Therefore,  these  projects  are  briefly  described  below  even  though 
they can be found, together with the other EOSC relevant EU projects, in Annex I. 

EOSC-synergy  will  expand  the  capacity  and  capabilities  of  EOSC  by  leveraging  the 
experience,  effort  and  resources  of  national  publicly  funded  digital  infrastructures  in  a 
coherent  way,  therefore  acting  also  as  an  incentive  for  national  resource  providers.  It 
bridges the gap between national initiatives and EOSC and expands adoption by developing 
new  capabilities  by  opening  national  thematic  services  to  European  access,  based  on  a 
strong  human  network  and  advanced  training  tools.  The  project  partners  are  from  the 

74 (n.d.). eoscpilot.eu. Retrieved from https://eoscpilot.eu/ 

75 (n.d.). EOSC Hub. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-hub.eu/ 

76 (2019, May 2). OpenAIRE Advance project | Projects. Retrieved from https://www.openaire.eu/openaire-advance-project 

77 (n.d.). The FREYA project — FREYA. Retrieved from https://www.project-freya.eu/en/about/mission 

78 (n.d.). eInfraCentral Platform. Retrieved from https://www.einfracentral.eu/ 

79 To facilitate information exchange among projects a generic e-mail address was created at allproject@eoscsecretariat.eu 

80 (2019, February 25). EOSC-synergy – Expanding Capabilities, Building ... - EGI. Retrieved from https://www.egi.eu/news/eosc-synergy/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

following EU MS and AC: Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, 
Slovakia, Spain, and United Kingdom81. 

NI4OS Europe (National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe) exploits and engages a 
strong  human  network  covering  a  wide  range  of  stakeholders,  as  well  as  the  existing 
infrastructures  and  services  in  15  target  countries,  to  support  the  overall  EOSC  vision, 
architecture  and  governance.  It  will  federate  the  existing  EOSC-relevant  services  in  the 
target  countries  by  making  them  compatible  with,  and  visible  in  core  building  blocks  of 
EOSC.  

NI4OS Europe will collaborate directly with the other EOSC-related initiatives to contribute 
to the common EOSC platform including a set of policies, rules and principles for managing 
services and research data across the EOSC ecosystem. The project partners are from the 
following EU MS and AC: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, 
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Moldova, Georgia 
and Armenia82. 

ExPaNDS  (European  Open  Science  Cloud  Photon  and  Neutron  Data  Service)  is  a 
collaboration between 10 national Photon and Neutron RIs (PaN RIs) as well as EGI. The 
project aims to deliver standardised, interoperable, and integrated data sources and data 
analysis  services  for  Photon  and  Neutron  facilities.  The  project  partners  are  from  the 
following EU MS and AC: Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, 
Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom83. 

EOSC-Pillar  coordinates  national  open  science  efforts  across  Austria,  Belgium,  France, 
Germany and Italy, and ensures their contribution and readiness for the implementation 
of the EOSC. The project partners are from the following EU MS and AC: Austria, Belgium, 
France, Germany and Italy84. 

EOSC-Nordic  aims  to  facilitate  the  coordination  of  EOSC  relevant  initiatives  within  the 
Nordic  and  Baltic  countries.  The  project  aims  to  exploit  synergies  to  achieve  greater 
harmonisation at policy and service provisioning across these countries, in compliance with 
EOSC-agreed standards and practices. The project partners are from the following EU MS 
and  AC:  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland,  Germany,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Netherlands,  Sweden, 
Iceland and Norway85. 

1.8.  Other important EU and global initiatives 

1.8.1.  EOSC Stakeholder Forum 

The EOSC Stakeholder Forum86 is the community actively contributing to and participating 
in the EOSC.  It is composed  of  organisations,  projects and initiatives fully committed in 
supporting the EOSC vision. The EOSC Stakeholder Forum is a fundamental component of 
the EOSC governance, as it allows the collection of input and feedback to the other EOSC 

81 (2019, September 1). EOSC-SYNERGY will - EOSC Hub. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-hub.eu/sites/default/files/EOSC-Synergy.pdf 

82  (n.d.).  NI4OS-Europe  National  Initiatives  for  Open  Science  in  Europe  -  EOSC  Hub.  Retrieved  from  https://www.eosc-

hub.eu/sites/default/files/NI4OS.pdf 

83 (n.d.). expands.eu. Retrieved May 23, 2020, from https://expands.eu/ 

84 (n.d.). What We Do | EOSC-Pillar. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-pillar.eu/what-we-do 

85 (n.d.). About EOSC-Nordic - EOSC-Nordic. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-nordic.eu/about-eosc-nordic/ 

86 (n.d.). EOSC Stakeholders Forum | EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/governance/stakeholders-forum 

16 

 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

governance bodies via a series of events organised by the EOSCSecretariat 87 and various 
online consultation mechanisms88. 

1.8.2.  Coalition of Doers 

The EC shared the EOSC Declaration with all scientific stakeholders for them to provide its 
endorsement and commitments to the realisation of the EOSC by 2020. The Declaration 
emerged  from  the  EOSC  Summit  of  12  June  2017,  and  is  geared  towards  the 
implementation  of  the  EOSC.  A  number  of  scientific  stakeholders,  individuals  and 
organisations have also signed up to play a role in the EOSC 'coalition of doers'89. The EC 
strongly  encourages  more  people  and  organisations  to  endorse  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration, and to commit to take some of the specific actions forward90. 

1.8.3.  European Countries with Research Data Alliance (RDA) nodes 

With  a  particular  focus  on  data  sharing  across  technologies,  disciplines  and  countries  to 
address  the  grand  challenges  of  society,  RDA91  was  launched  as  a  community-driven 
initiative  in  2013  by  the  EC,  the  United  States’  National  Science  Foundation  and  the 
National  Institute  of  Standards  and  Technology  as  well  as  the  Australian  Government’s 
Department  of  Innovation.  The  goal  is  to  build  the  social  and  technical  infrastructure 
needed  to  enable  open  sharing  and  re-use  of  data92.  RDA  has  a  grass-roots,  inclusive 
approach covering all data lifecycle stages, engaging data producers, users and stewards, 
and addressing data exchange, processing, and storage. RDA members collaborate through 
focused working and interest groups, formed by experts from all around the world – from 
academia,  the  private  sector  and  government.  It  provides  a  neutral  space  where  its 
members can come together through focused global working and interest groups (WIG) to 
develop and adopt infrastructures that promotes data-sharing and data-driven research, 
and can accelerate the growth of a cohesive data community that integrates contributors 
across domain, research, national, geographical and generational boundaries93. Its outputs 
include  technical  and  social  infrastructure  solutions  developed  by  RDA  WGs  or  IGs  that 
enable data sharing, exchange, and interoperability. In August 2019, RDA had more than 
8,800 members from 137 countries.  

1.8.4.  Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP) 

The  OSPP94  is  a  high-level  advisory  group  established  by  the  EC  to  advise  on  the 
development  and  implementation  of  open  science  policy  in  Europe  and  promote  the 
adoption of agreed-upon best practices among a diverse range of stakeholders, including 
universities, funding bodies, research organisations, and libraries. The OSPP has working 

87 (n.d.). EOSCSecretariat. Retrieved from https://www.eoscsecretariat.eu/ 

88 (n.d.). EOSC Stakeholder Forum | EOSCSecretariat. Retrieved from https://www.eoscsecretariat.eu/eosc-governance/eosc-stakeholder-

forum 

89 

(n.d.). 

The 

Commissioners 

- 

European 

Commission 

- 

Europa 

EU. 

Retrieved 

10 

July 

2020, 

from 

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2019-2024_en 

90 

(2017,  November  14).  EC  calls 

for  endorsement  of  EOSC  Declaration 

-  ERA  Portal  Austria.  Retrieved 

from 

https://era.gv.at/object/news/3627 

91 (2017, April 21). RDA Europe - Research Data Alliance. Retrieved from https://www.rd-alliance.org/rda-europe 

92 (2016, March 22). Get involved | RDA - Research Data Alliance. Retrieved from https://www.rd-alliance.org/get-involved.html 

93 (n.d.). Groups - Research Data Alliance. Retrieved from https://www.rd-alliance.org/groups 

94 

(n.d.).  Open  Science  Policy  Platform 

|  Open  Science 

-  Research  and 

....  Retrieved  13 

July  2020, 

from 

https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/index.cfm?pg=open-science-policy-platform 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

groups targeting a range of pressing topics in open science such as rewards, altmetrics, 
new publishing business models, research integrity, Citizen Science and FAIR open data. 

1.8.5.  Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) 

COAR  is  an  international  association  that  brings  together  individual  repositories  and 
repository networks in order to build capacity, align policies and practices, and act as a 
global voice for the repository community. COAR was launched in 2009, and now has over 
150 institutional members from all continents representing libraries, universities, research 
institutions, government funders and others. Interoperability across repositories is critical 
to support the development of an international infrastructure for data management. COAR 
has been working to define the future role of repositories in support of open science (and 
open access), through an activity called Next Generation Repositories (NGR). NGR defines 
the behaviours and technologies that need to be adopted by all repository platforms, which 
will  enable  the  development  of  value-added  services  on  top  of  the  resources  managed 
across the highly distributed repository network. The Pubfair model, published by COAR in 
late  2019,  builds  and  expands  on  NGR  recommendations  to  present  an  innovative  and 
sustainable vision for open science. In addition, COAR has been working to aggregate the 
variety  of  recommended  practices,  certification  schemas,  and  standards  for  repositories 
(related  to  discovery,  access,  reuse,  preservation  and  sustainability)  and  assess  their 
feasibility in different  regions, with the aim of developing a multi-factored, international 
framework that defines the best practices for repositories around the world. 

1.8.6.  GO FAIR 

GO FAIR offers an open and inclusive ecosystem by implementation networks (INs) in order 
to  make  data  FAIR  for  stakeholders  such  as  organisations  and  institutions,  as  well  as 
individuals. There are three types of IN maintained by GO FAIR: GO CHANGE (focusing on 
socio-cultural change)95; GO TRAIN (raising awareness of FAIR skills and principles in FAIR 
services and data)96; and GO BUILD (coordinating technological matters of FAIR by building 
technically best practices and components)97. While keeping a global perspective, GO FAIR 
also  contributes  to  the  developments  in  the  federated  EOSC,  which  can  be  seen  as  the 
European  contribution  to  the  Internet  of  FAIR  Data  and  services:  Europe’s  virtual 
environment  for  all  researchers  to  access,  store,  manage,  analyse  and  re-use  data  for 
research, innovation and educational purposes98. 

1.8.7.    European Data Portal 

European Data Portal (EDP)99 has been the main point of access at EU level to find public 
sector information published across Europe. Its objective is to improve access to and re-
use  of  public  sector  information,  foster  high-quality  open  data  publication  at  national, 
regional and local level, and increase its impact. Within this remit, the European Data Portal 
has  been  conducting  an  annual  landscaping  exercise100  providing  the  EU  MS  with  an 
assessment  of  their  maturity  level  and  documenting  their  year-on-year  progress  since 
2015. The  recent  Open Data Maturity Report  2019 describes how  open data maturity is 
measured and provides a detailed assessment of the four open data dimensions: policy, 
portal, impact, and quality in the EU MS. It offers an overview of open data maturity in the 

95 (n.d.). GO CHANGE - GO FAIR. Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/go-fair-initiative/go-change/ 

96 (n.d.). GO TRAIN - GO FAIR. Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/go-fair-initiative/go-train/ 

97 (n.d.). GO BUILD - GO FAIR. Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/go-fair-initiative/go-build/ 

98 (n.d.). GO FAIR Initiative - GO FAIR. Retrieved from https://www.go-fair.org/go-fair-initiative/ 

99 (n.d.). European Data Portal. Retrieved from https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en 

100 

(n.d.). 

Open 

Data 

Maturity 

Report 

2019 

- 

European 

Data 

Portal. 

Retrieved 

from 

https://www.europeandataportal.eu/sites/default/files/open_data_maturity_report_2019.pdf 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

EFTA countries and presents a clustering of the countries in four categories according to 
their performance101. In addition, it provides a set of recommendations for the countries 
depending on the cluster they are associated with, providing indicative guidance for policy 
makers, portal owners, and stakeholders in general to push the open data agenda forward.  

1.8.8.  Big Data Value Association 

The Big Data Value Association (BDVA102) is an industry-driven international not-for-profit 
organisation,  with  200  members  throughout  Europe  and  a  well-balanced  composition  of 
large-, small-, and medium-sized industries, as well as research and user organisations. 
BDVA is the private counterpart to the EU Commission to implement the Big Data Value 
PPP  program.  BDVA  and  the  Big  Data  Value  PPP  pursue  a  common  shared  vision  of 
positioning Europe as a world leader in the creation of Big Data Value (high-volume, variety 
and  verifiable  information  that  enables  enhanced  decision  making).  The  mission  of  the 
BDVA is to develop the Innovation Ecosystem that will enable the data and AI-driven digital 
transformation in Europe, delivering maximum economic and societal benefit and achieving 
and sustaining Europe’s leadership on Big Data Value creation and Artificial Intelligence. 
The  European  Network  of  (55)  National  Big  Data  Centres103  establishes  an  open-source 
friendly  environment  and  collects  best  practices  and  key  achievements  of  each  centre, 
defining challenges, meeting on a regular basis, and aligns with other European initiatives, 
with the ultimate goal of defining the data-driven future of Europe. 

2.  EOSC Relevant Infrastructures and Initiatives 

The  EOSC  aims  to  be  a  sustainable  ecosystem  that  links  research  data  repositories  and 
interconnect  services  and  infrastructures  (Budroni  et  al.,  2019)104.  While  the  existing 
diversity  of  countries  and  stakeholders  is  a  strength,  it  also  makes  coordination  on  a 
European level challenging. This is the reason why the most promising working concept of 
the EOSC is a federation of existing and relevant infrastructures and initiatives dispersed 
across countries and disciplines.  

This chapter presents an overview  of  relevant EOSC infrastructures and other initiatives 
relevant to EOSC. Research infrastructures (RIs) are facilities that provide resources and 
services  for  research  communities to conduct research and foster innovation. An overall 
description of the landscape of the relevant European infrastructures and e-infrastructures 
across  different  research  areas  is  provided  in  the  following  chapters,  including  specific 
examples of EOSC-relevant initiatives and projects, which are either community driven or 
government (nationally) driven.  

Inspired by the series of ESFRI strategic roadmap on RIs105, most countries have developed 
national  roadmaps  for  RIs,  which  are  valuable  sources  of  information.  Taking  stock  of 
EOSC-related infrastructures, as recommended in the Council conclusions106, is still at an 
early stage, and many countries do not yet have a fully developed countrywide research 
data repository. Tracking the development of such catch-all repositories and their European 
integration should be a component of the landscaping activity of EOSC. Sizable efforts have 

101 (n.d.). Open Data Maturity | European Data Portal. Retrieved March 20, 2020, from  http://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/impact-

studies/open-data-maturity 

102 (n.d.). BDVA. Retrieved from http://www.bdva.eu/ 

103  (n.d.). Big Data Network Europe. Retrieved from  www.big-data-network.eu  

104 (2019, December 14). Architectures of Knowledge: The European Open Science Cloud - de Gruyter. Retrieved from 

https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/abitech.2019.39.issue-2/abitech-2019-2006/abitech-2019-2006.pdf 

105 (n.d.). www.esfri.eu. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/ 

106 

(2018,  May  18).  9029/18  MVG/evt  1  DG  G  3  C  1.  The  European 

... 

-  Open  Data.  Retrieved 

from 

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9029-2018-INIT/en/pdf 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

been undertaken by e-IRG to provide service catalogues. By repurposing content from its 
Guide to e-infrastructure requirements for European Research Infrastructures107 and the 
Re3Data project108, a global research data repository registry can be created. 

2.1. 

E-Infrastructures 

e-Infrastructures address the needs of European researchers for digital services in terms 
of  networking,  computing  and  data  management,  and  foster  the  emergence  of  open 
science109  as  an  essential  block  of  the  ERA110.  Federated,  national  infrastructures  and 
European  initiatives  will  benefit  scientific  communities  by  providing  trusted  and  open 
environments to store, share and re-use scientific data and results, as well as benefit from 
fast connectivity, high-capacity cloud solutions, and supercomputing capability systems111.  

The EC has launched the European Cloud initiative112 to strengthen Europe’s position in the 
global data-driven economy by introducing the EOSC and the European Data Infrastructure 
(EDI)113. 

This  chapter  identifies  and  lists  EOSC  target  groups,  which  include  data  centres;  data 
repositories; data archives; NRENs/computer centres, other institutions that store, operate 
and distribute data to researchers. 

There  is  information  on  national  e-infrastructures  provided  through  the  country  sheets. 
Additional detailed information on how e-infrastructures are governed, operated, financed 
and accessed at the national level, is also provided in the report from e-IRG from 2019 
National  Nodes  –  Getting  organised;  how  far  are  we?114. For  more  specific  examples  on 
networking and other services, see Chapter 2.2. 

Throughout the MS and AC, there is a large variety of data processing services: from local, 
regional,  and  national  services  to  international  services.  Large,  international  scientific 
collaborations have often created their own e-infrastructure ecosystem, for example, the 
Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG115), the highly distributed data processing approach 
for  CERN’s  LHC  experiments.  Historically,  data  processing  has  been  provided  by  two 
general  classes  of  computation:  as  high-throughput  computing  (HTC)  and  high-
performance computing (HPC). HTC systems involve running many independent tasks that 
require a large amount of computing power and are optimised for large data processing 
tasks. HPC is commonly used to describe super-computing facilities, which process data in 
parallel and are  optimised for a maximum number of computing operations per second. 
Although communities and their use cases could be generally assigned to one of the two 
computing  models  until  around  2010,  in  recent  years,  more  and  more  cases  of 

107 (n.d.). eirg-1004 - e-Infrastructures Reflection Group - e-IRG. Retrieved from http://e-irg.eu/catalogue/eirg-1004 

108 (n.d.). Re3data. Retrieved from http://re3data.org/ 

109  (2019,  November  5).  Open  Science  |  Shaping  Europe's  digital  future.  Retrieved  from  https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-

market/en/open-science 

110 (2019, November 12). e-Infrastructures | Shaping Europe's digital future - European .... Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/digital-

single-market/en/e-infrastructures 
(n.d.).  National  Nodes 
111 

–  Getting 

organised; 

how 

far 

are  we? 

- 

e-IRG.  Retrieved 

from 

http://e-

irg.eu/documents/10920/238968/NationalNodesGettingorganisedhowfararewe.pdf 

112  (2019,  November  8).  The  European  Cloud  Initiative  |  Shaping  Europe's  digital  future.  Retrieved  from  https://ec.europa.eu/digital-

single-market/en/%20european-cloud-initiative 

113 (2018, January 31). The European Data Infrastructure (EDI) and the Data Challenge. Retrieved from 

https://www.slideshare.net/EUDAT/the-european-data-infrastructure-edi-and-the-data-challenge 

114 

(n.d.).  National  Nodes 

–  Getting 

organised; 

how 

far 

are  we? 

- 

e-IRG.  Retrieved 

from 

http://e-

irg.eu/documents/10920/238968/NationalNodesGettingorganisedhowfararewe.pdf 

115 (n.d.). WLCG: Welcome to the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. Retrieved from https://wlcg.web.cern.ch/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

heterogeneous use cases have emerged, which require a mix of both, high-data throughput 
and large number of computing operations per second, and thus, demand heterogeneous 
systems. 

Examples  of  separate  HTC  and  HPC  infrastructure  systems  on  a  national  level  include 
France,  where  national  HPC  centres  are  operated  by  CNRS,  CEA,  and  the  universities. 
Additional, regional HPC centres are usually operated by universities, often in collaboration 
with CNRS, and HTC services are mainly provided by CC-IN2P3 and Tier-2 centres and are 
then accessible through EGI.  

In  Italy,  Cineca116  is  the  largest  supercomputing  centre  dedicated  to  the  academic  and 
research  community  and  is  one  of  the  largest  facilities  in  Europe.  Large  research 
performing organisations (RPOs) have developed in-house HPC and  HTC infrastructures. 
INFN has a national infrastructure structured in tiers with a large centre, CNAF, and another 
10 medium centres117. ENEAGrid CRESCO118 is coordinating the IBISCO project119 and the 
GARR  Federated  Cloud120.  Italy  will  also  host  one  of  the  three,  pre-exascale 
supercomputers foreseen by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking121, through a consortium led 
by  CINECA,  INFN  and  SISSA.  The  supercomputer  will  be  hosted  at  the  Technopole  in 
Bologna, which will also host the ECMWF122 computing centre, due to become operational 
in 2021.  

A similar situation can be found in Germany, where high-performance computing is also 
organised in a tiered model. The national Tier-1 level is provided by 3 centres through the 
Gauss  Centre  for  Supercomputing123.  Several  Tier-2  HPC  systems  can  be  found  at 
universities like Aachen, Dresden, Göttingen, Darmstadt, Mainz, as well as at the Karlsruhe 
Institute of Technology (KIT). For HTC services and the management and analysis of large-
scale data, KIT is also operating GridKa, the German WLCG Tier-1 data and analysis centre 
for particle physics (e.g. for the LHC experiments), that manages about 15% of the LHC 
data.  

The separation of HPC and HTC on the national level can also be found in Serbia, where 
the  Academic  and  Educational  Grid  Initiative  of  Serbia  (AEGIS)  is  in  charge  of  the 
development  of  High-Throughput  Computing  (HTC)  resources,  while  the  Institute  of 
Physics Belgrade (IPB) coordinates the evolution of national High-Performance Computing 
(HPC) resources. 

Countries  where  HPC  and  HTC  services  are  provided  (at  least  in  part)  together  on  the 
national level include Austria with the EODC (see above), Finland with the IT Center for 
Science (CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd), Sweden via the Swedish National Infrastructure 
for Computing (SNIC), the Netherlands, where SURF (collaborative organisation for ICT in 
Dutch  education  and  research),  offers  several  services  for  research  including  HPC,  data 
storage and management, Belgium with VSC, CÉCI, Cenaero and Space Pole, and Portugal. 
In the latter, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) provides HPC services and 
is  responsible  for  the  operation  of  the  national  advanced  computing  network,  although 
those  functions  may  be  outsourced  to  universities.  The  UK  also  has  a  federated  e-

116 (n.d.). Cineca: Home. Retrieved from http://www.cineca.it/ 

117 (n.d.). INFN-CNAF. Retrieved from https://www.cnaf.infn.it/en/ 

118 (n.d.). How to get to Portici - ENEA-Grid. Retrieved from https://www.eneagrid.enea.it/CRESCOportal/howtogetthere_en.php 

119 (n.d.). PON - INFN Sezione di Napoli. Retrieved from https://www.na.infn.it/fondi-esterni/pon 

120  (n.d.).  Cloud 

infrastructure  |  GARR  -  Consortium  GARR.  Retrieved 

from  https://www.garr.it/en/infrastructures/cloud-

infrastructure/cloud-infrastructure 

121 (n.d.). EuroHPC. Retrieved from https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/ 

122 (n.d.). ECMWF. Retrieved from https://www.ecmwf.int/ 

123 (n.d.). Home Gauss Centre for Supercomputing e.V. Retrieved from https://www.gauss-centre.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

infrastructure involving UKRI facilities (HPC, content and national scientific infrastructure), 
Jisc services and resources (content, analytics, AAI and network), national subject specific 
repositories and university facilities. 

Throughout  several  countries,  EGI  and  EUDAT  co-ordinate  significant  HTC  and  data 
services,  respectively,  at  an  international  level  based  on  a  partnership  model.  Whereas 
HPC  centres  join  the  PRACE  partnership  initiative  and  participate  in  EuroHPC.  The 
separation of the different types of computing e-infrastructures is at least in part due to 
European funding strategies and organisations. If the EOSC is to overcome this separation, 
the question of its relation to EuroHPC will need to be addressed. 

2.2.  Networking and other services 

European  countries  have  been  developing  research  and  education  networks  since  the 
1980s and have collaborated on pan-European networking for nearly as long. Today, each 
European  country  has  a  National  Research  and  Education  Network  (NREN),  connecting 
research and higher education institutions with high-performance networks, and offering a 
range of related services. 

In terms of organisation and funding, the European NRENs are diverse. For example, some 
are  funded  directly  from  government  budgets,  others  are  funded  by  their  connected 
institutions.  Some  are  part  of  large  organisations  managing  a  variety  of  national  e-
infrastructures,  while  others  are  smaller  organisations  focussing  on  just  the  network. 
Nevertheless, they have important similarities. All NRENs offer high-performance networks 
suited to the special needs of research and education, with the headroom required for the 
bursts in traffic which are unique to research and large instruments, and the capability to 
serve research collaborations like ESFRI RIs with specialised network support. 

Additionally, all European NRENs offer critical access and identity services such as eduroam 
and eduGAIN. These trust and identity services make up the foundation of services that 
allow secure access to research data, authentication to shared resources, and support for 
mobility and collaboration. 

Many  NRENs  also  offer  storage  services,  computing  services,  and  a  range  of  security 
services. 

2.2.1.  European networking infrastructure 

Together, the NRENs have formed the GÉANT  Association, an organisation for European 
collaboration in research networks and the operator of the pan-European GÉANT network, 
with  connectivity  to  other  world  regions.  With  support  from  the  EC  during  decades  of 
Framework  Partnerships,  the  GÉANT  network  has  been  developed  into  a  world-leading 
network, ensuring world-class connectivity to all European countries and making Europe a 
leading actor in global research networking and e-infrastructures. 

GÉANT124 is an e-infrastructure delivering the pan-European GÉANT network. Through its 
integrated catalogue of connectivity, collaboration and identity services, GÉANT provides 
users  with  highly  reliable,  unconstrained  access  to  computing,  analysis,  storage, 
applications  and  other  resources,  to  ensure  that  Europe  remains  at  the  forefront  of 
research.  GÉANT  interconnects  38  National  Research  and  Education  Network  (NREN) 
partners,  and  it  is  the  largest  and  most  advanced  R&E  network  in  the  world.  GÉANT 
connects over 50 million users at more than 10,000 institutions across Europe and supports 

124 (n.d.). GÉANT. Retrieved from https://www.geant.org/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

all scientific disciplines. The backbone network operates at speeds of up to 500Gbps and 
reaches over 100 national networks worldwide. Since its establishment over 20 years ago, 
the GÉANT network has progressively developed to ensure that European researchers lead 
international and global collaboration. Over 1000 terabytes of data is transferred via the 
GÉANT IP backbone every day.  

More than just an infrastructure for e-science, it stands as a positive example of European 
integration  and  collaboration.  GÉANT  develops  and  delivers  advanced  networks  and 
associated  e-infrastructure  services.  It  supports  open  innovation,  collaboration  and 
knowledge-sharing amongst its members, partners and the wider research and education 
networking community. With more than 40 partners and associates across Europe and a 
multi-million Euro budget, GÉANT has met the challenge of complex international project 
management. GÉANT also provides consultancy on network related projects. GÉANT has 
national  members  (one  per  state)  and  representative  members  (represent  at  least  two 
legal  entities  of  different  countries),  associate  (no  voting  rights)  and  possibility  of 
establishing working committees. According to the most recent report: more than 80% of 
the universities are connected to GÉANT, with 86% of all university-level students serviced 
in those 40 countries; that is, a total of 25 million university students. The GÉANT network 
reaches in excess of 50 million users involved in research and education in the region 125. 
GÉANT  network  also  offers  connectivity  to  other  world  regions  (AfricaConnect2126, 
CAREN127, EUMEDConnect3128, EaPConnect129, TANDEM130 and others). 

In the Western Balkans region, SEEREN and SEE-GRID initiatives have established the first 
SEE regional networking infrastructure and enabled its access to the pan-European GÉANT 
network. Finally, the GÉANT Compendium131 of NRENs offers details on all NRENs across 
Europe. 

2.2.2.  National networking infrastructures 

In  the  following  chapters,  we  describe  national  networking  infrastructures,  highlighting 
examples  of  National  Regional  Education  Networks  (NRENs),  and  illustrating  some 
communalities and differences in these infrastructures, which are vital for the future EOSC. 
These examples are based on the information provided by Annex II. 

2.2.2.1. Austria 

Network services for the scientific community in Austria are provided by ACOnet. ACOnet132 
is  the  Austrian  National  Research  and  Education  Network  (NREN)  for  science,  research, 
education,  and  culture.  It  is  operated  by  the  Vienna  University  Computer  Center,  in 
cooperation  with  other  universities  in  Austria.  ACOnet  primarily  connects  and  serves 
universities, research & education and cultural institutions; other public sector institutions 
(e.g. public administration, healthcare) are also welcome. 

125 (2017, May 15). D2.1: Draft Stakeholder Map. EOSCpilot Deliverable Template. Retrieved from 

https://eoscpilot.eu/sites/default/files/eoscpilot-d2.1.pdf  

126 (n.d.). Français - AfricaConnect2. Retrieved from https://www.africaconnect2.net/Francais/Pages/Home.aspx 

127 (2017, April 25). CAREN project brings Gigabit-speed connectivity to Central Asia. Retrieved from 

https://caren.geant.org/Media_Centre/News/Pages/CAREN-project-brings-Gigabit-speed-connectivity-to-Central-Asia.aspx 

128 (n.d.). EUMEDCONNECT3 Home. Retrieved from https://www.eumedconnect3.net/Pages/Home.aspx 

129 (n.d.). EaP Connect - EaP. Retrieved from https://www.eapconnect.eu/ 

130 (n.d.). Project key facts – TANDEM WACREN. Retrieved from https://www.tandem-wacren.eu/about-tandem/project-key-facts/ 

131 (n.d.). GÉANT Compendium of NRENs. Retrieved 30 April 2020, from https://compendium.geant.org/ 

132 (n.d.). ACOnet. Retrieved from https://www.aco.net/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

ACOnet  provides  a  nation-wide  fibre  optic  backbone133  with  high-performance  access  to 
international  academic  networks  via  GÉANT,  as  well  as  to  the  Internet.  Furthermore, 
ACOnet  offers  its  members  various  target-group-specific  services134  to  support  research 
projects and communities. The legal and operational entity of ACOnet is the University of 
Vienna.  Its  governance  is  based  on  MoU  between  University  of  Vienna  and  the  legally 
independent  ACONET  Association  (members  are  all  universities  and  some  other  ACOnet 
participants);  the  technical  advisory  group  of  all  participating  organisations  meets 
twice/year, with the strategic advisory group, the board of ACONET Association, meeting 
on at least a quarterly basis. 

2.2.2.2. Belgium 

Belnet135 is the Belgian national research network that provides high-bandwidth internet 
connection  and  services  to  Belgian  universities,  colleges,  schools,  research  centres  and 
government departments. Furthermore, Belnet also works on the BNIX platform, i.e. the 
Belgian internet exchange that makes possible high-speed data exchange, among others, 
between Internet service providers and Internet content providers in Belgium. Belnet is a 
federal government organisation and belongs to the Federal Science Policy. The VON is the 
physical glass fibre network connecting over a hundred sites of universities, institutes of 
higher education and research centres in Flanders to Belnet, with a minimum of 1 Gigabit 
ranging to 10 gigabit and more. The network is currently being upgraded to 100 gigabit 
readiness for research bandwidth. 

2.2.2.3. Denmark 

The Danish e-Infrastructure cooperation (DeiC)136 develops and runs Forskningsnettet (the 
National  Research  and  Education  Network  of  Denmark).  Forskningsnettet  is  a  national 
network  infrastructure  connecting  the  universities  and  research  institutions  with  a  high 
speed  and  high-capacity  internet  infrastructure,  thereby  supporting  research  and 
cooperation. 

2.2.2.4. Finland 

Funet137 (Finnish University and Research Network) is a high-speed data communications 
network  serving  the  Finnish  research  community.  It  connects  about  80  research 
organisations. CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd maintains and develops the Funet network. 
CSC  –  IT  Center  for  Science  Ltd  has  an  important  role  as  an  instrument  for  helping  to 
implement  the  policies  and  development  programmes  of  Finnish  Ministry  of  Education, 
Science and Culture. CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd is owned by the Finnish state (70% 
shareholding) and higher education institutions (30% shareholding). 

2.2.2.5. France 

Network  services  for  the  scientific  community  in  France  are  provided  by  RENATER 138 
(Réseau  National  de  télécommunications  pour  la  Technologie,  l'Enseignement  et  la 
Recherche).  RENATER  is  a  public  interest  group.  Its  members  are  major  research 
organisations:  CNRS,  CPU,  CEA,  INRIA,  CNES,  INRA,  INSERM,  ONERA,  CIRAD,  IRSTEA, 
IRD, BRGM, as well as the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI). 
RENATER also manages the SFINX traffic exchange point and has research project links 

133 (2018, June 6). ACOnet Backbone. Retrieved from https://www.aco.net/backbone.html?L=1 

134 (2019, October 8). Services & Tools - ACOnet. Retrieved from https://www.aco.net/services.html?L=1 

135 (n.d.). Belnet. Retrieved from https://belnet.be/en 

136 (n.d.). Network infrastructure | Danish e-Infrastructure Cooperation. Retrieved from https://www.deic.dk/en/network_infrastructure 

137 (n.d.). Funet services - CSC. Retrieved from https://www.csc.fi/funet-kaikki-palvelut 

138 (n.d.). Accueil | RENATER. Retrieved from https://www.renater.fr/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

with CERN. It provides a network connecting more than 1,300 sites via links with 10 Gbps. 
Higher bandwidth is available e.g. between centres in Paris and Lyon (100 Gbps), between 
Lyon  and  Marseille  (80  Gbps),  and  towards  CERN  (60  Gbps  via  Lyon  and  Grenoble). 
RENATER is connected  to the pan-European GÉANT network.  It is also connected to the 
Internet, in France via an exchange point, the SFINX and to the world via 2 IP Transit links 
in Paris and Marseille. RENATER’s annual budget is about €30 million. 

2.2.2.6. Germany 

Science  itself  have  left  the  German  National  Research  and  Education  Network  (DFN 139) 
organise the communications network for Science and research in Germany. The research 
and  education  network  X-WiN  is  the  technical  platform  of  DFN.  Universities,  research 
institutions and research departments of commercial enterprises are connected with one 
another  in  Germany  and  are  networking  with  the  research  and  education  networks  in 
Europe  and  on  the  other  continents  via  X-WiN.  Moreover,  X-WiN  has  high-performance 
peering points with the Internet at its disposal. With a connection capacity of up to 100 
gigabits and a multi-terabit core network, which spans about 60 core locations, X-WiN is 
one  of  the  most  powerful  communications  networks  in  the  world.  In  addition,  the  DFN 
offers its users a multitude of customised applications for communication. It is constantly 
being  enhanced  by  new  and  innovative  applications,  which  are  developed  and  tested  in 
projects  and  piloting  ventures.  The  association  to  promote  the  German  education  and 
research network, DFN-Verein, organises DFN and guarantees its further development and 
use. DFN-Verein is an acknowledged non-profit association. DFN-Verein provides further 
training to its users conducting conferences and workshops. Moreover, there are contacts 
in  various  competence  centres  available  to  provide  advice  and  support  with  important 
questions concerning the use of the services. 

2.2.2.7. Greece 

GRNET,  National  Infrastructures  for  Research  and  Technology,  is  the  Greek  national 
research network. GRNET is a state-owned company, operating under the auspices of the 
Greek  Ministry  of  Digital  Governance.  GRNET  is  an  integrated  e-infrastructure  service 
provider and offers an environment of cutting-edge technologies providing infrastructural 
and technology support to academic and research institutions, to educational bodies at all 
levels, and to agencies of the public sector. GRNET is the main infrastructure and service 
enabler  for  open  science  in  Greece  and  leads  the  coordinated  development  of  e-
infrastructures and services in Southeast Europe (SEEREN, SEE-GRID series, HP-SEE, VI-
SEEM, NI4OS projects) and the wider region.  

GRNET has also been involved in the pan-European and global integration efforts in the full 
spectrum  of  e-infrastructure  technologies  over  the  past  20  years.  This  covers  the 
underlying  networking 
technologies  within  GÉANT,  Grid/Cloud/High-Throughput 
Computing via EGI, data infrastructures via EUDAT, and High-Performance Computing via 
PRACE  and  EuroHPC.  GRNET  operates  a  backbone  network  covering  the  whole  national 
territory: more than 9000 km of dark fibre, operated by GRNET-owned equipment, with 
several 10Gbps connections to 50 Institutions. GRNET is interconnected with pan-European 
network  GÉANT  with  4x10Gbps  uplinks,  where  it  has  an  active  role  in  pan-European 
network  operations,  and  has  linked  the  Southeast  European  region  to  GÉANT  through 
SEEREN projects.  GRNET is the leading cloud computer and data infrastructure provider 
for R&E community in Greece and beyond.  

139 (n.d.). DFN-Verein: Welcome to DFN. Retrieved from https://www.dfn.de/en/ 

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Regarding data storage, GRNET has over 11 Petabytes of raw disk storage and 7 Petabytes 
of tape archive. Concerning cloud computing, GRNET operates Infrastructure as a Service 
via  large  data  centres  (135  racks,  1800+  servers,  7000  Virtual  Machines  active,  5 
Petabytes  of  storage.  In  the  realm  of  High-Performance  Computing  (HPC),  GRNET  is 
currently  operating  the  Greek  national  HPC  Tier–1  centre  –  ARIS  (Advanced  Research 
Information System). The total theoretical peak performance of the whole system is 434 
Tflops. 

2.2.2.8. Ireland 

HEAnet is Ireland’s National Research and Education Network, providing resilient Gigabit 
network  connectivity  to  all  Irish  Universities,  Technological  Universities,  Institutes  of 
Technology,  other  higher  education  institutions  (HEIs),  research  organisations.  HEAnet 
also  connects  all  primary  and  post-primary  schools  across  Ireland.  HEAnet’s  extensive 
portfolio  of  shared  services  encompasses  Data  Centre  hosting,  Managed  Applications, 
worldwide WiFi roaming, media storage, a multi-platform video collaboration network and 
more, all secured and supported by experts. HEAnet has particular expertise in the area of 
federated access and authentication services. HEAnet are a long-standing member of the 
GÉANT Association and are an active participant in many of GÉANT’s EC-funded projects. 

From a critical research infrastructure perspective, HEAnet connects:  

  Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) 

ICHEC  (Irish  Centre  for  High-End  Computing)  delivers  complex  compute  solutions  to 
Irish HEAs, Enterprises and the Public Sector on behalf of the State. It is Ireland’s lead 
authority in High-Performance Computing (HPC) at national and international level, and 
manages the national HPC infrastructure, Kay. 

  I-LOFAR (Ireland) 

I-LOFAR  is  the  Irish  station  in  a  European-wide  network  of  state-of-the-art  radio 
telescopes,  used  to  observe  the  Universe  at  low  frequencies  (10-240  MHz).  This 
observing facility in Birr Castle140, Co. Offaly, is located in the midlands of Ireland and 
connects  Ireland  to  the  International  LOFAR  Telescope141,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
sophisticated and advanced astrophysics research projects in the world.  

2.2.2.9. Italy 

The  GARR  network142  interconnects,  at  ultra-high  capacity,  around  1,000  among 
universities, research centres, libraries, museums, schools and other education, science, 
culture  and  innovation  facilities.  The  fibre  optic  infrastructure  is  based  on  leading-edge 
telecommunication technologies and covers more than 15,000 km of backbone and access 
links. As of today, the capacity of single backbone links reaches 200 Gbps, while access 
links can reach 200 Gbps depending on the connected site’s bandwidth requirements.  

At  the  physical  level,  the  network  is  almost  completely  implemented  with  dark  fibre, 
connecting  the  network’s  Points  of  Presence  with  each  other  and  to  the  numerous  user 
sites  (∼1000).  Only  in  those  cases  where  fibre  links  are  not  available  and  bandwidth 
requirements are low,  alternative technologies may be used to  connect peripheral sites. 
On top of the physical level, the network has two layers, for transmission and IP/MPLS. In 

140 (n.d.). Welcome to Birr Castle, Gardens & Science Centre | Ireland. Retrieved 30 April 2020, from https://birrcastle.com/ 

141 (n.d.). LOFAR | LOFAR. Retrieved 30 April 2020, from http://www.lofar.org/ 

142 (2019, October 4). Home | GARR - Consortium GARR. Retrieved from https://www.garr.it/en/ 

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its position of unique national high-performance network provider  for  research, GARR is 
involved  in  INFN’s  Data  Lake  project.  DL  project’s  overarching  objective  is  to  create  a 
distributed  data  storage  on  a  national  scale,  from  where  data  could  be  retrieved 
irrespective of the physical location of the CPUs where they will be processed. The model 
foresees  to  create  a  relatively  small  group  of  distributed  large  Storage  Data  Centres, 
managed  and  accessed  as  single  entities.  This  will  be  done  using  the  Data  Centre 
Interconnection (DCI) technology, that allows high-capacity, low-latency interconnection 
of geographically separated data centres as if their resources were on the same LAN. DCI 
was already successfully implemented in several cases, including the single-fibre point-to-
point interconnection between CNAF and CINECA that can reach 1.2 Tbps capacity. 

2.2.2.10.  Norway 

Norwegian  research  institutions  have  the  benefit  of  cost-effective,  coordinated  e-
infrastructure  for  research  and  higher  education  in  many  subject  areas.  UNINETT  AS 143 
develops  and  operates  the  Norwegian  high-performance  network  for  research  and 
education, connecting over 200 Norwegian institutions and over 300 000 users and linking 
them  to  international  research  networks.  UNINETT  AS  is  a  non-commercial  enterprise 
owned by the Ministry of Education and Research. Affiliation with the research network is 
the  basis  for  most  other  services  provided  by  UNINETT  AS.  Sigma2  also  heads  and 
coordinates Norway’s participation in international collaborations on e-infrastructure, such 
as the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC), PRACE and the EUDAT. 

2.2.2.11.  Poland 

research  and  development 

The PIONIER144 network is a nationwide broadband optical network constituting the basis 
for 
technology  and 
telecommunications, computer sciences (networks, etc.), applications and services for the 
information society. Built entirely from KBN (Research Committee), it currently connects 
21 Centres of the Metropolitan Area Network  (MAN) and 5 Centres of  High-Performance 
Computing (HPC). 

information 

field  of 

the 

in 

The infrastructure of the PIONIER network is based on its own fibre optic network in Poland 
and on long-term leased (IRU) fibre connections to Hamburg, Frankfurt/Main and CERN, 
where the total length of the network exceeds 9000 km. Network services are based on an 
optical network currently working at 400 Gbps and 100 Gbps lambdas in the backbone of 
the  network,  and  offers  unique  services  for  the  scientific  community,  e.g.  quantum  key 
distribution network or time and frequency distribution network. 

2.2.2.12.  Portugal 

RCTS  –  The  Science,  Technology  and  Society  Network  –  is  the  national  education  and 
research network. Managed and operated by FCCN, the RCTS is the unit of the Foundation 
for Science and Technology (FCT) responsible for national scientific computing, and offers 
researchers, teachers,  and students a high-performance digital infrastructure to support 
projects  on  a  national  and  international  level.  FCT  is  developing  a  national  advanced 
computing network, which will integrate resources from the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. In 
terms of data infrastructure, 2020 plans include the Portuguese node of EUDAT, as well as 
Dataverse for the long tail of research data. FCT is also responsible for the infrastructure 
RCAAP  (Scientific  Open  Access  Repositories  of  Portugal).  Among  other  services,  RCAAP 

143 (n.d.). Uninett: Kunnskaps-Norges IKT-infrastrukturselskap. Retrieved from https://www.uninett.no/ 

144 (n.d.). PIONIER Network - PIONIER online. Retrieved from http://www.pionier.net.pl/online/en/projects/69/ 

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offers SaaS hosting services for repositories (based on DSpace) and Open Access journals 
(based on OJS). 

2.2.2.13.  Spain 

Spanish Academic & Research Network (RedIRIS)145 Operating in close collaboration with 
other research and education networks, both regional and international (GÉANT), RedIRIS 
provides  its  users  with  very  high-capacity  connections  and  services  that  are  especially 
relevant for e-science projects, such as digital identity, security and shared cloud services. 
RedIRIS has 70 Points of Presence that will be renewed during 2020 to offer multiple 100 
Gbps 
its  connectivity  services  using  a  high-capacity 
communications  backbone  network,  called  RedIRIS-NOVA.  This  14,000  km  dark  fibre 
infrastructure offers important technological advances in capacity (almost unlimited) and 
flexibility,  which  facilitates  the  participation  of  Spanish  researchers  in  national  and 
international projects. RedIRIS plays a key role in providing support to the federation of 
distributed computing infrastructures such as the support to the needs of the LHC via the 
computing services of the IBERGRID federation in WLCG and its integration in EGI. 

links.  RedIRIS  provides 

2.2.2.14.  Sweden 

The  Swedish  University  Computer  Network  (Sunet)146  is  the  Swedish  NREN,  providing 
infrastructure for national and international data communication at universities, colleges 
and other affiliated organisations. The joint organisation forms a network for research and 
education  and  offers  a  variety  of  data  services.  Sunet  is  part  of  the  Swedish  Research 
Council and is a GÉANT and NORDUnet partner (collaboration among the Nordic NRENS).  

2.2.2.15.  Switzerland 

The  private  foundation  SWITCH147  offers  collaboratively  developed  ICT  solutions  for  the 
Swiss  academic  community.  It  operates  SWITCHlan  connecting  universities  with  a  data 
network  and  offering  other  network  services,  as  well  as  the  authentication  and 
authorisation infrastructure SWITCHaai. The latter will be replaced with SWITCH edu-ID, 
which will additionally provide a lifelong and user-centric identity. SWITCH is a member of 
GÉANT and posts a delegate to e-IRG. 

2.2.2.16.  United Kingdom 

Janet,  is  the  UK’s  national  research  and  education  network,  provided  by  Jisc.  It  is  the 
network dedicated to the needs of research and education in the UK. It connects the UK’s 
research and education institutions to each other, as well as to the rest of the world through 
links to the global Internet. In addition, Janet includes a separate network (Aurora) that is 
available to the community for experimental activities in network development. 

The  Janet  network  connects  UK  universities,  FE  Colleges,  Research  Councils,  Specialist 
Colleges  and  Adult  and  Community  Learning  providers.  It  also  provides  connections 
between  the  Regional  Broadband  Consortia  to  facilitate  the  Department  for  Education’s 
initiative for a national schools’ network. Over 18 million end-users are currently served 
by the Janet network. 

The range of activities facilitated by Janet allows individuals and institutions to push back 
the  traditional  boundaries  of  teaching,  learning  and  research  methods.  For  researchers, 

145 (n.d.). RedIRIS. Retrieved from https://www.rediris.es/ 

146 (n.d.). About Sunet | SUNET. Retrieved from https://www.sunet.se/about-sunet/ 

147 (n.d.). SWITCH.ch. Retrieved from https://www.switch.ch/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

the high capacity of the Janet backbone allows the linking of large data storage and high-
performance computing facilities at a national and international level. 

Further  information  about  Jisc  can  be  found  at  https://www.jisc.ac.uk/  and  the  Janet 
network at: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/connectivity-services 

2.3.  Data infrastructures 

According to the Open Data Institute definition, ‘Data infrastructures consist of data assets 
supported  by  people,  processes  and  technology’148.  In  the  context  of  this  report,  we 
consider  data  infrastructures  the  technical  and  human  infrastructures  which  support 
management  and  sharing  of  research  data.  The  Re3Data  project149,  provides  a  global 
research data repository registry. 

EUDAT150 is a Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI), which manages data spanning from 
European research data centres and community data repositories. EUDAT aims to support 
sharing  and  preserving  data  across  borders  and  disciplines.  European  researchers  and 
practitioners from any research discipline can preserve, find, access, and process data in 
a trusted environment. EUDAT offers heterogeneous research data management services 
and storage resources,  supporting multiple research communities as  well as individuals, 
through  a  geographically  distributed,  resilient  network  distributed  across  15  European 
countries. Data is stored alongside some of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers. One 
of EUDAT’s main ambitions is to bridge the gap between RIs and e-infrastructures through 
an  active  engagement  strategy,  using  the  communities  that  are  in  the  consortium  as 
EUDAT  beacons  and  integrates  others  through  innovative  partnerships.  EUDAT  offers 
common data services, supporting multiple research communities as well as individuals., 
through  a  network  of  36  European  organisations.  Its  main  services  are  the  following: 
B2DROP151, B2SHARE152, B2SAFE153, B2STAGE154, B2FIND155, B2HANDLE156, B2ACCESS157. 
EUDAT has a dual governance structure. As an EU funded project, it operates through the 
respective bodies found in most EU projects, i.e. as defined by its Consortium Agreement. 
As an e-infrastructure that provides a set of common data services, it operates on the basis 
of the EUDAT CDI. Generic and thematic service providers may join the EUDAT CDI network 
by signing a specific collaboration agreement.  

Scholarly communication initiatives and services are a relevant component of the current 
landscape,  especially  for  the  long  tail  of  science.  These  initiatives  originated  from  the 
movement  to  provide  open  access  to  publications,  but  are  now  applying  open  access 
principles to data (e.g.  FAIR data) and other types  of  research products.  OpenAIRE is a 
key initiative in this area having started as a supporting facility for OA policy of FP7 and 
H2020,  and  developing  a  set  of  mechanisms  to  implement  and  monitor  open  science  in 
Europe. Services which OpenAIRE can provide within the EOSC are:  

148 (n.d.). Data infrastructure – The ODI. Retrieved from https://theodi.org/topic/data-infrastructure/ 

149 (n.d.). Re3data. Retrieved from http://re3data.org/ 

150 (n.d.). EUDAT - Research Data Services, Expertise & Technology .... Retrieved from https://eudat.eu/ 

151 (n.d.). B2DROP - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://www.eudat.eu/services/b2drop 

152 (n.d.). b2share - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://b2share.eudat.eu/ 

153 (n.d.). B2SAFE - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://www.eudat.eu/b2safe 

154 (n.d.). B2STAGE - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://www.eudat.eu/b2stage 

155 (n.d.). B2FIND - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://eudat.eu/services/b2find 

156 (2016, November 7). B2HANDLE - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://www.eudat.eu/services/userdoc/b2handle 

157 (n.d.). B2ACCESS - EUDAT. Retrieved from https://eudat.eu/services/b2access 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

  a recognised national network of 35 nodes (National Open Access Desks158 ), which are 
expert organisations offering local support, training and policy alignment on open access 
and RDM; 

  a suite of standards, the OpenAIRE Guidelines for Content providers159, and services to 
allow  content  providers  to  make  publications,  data,  software  to  share  them  in  EOSC 
following open and FAIR principles (more than 1000 already registered);  

o  a set of services to help researchers do open science:  
o  Zenodo160 – a catch all repository,  
o  Argos161 – an actionable DMP service linked out of the box to EU and national 

infrastructures,  

o  Amnesia162 – an anonymization tool, 
o 

the OpenAIRE Research Graph163 , a global contextual catalogue of research 
results linked together which is the basis for intelligent, AI-based discovery,  
the Open Science Observatory164 to monitor different aspects of open science 
in Europe. 

o 

A basic set of data management services for archival, data discovery, and sharing, as well 
as an open digital repository, are offered to the South-East European researchers though 
the VI-SEEM initiative. At the moment, these services are managed by the NI4OS-Europe 
project. 

The “Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Data” published in 2016 by 
the  Research  Council  of  Lithuania  is  the  most  relevant  document  identifying  the 
fundamental guidelines for the sector. These guidelines do cover publications and data and 
responsibilities for various aspects of Open Access and Open Data are covered in detail. As 
with France, the only other EU country known to have enshrined OA and research data in 
law, the focus is more on rights than on obligations, and the inference is that universities 
will be responsible for developing their own policies, procedures, guidance and monitoring 
systems.  

The Norway's National strategy on access to and sharing of research data165 will enhance 
research  quality  and  increase  knowledge-intensive  value-creation  by  establishing  basic 
principles for the management and curation of publicly funded research data, by clarifying 
what is expected of research institutions, and by presenting measures that create a better 
foundation for building on previous research  efforts and compiling research data in new 
ways. 

Beyond Europe, the scholarly communication and long tail data domain is dominated by 
US  initiatives:  Open  Science  Framework166,  The  Mendeley  Data167,  National  Data 

158 (n.d.). NOAD activities - OpenAIRE. Retrieved from https://www.openaire.eu/noad-activities 

159 (n.d.). OpenAIRE Guidelines — OpenAIRE Guidelines documentation. Retrieved from https://guidelines.openaire.eu/ 

160 (n.d.). Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/ 

161 (n.d.). Argos - OpenAIRE. Retrieved from https://argos.openaire.eu/splash/ 

162 (n.d.). Amnesia — data anonymization made easy .... Retrieved from https://amnesia.openaire.eu/ 

163 (2019, September 16). The OpenAIRE Research Graph - OpenAIRE Blog. Retrieved from https://www.openaire.eu/blogs/the-openaire-

research-graph 

164 Service release date May 2020. Beta at beta.observatory.openaire.eu  

165 

(2018,  February  13).  National 

strategy  on  access 

to  and 

sharing  of 

research  data 

....  Retrieved 

from 

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/national-strategy-on-access-to-and-sharing-of-research-data/id2582412/ 

166 (n.d.). OSF.io. Retrieved from https://osf.io/ 

167 (n.d.). Mendeley Data. Retrieved from https://data.mendeley.com/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Service168,  Dryad  digital  repository169  and  Harvard  Dataverse170,  ScienceOpen171, 
Unpaywall172, CyVerse173, and Google Dataset Search174. Other relevant initiatives are the 
Federated Research Data Repository175 (Canada), the Australian National Data Service176 
hosting  the  Research  Data  Australia  discovery  portal177,  and  the  NCI  National  Research 
Data Collection178 (Australia). There are many Chinese repositories with a more  focused 
scope, making good progress in key aspects of open data. A notable example is the Fudan 
University Social Science Data Repository179. 

As regards big data, several initiatives are being established by developed countries around 
the world180, e.g. Japan, which ranks third in the world for the size of the economy and 
has high-level ICT infrastructure and the world’s leading service providers in ICT as Fujitsu, 
Hitachi, NTT Data and NEC. Big data is one of the main economic priorities for the Japanese 
government,  and  a  number  of  strategies  have  been  adopted  by  the  government  in  this 
area. The Japanese government adopted Japan Revitalisation Strategy, which outlines the 
creation of strong infrastructure and facilities to connect to data services market and plans 
to make Japan the world leader in information technology181.  

2.4.  Computing infrastructures 

Computing infrastructures typically include high performance computing (HPC) optimised 
for high memory and CPU intensive tasks and high throughput computing (HTC) optimised 
for  tasks  which  can  be  divided  into  subtasks  which  distributed  across  multiple  servers; 
however, infrastructures for more specialised computing architectures also exist (e.g. GPU 
clusters). 

At the European level, there are two significant infrastructures supporting HPC: EuroHPC 
and PRACE. 

EuroHPC  will  permit  the  EU  and  participating  countries  to  coordinate  their  efforts  and 
share  resources with the objective of deploying in Europe a world-class supercomputing 
infrastructure  and  a  competitive  innovation  ecosystem  in  supercomputing  technologies, 
applications and skills182. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is a legal and funding entity with 
the  aim  of  developing  a  pan-European  supercomputing  infrastructure  and  supporting 
research and innovation activities by developing a European supercomputing ecosystem, 

168 (n.d.). National Data Service: Home. Retrieved  from http://www.nationaldataservice.org/ 

169 (n.d.). Data Dryad. Retrieved  from https://datadryad.org/stash 

170 (n.d.). Harvard Dataverse. Retrieved from https://dataverse.harvard.edu/ 

171 (n.d.). ScienceOpen. Retrieved from https://www.scienceopen.com/ 

172 (n.d.). Unpaywall. Retrieved from https://unpaywall.org/ 

173 (n.d.). The Project | CyVerse. Retrieved from https://cyverse.org/about 

174 (n.d.). Dataset Search - Google. Retrieved from https://toolbox.google.com/datasetsearch/search?query=10.5064 

175 (n.d.). Data Publication | FRDR-DFDR. Retrieved  from https://www.frdr-dfdr.ca/repo/ 

176 (n.d.). Home - ANDS. Retrieved  from https://www.ands.org.au/ 

177 (n.d.). Research Data Australia - ANDS. Retrieved from https://www.ands.org.au/online-services/research-data-australia 

178 (n.d.). Data Collections Management | NCI. Retrieved, from https://nci.org.au/our-services/data-collections-management 

179 (2015, February 12). Featured Dataverse Repository: Fudan University. Retrieved from https://dataverse.org/blog/featured-

dataverse-repository-fudan-university 

180 (2017, June 16). big data initiatives of developed countries - ResearchGate. Retrieved from 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317486245_BIG_DATA_INITIATIVES_OF_DEVELOPED_COUNTRIES 

181 (n.d.). Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet. Retrieved from https://japan.kantei.go.jp/ 

182 (n.d.). Home | European High Performance Computer Joint .... Retrieved from https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

stimulating a technology supply industry, and making supercomputing resources in many 
application areas available to a large number of public and private users183. 

The Members of the Joint Undertaking are the following: 

  the European Union, represented by the Commission; 

  Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, 
France,  Germany,  Greece,  Hungary,  Iceland,  Ireland,  Italy,  Latvia,  Lithuania, 
Luxembourg,  Montenegro,  the  Netherlands,  North  Macedonia,  Norway,  Poland, 
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey; 

  the  European  Technology  Platform  for  High-Performance  Computing  (ETP4HPC) 

Association and the Big Data Value Association184. 

PRACE  (Partnership  for  Advanced  Computing  in  Europe)185  offers  a  pan-European 
supercomputing  infrastructure,  providing  access  to  computing  and  data  management 
resources and services for large-scale scientific and engineering applications at the highest 
performance level. PRACE aims to support all scientific disciplines that need HPC to achieve 
high impact discovery by offering world class computing and data management resources 
and  services  through  a  centralised  peer  review  process.  The  computer  systems  and 
operations  accessible  through  PRACE  are  provided  by  PRACE  members.  Four  hosting 
members (BSC186 representing Spain, CINECA187 representing Italy, GCS188 representing 
Germany  and  GENCI189  representing  France)  secured  funding  for  the  initial  period  from 
2010 to 2016.  

PRACE  has  26  members,  representing  European  Union  Member  States  and  Associated 
Countries. 

The PRACE RI has two forms of members: 

  Members – a government organisation or legal entity representing a government. The 
PRACE RI accepts only one member per Member State of the European Union or of an 
associated country as described in article 217 of the European Union Treaty. Further, to 
be  eligible  as  a  PRACE  RI  member  the  legal  entity  must  be  responsible  for  the 
provisioning of HPC resources and associated services. 

  Hosting  Members  are  members  who  have  committed  to  fund  and  deliver  PRACE  RI 
computing  and  data  management  resources.  There  are  5  Hosting  Members:  France, 
Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland190 

In  2017,  PRACE  has  engaged  in  the  second  period  of  the  Partnership,  securing  the 
operations  of  the  infrastructure  until  2020,  and  adding  a  fifth  Hosting  Member,  ETHZ191 
representing Switzerland. During this second phase, PRACE will offer an initial performance 

183 (2020, September 29). The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. Retrieved from  https://ec.europa.eu/digital-

single-market/en/eurohpc-joint-undertaking 

184EUROHPC About members, https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/members.html 

185 (n.d.). PRACE. Retrieved from https://prace-ri.eu/ 

186 (n.d.). BSC-CNS | Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro .... Retrieved from https://www.bsc.es/ 

187 (n.d.). Cineca: Home. Retrieved from http://www.cineca.it/ 

188 (n.d.). Home Gauss Centre for Supercomputing e.V. Retrieved from https://www.gauss-centre.eu/ 

189 (n.d.). Genci. Retrieved from http://www.genci.fr/fr 

190 (n.d.)  PRACE Members from: .https://prace-ri.eu/about/members/ 

191 (n.d.). ETH Zürich - Homepage | ETH Zürich. Retrieved from https://ethz.ch/de.html 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

above  62  Petaflops  in  7  complementary  leading-edge  systems,  offering  a  total  of  4000 
million core hours per year (75 million node hours).  

In pace with the needs of the scientific communities and technical developments, systems 
deployed  by  PRACE  are  continuously  updated  and  upgraded  to  be  at  the  apex  of  HPC 
technology. Reducing the life-time cost of systems and their operations, especially energy 
consumption and environmental impact, is one of the goals of PRACE. PRACE undertakes 
similar software and hardware technology initiatives with the goal of preparing for changes 
in the technologies used in RI and to provide the proper tools, education and training for 
the user communities to adapt to those changes. PRACE has further initiated the formation 
of  STRATOS  (PRACE  advisory  group  for  Strategic  Technologies)  −  an  organisation  for 
collaboration  with  industry  and  other  non-PRACE  partner  organisations.  The  PRACE 
leadership  systems  form  the  apex  of  resources  for  large-scale  computing  and  data 
management for scientific discovery, engineering research and development for the benefit 
of Europe and are well integrated into the European HPC ecosystem.  

PRACE also offers training services to users, through the PRACE Advanced Training Centre 
(PATC), PRACE Training Centres (PTC), PRACE seasonal school, and through online training 
material, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Some joint training activities 
are provided by PRACE and EUDAT192. PRACE is also using some services of GÉANT’s 193 
network e-infrastructure to provide European users access to Tier-0 systems194. The PRACE 
project  partners  received  funding  from  the  EC  under  the  PRACE  Preparatory  and 
Implementation  Phase  Projects195  for  a  total  of  €97  million,  complemented  by  the 
consortium budget of over €60 million. 

In  the  South-East  European  region,  through  the  HP-SEE  and  LinkSCEEM  initiatives, 
available HPC resources were unified into the infrastructure, whose capacity includes 45k 
CPU cores, 1.2M GPU cores (516 GPU cards), 21k Xeon Phi cores (336 Xeon Phi cards), 
and 18 PB of storage space. Three of these HPC sites (Avitohol, Leo, Aris) were present for 
some  time  at  the  Top500  list  of  supercomputers.  Although  these  resources  are  not 
comparable  to  the  previously  listed  initiatives,  in  terms  of  capacity,  in  terms  of  human 
capacity and capability, these form a strong base that supports European and EOSC aims. 

In the field of HPC the two major US projects (National Strategic Computing Initiative196 
and the Exascale Computing Project197) and the Japanese Flagship2020198 are highlighted 
by  RISCAPE  in  addition  to  the  EuroHPC.  The  broader  global  scale  includes  the 
Supercomputing  Consortium  of  Russian  Universities199  and  the  South  African  National 
Integrated Cyber Infrastructure System200 (NICIS). 

In terms of HTC, at the European level, EGI201 is a federated e-infrastructure initially set 
up  in  order  to  provide  advanced  computing  services  for  R&I  using  grid-computing 

192 (n.d.). EUDAT - Research Data Services, Expertise & Technology .... Retrieved from https://eudat.eu/ 

193 (n.d.). GÉANT. Retrieved from https://www.geant.org/ 

194 (2017, May 15). D2.1: Draft Stakeholder Map. EOSCpilot Deliverable Template. Retrieved from 

https://eoscpilot.eu/sites/default/files/eoscpilot-d2.1.pdf 

195 PRACE-PP, 2008-2010, RI-211528; PRACE-1IP, 2010-2012, RI-261557; PRACE-2IP, 2011-2013, RI-283493; PRACE-3IP, 2012-2017, 

RI-312763; PRACE-4IP, 2015-2017, RI-653838; PRACE-5IP, 2017-2019, RI-730913. 

196 (n.d.). The National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) - nitrd. Retrieved from https://www.nitrd.gov/nsci/ 

197 (n.d.). Exascale Computing Project: Home Page. Retrieved from https://www.exascaleproject.org/ 

198 (n.d.). Flagship 2020 Project (Supercomputer Fugaku) | RIKEN .... Retrieved from https://www.r-ccs.riken.jp/en/overview/exascalepj 

199 (2009, September 12). Новые издания книг серии IBM Redbooks ... - hpc@cmc. Retrieved from http://hpc.cmc.msu.ru/node/136 

200  (n.d.).  National  Integrated  Cyber  Infrastructure  System  |  CSIR.  Retrieved  from  https://www.csir.co.za/national-integrated-cyber-

infrastructure-system 

201 (n.d.). EGI.eu. Retrieved from https://www.egi.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

techniques,  but  which  now  also  encompassed  cloud  computing  infrastructures.  EGI  is 
publicly funded and comprises  over 300 data  centres and  cloud providers spread across 
Europe and worldwide. EGI offers a wide range of services for compute, storage, data and 
support. EGI has been funded by a series of EC research projects such as DataGrid and 
Enabling Grids for E-science.  

EGI  creates  and  delivers  open  solutions  for  science  and  RIs  by  federating  digital 
capabilities, resources and expertise between communities and across national boundaries. 
Researchers from all disciplines have easy, integrated and open access to the advanced 
scientific  computing  capabilities,  resources  and  expertise  needed  to  collaborate  and  to 
carry out data/compute intensive science and innovation.  

Regarding  the  services,  EGI  delivers  advanced  computing  services  to  support  scientists, 
multinational  projects  and  RIs.  The  EGI  services  are  provided  by  EGI’s  federated  cloud 
providers and data centres. The services can be requested by anyone involved in academic 
research and businesses and they can be categorised in the following groups: computing, 
storage and data, training. EGI provides access to over 700 000 logical CPUs and 500 PB 
of disk and tape storage. 

2.5. 

Thematic infrastructures 

RIs are key elements of modern research. By providing services to a very broad variety of 
users,  they  create  a  shared  and  collaborative  research  environment,  the  so-called  RI 
ecosystem, which has shaped big science for decades. In Europe, this includes the creation 
of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN202) in the mid-1950s, for particle 
physics research, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO203) for astronomy in the 
early  1960s.  From  their  early  beginnings  both  of  these  large  RIs  faced  the  challenge  of 
managing  large  amounts  of  data  they  produced  by  developing  data  technologies  and 
related policies.  

RIs  also  had  to  develop  schemes  and  processes  to  overcome  challenges  raised  by  the 
growth of the number of transnational RIs, the increased complexity of scientific problems 
and societal challenges (often requiring the collaboration of diverse user communities) and 
the  exponential  growth  of  data.  Data  protocols,  quality  control  and  management  plans 
throughout the entire data lifecycle were developed along with the relevant technologies. 
Thematic RIs are therefore an indispensable and even a driving element of the EOSC data 
management chain. 

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) was founded in 2002, 
to coordinate the effort and support the development of a truly European RI policy. ESFRI 
succeeded  in  developing  a  common  European  approach  for  the  strategic  planning  and 
operations  of  the  major  RIs  throughout  their  lifecycle204.  ESFRI  has  been  particularly 
successful,  not  only  in  coordinating  European-wide  collaborations  of  distributed  RIs, 
including e-infrastructures205, but also in triggering cooperation with sustained funding and 
service models of large, single sited RIs, forming vertical RI clusters that are horizontally 
interlinked to be able to address globally important scientific and technological challenges. 
The  European  landscape  of  RIs  extends  far  beyond  the  ESFRI  roadmaps206  and  the 
corresponding  landscape  analysis.  It  is  supported  by  numerous  national  roadmaps  and 

202 (n.d.). CERN: Home. Retrieved from https://home.cern/ 

203 (n.d.). ESO, the European Southern Observatory | ESO. Retrieved from https://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/esoglance/ 

204 (n.d.). e-Infrastructures Group | www.esfri.eu. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/working-groups/e-infrastructures-group 

205 (n.d.). Data, Computing and Digital Research Infrastructures - ESFRI .... Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/working-groups/data-

computing-and-digital-research-infrastructures 

206 (n.d.). ESFRI Roadmap 2018: Foreword. Retrieved from http://roadmap2018.esfri.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

embedded into the global environment. To map the entire global RI ecosystem is not trivial. 
ESFRI  is  developing  strategic  approaches  to  bridge  national  and  European  strategies  in 
EOSC-related RI policies207. An EOSC Taskforce has been created to help ESFRI to tackle 
the EOSC issues and provide a platform for exchange of information. One visible action of 
the EOSC ESFRI task force is the organisation of ESFRI EOSC workshops208. 

The InRoad project209 has provided some evidence as regards national RI policy making. 
Scientists in some domains are undertaking efforts to describe their specific landscapes210. 
Several attempts to map c.1000 smaller facilities in Europe have been undertaken by the 
CatRIS (the continuation of MERIL-2) project 211. Analysis of the situation has been done 
by the OECD GSF and the G8 GSO. However, a systematic study at the global scale is now 
being undertaken by the RISCAPE project212. The RISCAPE landscape report213 is to conduct 
an analysis of the RI landscape outside of Europe, with a European perspective based on 
the ESFRI infrastructure framework and with a particular focus on data issues.  

The ESFRI Strategy Report on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI214) includes the Roadmap 
with ESFRI projects and ESFRI landmarks and the ESFRI vision of the evolution of RIs in 
Europe, addressing the mandates of the European Council, and identifying strategy goals: 

  The first part presents 18 ESFRI Projects and 37 ESFRI Landmarks. It also includes an 
analysis of the evolving role of the RIs, which reflects the specific mandates from the 
European  Council  to  address  the  FAIR  data  principles  and  e-infrastructure,  the  Long-
Term Sustainability and the benefits for innovation. The background of ESFRI and its 
history over the last 16 years complete this part.  

  The second part provides the current context of the most relevant RIs that are available 

to European scientists through a landscape analysis.  

  The  third  part,  Projects  and  Landmarks,  describes  –  through  dedicated  cards  –  each 
ESFRI Project and each ESFRI Landmark. A short description of the RI is given as well 
as updated information on the legal status, the timeline for construction/operation, and 
the estimated costs. 

ESFRI  aims  to  contribute  to  an  effective  and  efficient  approach  to  e-infrastructure  and 
services (vertical and horizontal) for European science and its competitiveness in the global 
scene  building  on  existing  research  infrastructures  and  electronic  infrastructures.  In 
response to the Conclusions of the Council of the European Union of 29 May 2015 that: 
‘INVITES  ESFRI  to  explore  mechanisms  for  better  coordination  of  Member  States’ 
investment  strategies  in  e-infrastructures,  covering  also  HPC,  distributed  computing, 
scientific  data  and  networks’,  ESFRI  created  an  ad-hoc  group  and  adopted  its 
recommendation in December 2016 in Brussels. Responding to other specific mandates215, 
ESFRI is developing a strategy that is based on the requirements and advanced solutions 

207 (n.d.). www.esfri.eu. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/ 

208  (n.d.).  ESFRI  Workshop  on  the  Future  of  Research  Infrastructures  in  ....  Retrieved  from  https://www.esfri.eu/esfri-events/esfri-

workshop-future-research-infrastructures-european-research-area?qt-event=1 

209 (n.d.). InRoad Project. Retrieved from https://www.inroad.eu/ 

210 Neutron scattering landscape or particle physics as examples. 

211 (n.d.). MERIL portal. Retrieved from https://portal.meril.eu/meril/ 

212 (n.d.). RISCAPE: We are mapping the research infrastructure .... Retrieved from https://riscape.eu/ 

213 (n.d.). RISCAPE report - RISCAPE. Retrieved from https://riscape.eu/riscape-report/ 

214 (n.d.). www.esfri.eu. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/ 

215 

(2018,  May  18).  9029/18  MVG/evt  1  DG  G  3  C  1.  The  European 

... 

-  Open  Data.  Retrieved 

from 

https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9029-2018-INIT/en/pdf 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

implemented by the RIs. In its report on long-term sustainability of RIs216, ESFRI developed 
a  series  of  recommendations  along  the  main  recommendation  ‘Harmonise  and integrate 
the RIs and the e-Is’. ESFRI fosters the definition, implementation and further development 
of  advanced  solutions  for  the  effective  provision  and  use  of  high-quality  scientific  data, 
with  effective  descriptors,  ease  of  access,  interoperability  and  reusability,  fully 
implementing  the  FAIR  principles.  It  also  develops  and  promotes  Data  Commons  as 
practised  by  ESFRI  research  infrastructures  and  generic  (horizontal)  e-infrastructures. 
These  efforts  contribute  to  shaping  the  EOSC,  and  in  order  to  better  align  with  the  RIs 
needs  and  the  positions  of  the  individual  member  states  ESFRI  is  utilising  a  series  of 
instruments  including  consultation  workshops  with  the  major  stakeholders217  and  by 
creating a dedicated ESFRI EOSC Task Force.   

2.5.1.  ESFRI clusters and other consortia 

RIs  have  strong  links  with  research  communities  and  projects,  manage  significant  data 
volumes  and  develop  innovative  data  analytics  tools,  ensuring  effective  research  data 
exploitation.  Five  ESFRI  science  cluster  projects,  ENVRI-FAIR,  EOSC-Life,  ESCAPE, 
PaNOSC, and SSHOC,  have been launched in  2019, providing a focus for various  ESFRI 
projects and landmarks to connect to the EOSC. The following projects and consortia are 
described in more detail in Annex I: 

  ENVRI-FAIR218  collaborates  with  the  entire  Environmental  Research  Infrastructure 
(ENVRI) community, which include 26 RIs, networks and projects. Its overarching goal is 
to  advance  the  FAIRness  of  digital  assets,  in  particular  research  data  and  research 
services,  provided  by  the  ENVRI  cluster,  and  to  deliver  an  open  access  platform  for 
interdisciplinary environmental research data utilizing the EOSC, called the ENVRI-hub.  

  ESCAPE219 is a collaborative science cluster in the area of astronomy- and accelerator-
based particle/nuclear physics of seven ESFRI and Landmark projects (CTA, SKA, ELT, 
EST, FAIR, KM3NeT and HL-LHC), two pan-European organisations (CERN and ESO) and 
two European RIs (EGO and JIV-ERIC). It aims to implement a functional link between 
the  concerned  ESFRI  projects  and  EOSC  is  a  collaborative  cluster  with  the  aim  to 
implement a functional link between the concerned ESFRI projects and EOSC. 

  EOSC-life220  brings  together  13  Life  Science  ESFRI  RI  (LS  RIs).  The  mission  of  the 
cluster is to create an open, digital and collaborative space for biological and medical 
research in order to manage and integrate diverse data and metadata using tools in the 
cloud environment A key aim is the implementation of cross-disciplinary workflows that 
enable LS RIs to share and reuse data to deliver excellent science.  

  PaNOSC221 is a science cluster project with the mission to contribute to the realisation 
of  a  data  commons  for  Neutron  and  Photon  science  based  on  FAIR  principles  and 
innovative data services. The consortium consists of the six ESFRI projects CERIC-ERIC, 
ELI, ESRF, ESS, EU-XFEL, ILL and e-infrastructure EGI. PaNOSC will contribute to the 

216 (n.d.). ESFRI Scripta Volume II: 'Long-Term Sustainability of ... Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/latest-esfri-news/esfri-scripta-

volume-ii-long-term-sustainability-research-infrastructures-report 

217 (2019, January 30). ESFRI RIs and EOSC Workshop | www.esfri.eu. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/esfri-events/esfri-ris-eosc-

liaison-workshop?qt-event=5 

218 (n.d.). Home ENVRI-FAIR. Retrieved from https://envri.eu/home-envri-fair/ 

219 (n.d.). ESCAPE | The European Science Cluster of Astronomy .... Retrieved from https://www.escape2020.eu/ 

220 (n.d.). EOSC Life: Home. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-life.eu/ 

221 (n.d.). The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud (PaNOSC .... Retrieved from https://www.panosc.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

construction  of  EOSC  by  adopting  common  data  policies,  implementing  standard 
metadata and data stewardship, and by providing data analysis and simulation services. 

  SSHOC222  is  a  cluster  project  uniting  20  partner  organisations  and  a  further  28 
associates. SSHOC will create the SSH area of the EOSC thereby facilitating access to 
research data and related tools & services. SSHOC will apply open science practices and 
FAIR principles to data, software and other research outputs. 

More  recently  some  thematic  consortia  have  been  established.  They  have  within  their 
missions to support the FAIRification and establish links between EOSC and their users:   

  LENS223  (League  of  advanced  European  Neutron  Sources)  is  a  non-profit  consortium 
promoting collaboration among European-level neutron infrastructure providers that are 
offering various transnational user programmes for external researchers. The aim is to 
emphasise improvement of source facilities, the cooperation of various communities and 
funding organisations. In addition, it enhances resources and aligns policies. 

  LEAPS224  (League  of  European  Accelerator-based  Photon  Sources)  is  a  strategic 
consortium aimed at promoting the quality and impact of research in its fundamental, 
applied and industrial fields to ensure greater benefit of European science and society. 
LENS is initiated by the Directors of the Synchrotron Radiation and Free Electron Laser 
(FEL) and improves user facilities in Europe. 

2.5.1.1. ESFRI Cluster Projects Position Papers 

As  part  of  its  stakeholder  engagement,  The  EOSCsecretariat.eu  project  has  collected 
position papers from: ENVRI-FAIR225, EOSC-Life226, ESCAPE227, PaNOSC228 , and SSHOC229 
for EOSC230. These position papers can be used as tools for cluster projects to contribute 
to the development process of the EOSC in order to find a way to create synergies among 
research communities. The future of EOSC will be designed in collaboration between EOSC 
GB and ESFRI. The aim of collecting position papers from ESFRI Cluster Projects of ENVRI-
FAIR, EOSC-Life, ESCAPE, PaNOSC, and SSHOC is to highlight various expectations of the 
research community, to investigate commitments to EOSC, to determine the added value 
of EOSC to the research data infrastructures, and to identify issues to be addressed by the 
EOSC executive board.  

In  2019,  the  ESFRI  cluster  projects  were  launched,  which  will  support  EOSC  as  they 
integrate  computer  and  data  management  solutions  through  the  EOSC  portal.  The 
expectation  of  EOSC  raised  in  the  position  papers  of  ENVRI-FAIR,  EOSC-Life,  ESCAPE, 
PaNOSC, and SSHOC, is that EOSC would enable the accessibility and re-use of research 
data and increase scientific value of research data. An interoperable environment of data 
infrastructures  would  enable  collaboration  within  the  research  community.  EOSC  would 
have the added value of easing research data usage and the creation of FAIR data. The 
virtual research environment will support collaboration of the research community. EOSC 

222 (n.d.). SSHOPENCLOUD. Retrieved from https://sshopencloud.eu/ 

223 (n.d.). League of advanced European Neutron Sources. Retrieved from https://www.lens-initiative.org/ 

224 (n.d.). LEAPS – League of European Accelerator-based Photon .... Retrieved from https://leaps-initiative.eu/ 

225 (2020, February 19). ESFRI cluster projects - Position papers on ... - Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3675081 

226 (2020, February 19). ESFRI cluster projects - Position papers on ... - Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3675081 

227 (2020, February 19). ESFRI cluster projects - Position papers on ... - Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3675081 

228 (2020, February 19). ESFRI cluster projects - Position papers on ... - Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3675081 

229 (2020, February 19). ESFRI cluster projects - Position papers on ... - Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3675081 

230 (2020, February 19). ESFRI cluster projects - Position papers on ... - Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3675081 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

is expected to be a trustworthy environment that would enable networking within research 
communities and ease the creation and storage of content and research data.  

Guidelines of how to join EOSC and how to access/use services, as well as a cost-benefit 
analysis is required to be completed by EOSC for the research communities. 

In  the  position  papers,  the  standardisation  of  FAIR  data  is  seen  as  a  valuable  approach 
towards  FAIRification.  Projects  expect  a  community-centred  approach  for  EOSC  and  the 
value of communication is emphasised. A long-term open data archive and preservation is 
required to enable a sustainable EOSC and the sustainable use of data. A Minimum Viable 
Ecosystem is seen as one of the cornerstones of sustainable EOSC. Open data is expected 
to have its own rights to be published and this would require collaboration with publishers. 
The  Federating  Core  should  be  positioned  at  the  national  level  in  order  to  enable 
governments to have interest in encouraging open science and defining national policies 
regarding EOSC and open science. 

2.5.2.  Environmental research infrastructures 

European  Environmental  Research  Infrastructures  on  the  ESFRI  level  provide  data, 
research  products  and  services  from  key  areas  of  the  Earth  system.  These  research 
infrastructures form the ENVRI cluster and include the principal producers and providers 
of environmental research data and research services in Europe from the four segments of 
the  Earth  system  -  Atmosphere,  Marine,  Solid  Earth,  and  Biodiversity/Terrestrial 
Ecosystems.  The  data,  products  and  services  provided  by  the  ENVRI  cluster  are  crucial 
European contributions to the integrated global observation system monitoring the state 
of the Earth system and climate. The ENVRI cluster represents the core component of the 
European environmental research infrastructure landscape with the ENVRI community as 
their common forum for collaboration and co-creation.  

Long-term atmospheric observation platforms include:  

  the  ESFRI  Project  ACTRIS231  (Aerosols,  Clouds  and  Trace  gases  Research 

Infrastructure);  

  the  ESFRI  Landmark  IAGOS232  (In-service  Aircraft  for  a  Global  Observing  System) 

Airborne observation of essential climate variables on global scale;  

  the ESFRI Landmark ICOS ERIC233 (Integrated Carbon Observation System);  

  ARISE234 (Atmospheric dynamics Research Infrastructure in Europe); 

  the ESFRI Landmark EISCAT_3D (Next generation European Incoherent Scatter radar 

system) (upper atmosphere);  

  SIOS (Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System); 

  the  ESFRI  Project  DANUBIUS-RI235  (International  Centre  for  Advanced  Studies  on 
River-Sea Systems) which supports interdisciplinary research in river-sea systems; 

231 (n.d.). actris.eu. Retrieved from https://www.actris.eu/ 

232 (n.d.). IAGOS: In-Service Aircraft for a Global Observing System. Retrieved from https://www.iagos.org/ 

233 (n.d.). ICOS RI. Retrieved from http://www.icos-ri.eu/ 

234 (n.d.). ARISE Project -. Retrieved from http://arise-project.eu/ 

235 (n.d.). Danubius-RI. Retrieved from https://www.danubius-ri.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

  ESFRI Landmark LifeWatch ERIC236 (e-infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem 
Research)  which  is  the  only  e-RI,  which  extends  its  area  of  interest  to  the  whole 
freshwater environment; 

  the  ESFRI  Project  AnaEE237  (Infrastructure  for  Analysis  and  Experimentation  on 

Ecosystems). 

Marine RIs consist of up to 800 – increasingly networked – distributed facilities in Europe, 
serving various domains such as ocean – seafloor, subseafloor and water layers above – 
and  coastal  sea  monitoring,  marine  biology  research,  blue  biotechnology  innovation, 
research in aquaculture and ocean engineering. These include: 

  the ESFRI Landmark EMBRC ERIC238 (European Marine Biological Resource Centre); 

  the  ESFRI  Landmark  EMSO  ERIC239;  (European  Multidisciplinary  Seafloor  and  water-

column Observatory) 

  the ESFRI Landmark EURO- ARGO ERIC240; (European contribution to the international 

Argo Programme)   

  the  ESFRI  Landmark  LifeWatch  ERIC241;  (e-Infrastructure  for  Biodiversity  and 

Ecosystem Research) 

The  European  landscape  for  terrestrial  ecosystems  and  biodiversity  RIs  covers  the 
complexity of the research agenda. Among observatories and Monitoring Facilities belong 
the ESFRI Landmark ICOS ERIC242, the ESFRI Projects DANUBIUS-RI243, and the Long-
Term Ecosystem Research in Europe (eLTER)244. The latter is a new distributed research 
infrastructure which aims at integrating traditional natural sciences and holistic ecosystem 
research  approaches,  including  studies  of  the  human  component,  to  better  understand 
ecosystems. Through research and monitoring, eLTER seeks to improve our knowledge of 
the structure and functions of ecosystems and their long-term response to environmental, 
societal  and  economic  drivers.  eLTER  comprises  in  situ,  long-term,  cross-disciplinary, 
multiple-use, large-scale coverage of major European socio-ecological systems. The aim is 
to secure scientific excellence through the highest quality interoperable services in close 
interaction with related European and global RIs.  

There are also several other projects focused on biological collections, data infrastructures 
and reference data:  

  the ESFRI Project DiSSCo245 (Distributed System of Scientific Collections);  

236 (n.d.). LifeWatch-ERIC. Retrieved from https://www.lifewatch.eu/ 

237 (n.d.). AnaEE - Home page. Retrieved from https://www.anaee.com/ 

238 (n.d.). EMBRC. Retrieved from https://www.embrc.eu/ 

239 (n.d.). EMSO – Observing the ocean to save the Earth.. Retrieved from http://emso.eu/ 

240 (n.d.). Euro-Argo ERIC. Retrieved from https://www.euro-argo.eu/ 

241 (n.d.). LifeWatch-ERIC. Retrieved  from https://www.lifewatch.eu/ 

242 (n.d.). ICOS RI. Retrieved  from http://www.icos-ri.eu/ 

243 (n.d.). Danubius-RI. Retrieved from https://www.danubius-ri.eu/ 

244 (n.d.). LTER in Europe. Retrieved from https://www.lter-europe.net/ 

245 (n.d.). DiSSCo: Home. Retrieved from https://www.dissco.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

  the  ESFRI  Landmark  ELIXIR246;  (European  life-science  infrastructure  for  biological 

information) 

  the ESFRI Project MIRRI247 (Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure); 

  The ESFRI Landmark EMBRC-ERIC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre).  

Progress in Solid Earth science relies on integrating multidisciplinary data acquired through 
long-term monitoring, new observing systems, and high-level taxonomy data products. It 
contributes  to  systemic  and  highly  cross-disciplinary  investigations,  representing  an 
essential component of the investigation of the  Earth system. The solid  Earth domain is 
represented  in  ESFRI  by  a  single  research  infrastructure,  the  ESFRI  Landmark  EPOS248 
(European Plate Observing System). 

2.5.3.  Health and food research infrastructures 

In Europe, the health and food sector includes the life science RIs (LS RIs) in biological, 
agrifood  and  medical  sciences.  The  landscape  includes  the  following  10  health  and  food 
ESFRI Landmark research infrastructures:  

BBMRI-ERIC249  is  the  Biobanking  and  BioMolecular  resources  Research  Infrastructure, 
which facilitates access to samples and associated data for health research from across 20 
Members and WHO/IARC. It offers quality management services, support with ethical, legal 
and societal issues, policy development and a number of online tools and software solutions 
such as the Directory, Locator and Negotiator (the latter being a communication platform 
for biobankers and researchers requesting samples and/or data from over 600 biobanks 
across  20  European  countries)  or  the  common  authentication  and  authorization 
infrastructure  (AAI)  as  well  as  interoperability.  National  nodes  of  BBMRI-ERIC  and  their 
biobanks, expert centres, and affiliated research groups are providing big data analytics 
services  for  privacy  sensitive  data:  data  analysis  including  application  of  various  AI 
techniques, data integration across many sources, and data quality analysis. The BBMRI-
ERIC  community  leads  efforts  to  increase  reproducibility  of  the  data,  for  application  of 
quality management in the biobanks and data generation processes in the laboratories, to 
leading standardization work on provenance information documenting history of data for 
reproducibility  and  reusability  assessment.  Founded  in  December  2013,  BBMRI-ERIC 
operates under the ERIC legal framework with its headquarters in Graz, Austria.  

EATRIS250, EATRIS is a non-profit European Research  Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) 
whose  organisational  model  is  based  on  country  membership.  EATRIS  focuses  on 
preclinical and early clinical development of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. Solutions are 
provided in the fields of advanced therapy medicinal products, biomarkers, imaging and 
tracing,  small  molecules  and  vaccines.  The  wide-ranging  services  portfolio  focuses  on 
supporting early decision-making and de-risking of projects. Examples include validation 
and  development  of  in  vitro  and  in  vivo  biomarkers  for  patient  stratification,  molecular 
imaging tracers for drug development programmes, GMP manufacturing of cellular therapy 
products, patient-derived xenograft models, and many more highly specialised capabilities. 

246 (2016, March 9). ELIXIR presented as Landmark in the 2016 ESFRI roadmap. Retrieved from  https://elixir-europe.org/news/elixir-

presented-landmark-2016-esfri-roadmap 

247 (2019, February 10). MIRRI-IS website. Retrieved  from https://www.mirri.org/ 

248 (n.d.). European Plate Observing System. Retrieved from https://www.epos-ip.org/ 

249 (n.d.). BBMRI-ERIC. Retrieved from https://www.bbmri-eric.eu/ 

250 (n.d.). EATRIS. Retrieved  from https://eatris.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

ECRIN251, the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, is focused on academic-
sponsored  multinational  clinical  trials  as  well  as  clinical  trials  initiated  by  biotech  and 
medical  device  small  and  medium  enterprises  (SMEs).  It  provides  sponsors  and 
investigators with advice, management services and tools to navigate Europe’s fragmented 
health and legal systems on clinical trials. ECRIN was listed on the ESFRI roadmap in 2006, 
was awarded ERIC status in 2013 and was listed as a Landmark Infrastructure on the 2016 
ESFRI Roadmap. Multi-country clinical trials mean greater access to patients, resources, 
and expertise, and, in turn, faster and potentially more robust results. ECRIN has national 
scientific partners in 12 member and observer  countries covering more than 350 Million 
citizens. With its headquarters in Paris (France) which oversees strategy, tool development, 
it  works  directly  with  European 
quality  assurance  and  capacity  development 
Correspondents  (EuCos)  located  at  the  different  national  scientific  partners  who  identify 
the  local  CTU  and  accompany  local  investigators.  ECRIN’s  Data  Centre  Certification 
Programme was developed to audit European, non-commercial data centres using ECRIN 
IT/DM standards, and to confirm their ability to provide compliant, effective, and efficient 
data  management  services  for  controlled  clinical  trials,  used  to  support  those  activities. 
The goal is to contribute to the harmonisation of European practice in data management. 
ECRIN is involved in pan-European collaborative projects addressing important issues in 
data management for health research including the EOSC-Hub, EOSC-Life and EOSC-Pilot. 
The main activities include creating policies for the use of medical care data (e.g. electronic 
health data) in clinical research, developing principles and guidelines for clinical trial data 
sharing, identifying quality criteria for data repositories and assessing existing repositories, 
creating  a  metadata  repository  for  clinical  trial  objects  and  building  a  GDPR-compliant 
repository to securely host Individual Participant Data from COVID-19. 

ELIXIR252 is the European Life Science Data Infrastructure that brings together life science 
resources from across Europe. These resources include databases, software tools, training 
materials,  standards,  cloud  storage  and  supercomputers.  The  goal  of  ELIXIR  is  to 
coordinate  these  resources  so  that  they  form  a  single  infrastructure  which  is  accessible 
across Europe and beyond, making it easier for scientists to find and share data, exchange 
expertise, and agree on best practices.  Founded in December 2013, ELIXIR is a distributed 
organisation  with  Nodes  that  organise  national  resources  in  its  22  members  and  a 
coordinating Hub located in Hinxton, UK. 

EMBRC253,  the  European  Marine  Biological  Resource  Centre,  is  Europe’s  research 
infrastructure for marine biological resources and marine ecosystems. We provide access 
to wild types macro and microorganisms, culture collections of microorganisms, and a wide 
variety  of  model  organisms  relevant  for  fundamental  and  applied  research.  EMBRC’s  45 
sites are spread across 9 countries and provide access to ecosystems from the Norwegian 
Arctic to tropical Israel. Our on-site laboratories and experimental set-ups cater to all types 
of research involving marine biological organisms, from gene expression and physiology, 
to  ecology  and  impact  of  climate  change,  with  support  from  our  highly  experienced 
technicians.  EMBRC  aims  to  advance  the  understanding  of  life  in  the  oceans  and  to 
sustainably  harness  its  potential  for  the  benefit  of  humankind,  in  sectors  such  as  food, 
health, and biotechnology.  

ERINHA254is European Research Infrastructure on Highly Pathogenic Agents. Since 2017 
ERINHA  operates  under  AISBL  (International  non-profit  Association  under  Belgian  law) 

251 (n.d.). ECRIN. Retrieved from https://www.ecrin.org/ 

252 (2016, March 9). ELIXIR presented as Landmark in the 2016 ESFRI roadmap. Retrieved from  https://elixir-europe.org/news/elixir-

presented-landmark-2016-esfri-roadmap 

253 (n.d.). EMBRC: Home. Retrieved from https://www.embrc.eu/ 

254 (n.d.). ERINHA. Retrieved from https://www.erinha.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

legal statutes, with registered offices in Brussel, Belgium and the Central Coordinating Unit 
in Paris, France. 

ERINHA brings together top European high containment laboratories (BioSafety Level – 4 
and BioSafety Level-3) and related expertise on high-consequence pathogens. By actively 
participating in  EOSC  related  activities  (e.g.  Go-FAIR,  VoDAN  IN,  RDA  Europe),  ERINHA 
aims to provide support to ERINHA members in all data related topics.  

ERINHA  notably  planned  disseminations  and  training  in 
its  network  of  EOSC 
recommendations, good practices and FAIR principles compliance in data sharing activities. 
(see essential reading: https://www.eoscsecretariat.eu/eosc-symposium-2020) 

EU-OPENSCREEN255,    the  European  Infrastructure  of  Open  Screening  Platforms  for 
Chemical  Biology,  is  a  distributed  non-profit  research  infrastructure  that  develops  novel 
small chemical compounds which elicit specific biological responses on organisms, cells or 
cellular components. EU-OPENSCREEN is funded by European countries (currently Czech 
Republic, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Spain with Germany as host country) 
and enables scientists to use compound screening methods to validate novel therapeutic 
targets and support basic mechanistic studies addressing fundamental questions in cellular 
physiology – across human, animal and plant systems  – using the methods of chemical 
biology. As a large-scale RI with an “open” pre-competitive character, EU-OPENSCREEN is 
a cost-effective solution to the need of the broad scientific community providing access to 
Europe’s leading high-capacity screening platforms and chemistry groups, constructing a 
jointly used compound collection and operating an open-access database accessible on a 
global basis. Scientists from academia and industry can implement their screening projects 
at  EU-OPENSCREEN´s  partner  laboratories  using  the  European  Chemical  Biology  Library 
(ECBL256), which is composed of 100.000 commercial compounds plus a growing number 
of  compounds  collected  from  academic  chemistry  groups.  Hit  optimization  can  be 
implemented at our medicinal chemistry sites. All compounds will be profiled in a panel of 
assays, which will deliver extensive information on physico-chemical, cellular toxicity and 
anti-microbial properties. Compound structures and primary screening data will be made 
publicly  available  in  the  European  Chemical  Biology  Database  (ECBD257),  with  the 
possibility to request a grace period of up to three years to allow for data deposition after 
submitting a patent application or concurrently with the release of the scientific manuscript. 
In    EOSC-Life  EU-OPENSCREEN  is  involved  in  the  activity  "Publishing  FAIR  RI  data 
resources  in  the  EOSC"  through  Fraunhofer  IME  ScreeningPort  Hamburg,  i)  has  been 
helping to drive the development of data handling and integration capabilities across the 
LS-RI  community  by  providing  guidance  to  assist  RIs    to  create  cloud  compatible, 
FAIRcompliant data resources and ii) hosted a hackathon in Berlin in November 2019 where 
over 50 individuals from the EOSC-LIFE community were trained in cloud deployment and 
developed solutions for their own RI data resource needs. 

Euro-BioImaging  ERIC258  is  the  European  landmark  Research  Infrastructure  for 
biological and biomedical imaging as recognised by ESFRI. Through Euro-BioImaging, all 
scientists can access imaging instruments, expertise, training opportunities and image data 
management services. Euro-BioImaging is a fully distributed infrastructure and offers its 
services via 21 internationally renowned imaging platforms, located across 8 countries and 
the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, EMBL. The infrastructure is coordinated via its 
Hub with the headquarters in Turku, Finland, the biological imaging section at EMBL and 

255 (n.d.). EU OPENSCREEN - European high-capacity screening network.  Retrieved from https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ 

256 (n.d.). Compound Collection - EU OPENSCREEN. Retrieved from https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/compound-collection.html 

257 (n.d.). Database - EU OPENSCREEN. Retrieved from https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/database.html 

258 (n.d.). Euro Bioimaging. Retrieved from https://www.eurobioimaging.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

the  biomedical  imaging  section  in  Torino,  Italy.  Euro-BioImaging  began  its  interim 
operations in May 2016 and was granted the legal status of an ERIC in October 2019.  

Due  to  the  large  volumes  of  data  produced  in  biological  and  biomedical  imaging,  data 
services are crucial within Euro-BioImaging. We work towards FAIR and open data use and 
sharing in the imaging community with tools such as the BioImage Archive259, the Image 
Data Resource (IDR) and the Image Tool Resource (ITR).    

INFRAFRONTIER260  is  the  European  Research  Infrastructure  for  the  generation, 
phenotyping, archiving and distribution of model mammalian genomes. It provides unique 
scientific resources, services, expertise and data to advance the understanding, prevention 
and  treatment  of  human  diseases  using  rodent  models.  INFRAFRONTIER  is  an  ESFRI 
landmark. In the context of EOSC, the FAIRification and cloud deployment of animal model 
resources is a major objective of INFRAFRONTIER. These resources include heterogeneous 
types of data and workflows which enable applications in various fields of work within and 
beyond the INFRAFRONTIER RI. A key task in this context is to enhance the usability of 
the INFRAFRONTIER resources for a broad user community and to create links to research 
areas  with  human  data,  particularly  through  the  development  and  cloud  deployment  of 
user driven, interoperable analysis workflows. 

INSTRUCT261, is the European Research Infrastructure for Integrated Structural Biology 
making  high-end  technologies  and  methods  in  structural  biology  available  to  users.  Our 
aim is to promote innovation in biomedical science and provide open access to cutting edge 
structural  biology,  specifically  supporting  research  that  uses  integrated  approaches  and 
technologies. We operate on the following principles: a) scientific excellence is our priority 
in  the  services  we  provide  and  the  research  we  support;  b)  transparency,  equality  and 
legality is the cornerstone of our operational model. Instruct is a ESFRI Landmark and an 
ERIC since 2017, currently with 15 members and infrastructure access offered through ten 
Instruct Centres. Instruct also hosts training courses, internships and awards for scientific 
projects  that  are  innovative  and  ambitious.  Instruct  provides  its  access  management 
system  (ARIA)  to  other  RIs  to  support  the  use  of  common  processes  and  enable 
interoperability between RIs. 

It further includes four projects aspiring to become research infrastructures:  

is 

EMPHASIS262, 
the  European  Research  Infrastructure  addressing  sustainable 
intensification  of  crop  production  by  providing  access  to  multi-scale  phenotyping  and 
analyzing plant performance in diverse environments. EMPHASIS addresses this goal by: 
i)  developing  an  integrated  pan-European  infrastructure  with  instrumented  facilities 
available to the user community, ii) linking the data acquisition to a European level data 
information system and modelling, iii) developing, evaluating and disseminating knowledge 
and novel technology that provides innovative opportunities for academia and industry. In 
the  context  of  EOSC,  EMPHASIS  enables  interoperability  of  plant  phenotyping  data 
according  to  the  FAIR  principle,  making  them  reusable  for  the  plant  phenotyping 
community  and  beyond.  Specifically,  EMPHASIS  facilitates  the  development  of  joint 
standards and ontologies such as MIAPPE or BrAPI263, which enables incorporation of both 
plant genetic and phenomic information. EMPHASIS develops data analysis tools to address 

259 (n.d.) Image Data Archive - https://www.ebi.ac.uk/bioimage-archive/ 

260 (n.d.). INFRAFRONTIER - The European infrastructure for .... Retrieved from https://www.infrafrontier.eu/ 

261 (n.d.). Instruct-ERIC - Structural Biology European Research .... Retrieved from http://instruct-eric.eu/ 

262 (n.d.). EMPHASIS: Home. Retrieved from https://emphasis.plant-phenotyping.eu/ 

263 (n.d.). BrAPI. Retrieved, from https://brapi.org 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

specific  scientific  challenges  related  to  plant  sciences  in  general,  plant  breeding,  and 
development of technologies including imaging, robotics and automation.  

ISBE264, The Infrastructure for Systems Biology Europe (ISBE) is a distributed Research 
Infrastructure that enables efficient access to the best expertise, resources and services, 
such as model building, fit-for-modelling data, tools and training in systems biology. ISBE 
is built on national strengths, through a matrix of interconnected national systems biology 
centres,  and  makes  them  easily  accessible  for  all  European  researchers.  ISBE  will  set, 
improve  and  promote  standardisation  of  biological  data,  tools  and  models  as  well  as 
operating procedures,  ensuring that resources  from different laboratories, countries and 
sectors can be integrated and become re-usable. 

METROFOOD-RI265 is  the  distributed  European  Research  Infrastructure  providing high-
quality metrology services in food and nutrition. It comprises an important cross-section 
of highly interdisciplinary and interconnected fields through the food value chain including 
food safety, quality, traceability and authenticity,  environmental safety, sustainability of 
agrifood  systems,  circular  economy  and  human  health.    METROFOOD-RI  consists  of  a 
physical infrastructure and an electronic one to coordinate and integrate existing networks 
of  plants,  laboratories,  experimental  fields/farms  for  food  production,  small-scale  plants 
for  food  processing  and  storage,  kitchen-labs  for  food  preparation.  The  e-RI  will  make 
available an access platform to share and integrate knowledge and data on metrological 
tools  for  food  analysis,  focusing  on  food  composition,  nutritional  contents,  levels  of 
contaminants  and  markers.  In  the  context  of  EOSC,  METROFOOD-RI  may  enable 
integration and interoperability of agri-food & nutrition data according to FAIR principles, 
making them accessible, reusable and exploitable for all the actors of the food value chain, 
from  researchers,  to  policy  makers  and  food  inspection  and  control  agencies,  to  food 
business operators, up to consumers.  

MIRRI266, the pan-European Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure (MIRRI) aims to 
be  a  unique  pan-European  high-performance  platform  adding  value  to  known  and  yet 
unknown  microbial  biodiversity  and  exploiting  novel  sources  and  knowledge  to  discover 
and disclose for the bioeconomy and bioscience. MIRRI was launched in 2012 and currently 
hosts  more  than  50  public  biorepositories  and  research  institutes  from  9  European 
countries and one associated country. 

MIRRI aims to provide a collaborative work environment inspiring excellence and to drive 
collaboration across borders and disciplines. 

These  differ  in  scope  and  focus  on  many  disciplines  (health,  marine  biology,  structural 
biology, chemical libraries, and animal models, human biobanks, translational research and 
clinical trials).  

The thirteen Life science RIs were collaborating in CORBEL267, a cluster project establishing 
and  providing  shared  services  for  life  sciences  that  ran  from  2015-2020  and  preceded 
EOSC-Life. These RIs are distributed, with a central facility coordinating the activities of 
national  hubs  and  facilities.  They  are  accessible  for  users  from  academic  and  industry 
research communities, open to researchers from European countries and providing access 
to services, data or resources, as well as access to major equipment. In the CORBEL cluster 

264 (n.d.). ISBE Project Website. Retrieved from https://project.isbe.eu/ 
265 (n.d.). MetroFood: Home. Retrieved from https://www.metrofood.eu/ 

266 (2019, February 10). MIRRI-IS website. Retrieved from https://www.mirri.org/ 

267  (n.d.).  Home  |  CORBEL  Project  –  Coordinated  Research  Infrastructures  Building  Enduring  Life-science  Services.  Retrieved  from 

https://www.corbel-project.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

project,  a  Catalogue  of  Services  provides  a  list  for  all  thirteen  Life  science  RIs  with  the 
objective to help researchers navigate the services268. 

2.5.4.  Physical sciences research infrastructures 

In  the  physics  domain,  the  RIs  are  mainly  single-sited,  often  large,  requiring  significant 
investment for construction, although computing infrastructures supporting such RIs are 
often distributed, even at a global scale, beyond the European dimension. The RIs often 
allow complementary opportunities for diverse fields. Therefore, there are sometimes two 
(or more) facilities on the same site to concentrate more RIs, or they may be there because 
the facilities are complimentary, or else to create a pool of excellence. The ESFRI Roadmap 
2018 defined seven subdomains:  

1.  Synchrotron Radiation Sources;  
2.  Free Electron Lasers;  
3.  Neutron Sources;  
4.  High Power Lasers;  
5.  High Magnetic Field Facilities;  
6.  Particle Physics; and  
7.  Nuclear Physics.  

The  report  lists  12  ESFRI  landmarks  and  also  one  ESFRI  Project  in  the  field  of  Physical 
Sciences  and  Engineering  (Astronomy  and  Astroparticle  Physics,  Particle  and  Nuclear 
Physics,  Analytical  Physics).  These  include  the  landmarks  Cherenkov  Telescope  Array 
(CTA269),  Extreme  Light  Infrastructure  (ELI270),  Extremely  Large  Telescope  (ELT271), 
European  Synchrotron  Radiation  Facility  Extremely  Brilliant  Source  (ESFR  EBS272), 
European  Spallation  Source  (ESS  ERIC273),  European  X-Ray  Free-Electron  Laser  Facility 
(European XFEL274), Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR275), High-Luminosity 
Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC276), Institut Max von Laue-Paul Langevin (ILL277), Square 
Kilometre  Array  (SKA278),  Système  de  Production  d’Ions  Radioactifs  en  Ligne  de  2e 
génération (SPIRAL2279), as well as the ESFRI projects European Solar Telescope (EST280) 
and KM3 Neutrino Telescope 2.0 (KM3NeT2.0281).  

The RISCAPE report considers RIs only in the Physics and Analytical Facilities category, in 
contrast to the ESFRI Roadmap. For the physics RIs, the categorisation of the RIs pertains 
to their experimental technique. This is reflected in the description of the sub-domains that 
first describe the technique, and then in how this is used for various science areas, which 

268 (n.d.). Home | LifeScience RI. Retrieved from https://lifescience-ri.eu/ 

269 (n.d.). Cherenkov Telescope Array. Retrieved from https://www.cta-observatory.org/ 

270 (n.d.). ELI Delivery Consortium | Home. Retrieved from https://eli-laser.eu/ 

271 (n.d.). The European ELT - ESO. Retrieved from https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/ 

272  (n.d.).  EBS  -  Extremely  Brilliant  Source  -  ESRF.  Retrieved  from  https://www.esrf.eu/home/UsersAndScience/Accelerators/ebs---

extremely-brilliant-source.html 

273 (n.d.). ESS - European Spallation Source. Retrieved from https://europeanspallationsource.se/about 

274 (n.d.). European XFEL. Retrieved from https://www.xfel.eu/ 

275 (n.d.). Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research: About us - FAIR. Retrieved from https://fair-center.eu/about-us.html 

276 (n.d.). High-Luminosity LHC | CERN. Retrieved from https://home.cern/science/accelerators/high-luminosity-lhc 

277 (n.d.). Institut Laue-Langevin. Retrieved from https://www.ill.eu/ 

278 (n.d.). Square Kilometre Array. Retrieved from https://www.skatelescope.org/ 

279 (n.d.). GANIL. Retrieved from https://www.ganil-spiral2.eu/ 

280 (n.d.). EST - European Solar Telescope. Retrieved from http://www.est-

east.eu/est/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=605&Itemid=552&lang=en 

281 (n.d.). KM3NeT -. Retrieved from https://www.km3net.org/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

are  not  necessarily  physics.  MAX  IV  Laboratory  is  a  Swedish  national  synchrotron 
laboratory providing scientists with the most brilliant X-rays for research282  

International RIs (in the respective subfields) differ from European RIs in size, function, 
organisation, finance, etc. The RISCAPE report (Appendix 1) lists all the RIs considered in 
the  landscape  exercise  for  the  physics  domain.  The  report  recognises  the  following 
numbers of RIs – 19 Synchrotron Radiation sources, 11 Free Electron Lasers, 15 Neutron 
Sources, 6 High Magnetic Field, 11 Particle Physics, 5 Nuclear Physics.  

The  domain  of  High-Power  Lasers  is  currently  led  by  Europe,  with  networks  of  facilities 
(Laserlab  Europe),  and  a  distributed  High-Power  Laser  facility  (ELI)  underway.  Through 
Laserlab  Europe283,  many  national/university  laser  facilities  in  Europe  are  open  to  the 
wider user community. Additionally, the International Committee on Ultra-High intensity 
lasers  (ICUIL)  promotes  collaboration  of  107  laser  laboratories  worldwide.  For  both 
European and non-European extreme facilities, which deliver only a very limited number 
of pulses per year, generally only provide access to general users for a few pulses per year 
(a few percent), without open peer review-based access.  

Data policies are more advanced in North America and Europe than on the other continents. 
The  European Commission is actively supporting the implementation of data policies for 
European  RIs.  Responses  to  the  questionnaire  show  that  Open  Access  initiatives  are 
ongoing and are more frequently implemented in Europe compared to the other continents. 
This may be linked to the strong support by the European Commission. There are special 
costs  associated  with  an  open  data  system.  First,  the  RI  must  put  in  place  a  system  of 
access  to  the  data,  including  validation  procedures  to  protect  the  data,  the  RI  and  the 
original experimenters. In addition, sophisticated metadata must be available in addition 
to  the  data  itself,  in  order  to  make  the  data  transparent  and  useful.  All  of  this  requires 
computing capacities and dedicated, expert staff284. 

2.5.5.  Energy research infrastructures 

The 2018 ESFRI Roadmap features two ESFRI Landmarks and four ESFRI projects. In the 
nuclear  research  subdomain,  ESFRI  Landmark  Jules  Horowitz  Reactor  (JHR)285  is  an 
experimental reactor facility intended to provide scientific breakthroughs on nuclear fuel 
and  materials.  European  Carbon  Dioxide  Capture  and  Storage  Laboratory  Infrastructure 
(ECCSEL286) was officially recognised as an ERIC in 2017 and operates a distributed RI on 
Carbon Capture and Storage. In the renewable energy subdomain, two projects exist on 
the latest ESFRI Roadmap. European Solar Research Infrastructure for Concentrated Solar 
Power  (EU-SOLARIS287)  advances  thermal  solar  power  research,  while  European 
WindScanner Facility (WindScanner)288 is a distributed RI focused on the characterisation 
of wind fields. In the nuclear energy subdomain, there are also two projects on the 2018 
ESFRI  Roadmap.  Multi-purpose  hybrid  Research  Reactor  for  High-tech  Applications 
(MYRRHA)289 is a unique first prototype of a multi-purpose hybrid reactor for high-tech 

282 (n.d.). MAX IV – We make the invisible visible. Retrieved from https://www.maxiv.lu.se/ 

283 (n.d.). Welcome to Laserlab Europe — LASERLAB-EUROPE. Retrieved from https://www.laserlab-europe.eu/ 

284 (n.d.). RJH - CEA. Retrieved from http://www-rjh.cea.fr/fr/index.html 

285 (n.d.). RJH - CEA. Retrieved from http://www-rjh.cea.fr/fr/index.html 

286 (n.d.). ECCSEL. Retrieved from https://www.eccsel.org/ 

287 (n.d.). EU-Solaris > Home. Retrieved from http://www.eusolaris.eu/ 

288 (n.d.). WindScanner.eu: Start. Retrieved from http://www.windscanner.eu/ 

289 (n.d.). Myrrha | Home. Retrieved from https://myrrha.be/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

applications. Finally, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-DEMO Oriented 
NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES290) entered the roadmap as a new entry291. 

2.5.6.  Astronomy and Astroparticle research infrastructures 

The large scale of funding required for RIs in astronomy, and specifically, for any space 
mission, makes it very difficult to compare them with ground-based facilities, and as such, 
are outside of the ESFRI framework in Europe. The references to RIs in this domain are 
from both the ESFRI Roadmap, the  Astroparticle Physics European Consortium (APPEC) 
Roadmap292  (APPEC  officially  launched  the  new  European  Astroparticle  Physics  Strategy 
2017-2026 at an event in Brussels 2018) and the ASTRONET Infrastructure Roadmap293. 
Large projects in astronomy require an effort beyond that which a single country can afford, 
and projects are carried out through a collaboration between multiple countries. Most RIs 
offer  physical,  virtual  and/or  remote  access  to  the  provided  services.  Common 
requirements  include  the  preservation  and  management  of  distributed,  digital  data 
archives,  access  to  electronic  resources,  support  of  virtual  communities,  and  use  of 
network, grid and computational capacities.  

In relation to EOSC, the Virtual Observatory (VO)294, which is the e-science initiative for 
astronomy, must be highlighted. The VO is not a monolithic system but relies on a set of 
standards. The core components of the VO infrastructure are: standards for “publishing” 
data and services; metadata standards for describing data; interoperability standards for 
tools;  and  standards  for  distributed  storage  and  access  to  computational  and  grid 
resources.  The  development  of  VO  standards  is  coordinated  by  the  International  Virtual 
Observatory Alliance (IVOA)295.  

The geographical distribution of the RIs is very broad and it is driven by specific conditions, 
such as a dry atmosphere, low interference from human activity, low background emission 
for  neutrino  studies,  etc.  A  common  feature  is  a  very  well-developed  data  policy  and  a 
well-established  connectivity  infrastructure.  For  example,  the  Giant  Magellan  Telescope 
(GMT)296, which is a collaboration between Brazil, US, Australia and Korea, has telescopes 
in Chile, Headquarters in Pasadena, and its data are instantly transferred over the globe. 
In fact, the very dry atmosphere and the low light pollution, make the Atacama Desert in 
Chile  one  of  the  preferred  locations  to  install  telescopes:  for  example,  VLT297,  Gemini 
South,  LSST,  ALMA298,  and  in  the  near  future  ELT  and  CTA,  which  are  both  ESFRIs. 
Sudbury  Neutrino  Observatory  Laboratory  (SNOLAB)299  is  an  underground  science 
laboratory  specialising  in  neutrino  and  dark  matter  physics.  Laser  Interferometer 
Gravitational-Wave  Detector  (LIGO)300  has  several  interconnected  sites  which  work  in 

290 (n.d.). Ciemat. Retrieved from http://www.ciemat.es/ 

291 (n.d.). IFMIF-DONES | ESFRI Roadmap 2018. Retrieved from http://www.roadmap2018.esfri.eu/projects-and-landmarks/browse-

the-catalogue/ifmif-dones/ 

292 (n.d.). Roadmap » APPEC - APPEC » Astroparticle Physics Strategy 2017-2026. Retrieved from https://www.appec.org/roadmap 

293 (n.d.). The ASTRONET Infrastructure Roadmap - ESO. Retrieved from 

https://www.eso.org/public/archives/books/pdfsm/book_0045.pdf 

294 (n.d.). Euro-VO. Retrieved from http://www.euro-vo.org/ 

295  The  sixteen  members  of  the  International  Virtual  Observatory  Alliance:  EURO-VO,  China-VO,  VO-India,  Canadian  VO,  Spanish  VO, 

Vobs.It (Italy), Armenian VO, French VO, GAVO (Germany), Hungarian VO, Japan VO, Korean VO, US VO, Russian VO, AstroGrid (UK), 

Australian VO 

296 (n.d.). Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). Retrieved from https://www.gmto.org/ 

297 (n.d.). Very Large Telescope - Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Very-Large-Telescope 

298 (n.d.). ALMA - Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array | ESO. Retrieved from https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/alma/ 

299 (n.d.). SNOLAB. Retrieved from https://www.snolab.ca/ 

300 (n.d.). LIGO Caltech. Retrieved from https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

close  collaboration  with  VIRGO301  and  The  Kamioka  Gravitational  Wave  Detector 
(KAGRA)302  in  Japan.  The  Event  Horizon  Telescope  (EHT)303  is  a  global  enterprise  that 
combines different telescopes around the world to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope in 
order to capture images of black holes.  

There  is  a  great  deal  of  similarity  in  how  the  RIs  work  within  the  different  domains: 
astronomy,  astroparticles,  gravitational  waves.  These  similarities  become  very  apparent 
when it comes to needs and data management. Relevant considerations304 include: 

  Complex datasets require complex models. 

  More powerful computers make such models feasible.  

  Producing code that runs on massively parallel, distributed-memory machines requires 
a different range of skills from those normally acquired by physicists and astronomers. 

  Specialist skills are needed to produce graphical user interfaces that make codes easy 

to use. 

  Given the complexity of the datasets, and the power of the models, it is better to resort 
to forward modelling, i.e. include observational biases in the models rather than correct 
the data. 

  New layers of code are then required for new models to compare them with old datasets. 

Huge  volumes  of  data  are  already  produced  by  current 
instrumentation  and 
supercomputers,  and  the  size  of  datasets  will  continue  to  increase  rapidly.  The  GÉANT 
European  backbone  is  connected  to  over  60  R&E  networks  outside  Europe  via 
interconnections  with  partner  networks  in  North  America,  Latin  America,  Africa  and 
Western Asia, Central Asia and Asia-Pacific. In the coming decades, a new generation of 
survey telescopes, such as VST, VISTA, LSST, LOFAR305 and SKA306 will each produce 
petabytes  of  raw  observational  data,  which  will  have  to  be  calibrated,  processed  and 
archived. Given the complexity and dedication required to calibrate and process this data 
avalanche, several agencies that operate observatories (e.g., ESO, Astron307) have decided 
to  place  this  activity  in  the  astronomical  community,  in  order  to  actively  involve  the 
research astronomer in the process.  

2.5.7.  Social sciences, cultural heritage, digital humanities and languages RIs 

The diversity of RIs in social sciences, cultural heritage, digital humanities and language 
research is particularly large. The European landscape is clearly dominated by the ESFRI 
infrastructures  listed  in  the  recent  ESFRI  2018  roadmap  update308  (ESS  ERIC,  SHARE 
ERIC, CESSDA ERIC, GGP, E-RIHS, DARIAH, CLARIN, EHRI). In addition, the ESFRI 
landscape analysis mentions EUROPEANA309 as an “integrating Research Infrastructure”, 

301 (n.d.). Virgo Website. Retrieved from http://www.virgo-gw.eu/ 

302 (n.d.). Kagra. Retrieved from https://gwcenter.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ 

303 (n.d.). Event Horizon Telescope. Retrieved from https://eventhorizontelescope.org/ 

304 (n.d.). The ASTRONET Infrastructure Roadmap - ESO. Retrieved from 

https://www.eso.org/public/archives/books/pdfsm/book_0045.pdf 

305 (n.d.). LOFAR | Astron. Retrieved from https://www.astron.nl/telescopes/lofar 

306 (n.d.). Square Kilometre Array. Retrieved from https://www.skatelescope.org/ 

307 (n.d.). Astron: Home. Retrieved from https://www.astron.nl/ 

308 (n.d.). www.esfri.eu - ESFRI Roadmap. Retrieved from https://www.esfri.eu/esfri-roadmap 

309 (n.d.). Europeana Collections. Retrieved from https://www.europeana.eu/portal/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

which provides a gateway to digitised content of archives, libraries and museums across 
the  EU.  Similar  databases/repositories/surveys  are  found  in  other  countries  across  the 
globe,  although  no  research  infrastructures  comparable  to  the  collaborative  ESFRI  RIs 
exist. Additional European infrastructures are listed in the MERIL database. The European 
Language  Grid  initiative310  has  a  strong  and  broad  network  of  32  National  Competence 
Centres (NCCs). 

Outside the EU, the RIs are largely replaced by research centres. A comprehensive list can 
be  found  in  Appendix  8  and  9  of  the  RISCAPE  project.  The  Center  for  Open  Science  in 
Charlottesville provides researchers with shared tools, and space to deposit projects. The 
Coleridge Initiative aims to use data to transform the way governments access and use 
data  for  the  social  good.  University  of  Minnesota,  IPUMS-International  (IPUMSI)  is  a 
dedicated project to collect and distribute individual and household level census data from 
around  the  world.  In  Japan,  the  National  Diet  Library  (NDL),  the  library  of  the  National 
Congress,  is  developing  such  a  portal.  Its  own  digital  collection  comprises  2.7  million 
digitised or born-digital items. The Australian Data Archive (ADA)311 is a Core Trust Seal312 
certified repository, based at the Australian National University in the ANU Centre for Social 
Research and Methods. CLARIN has inspired the South African Centre for Digital Language 
Resources (SADiLaR)313. 

2.6. 

EIROforum and other intergovernmental organisations 

The eight EIROforum314 organisations (CERN, ILL, ESRF, ESO, ESA, EMBL, European XFEL, 
EuroFusion)  have  one  common  feature  inherent  to  their  work:  information  technology. 
Large  IT infrastructures are not only used for research, but also for the development  of 
large-scale  structures,  such  as  terrestrial  and  space  telescopes,  as  well  as  high-energy 
physics facilities. Data processing and data handling is an integral part of the IT mandate 
of these organisations. The coordination of such efforts falls into the following four major 
categories: licensing of software (ensuring proper pricing schemes); security (IT security 
shared  and  implemented);  exchange  of  expertise  (in  IT  domain);  and  collaboration  and 
cooperation on large projects (e.g. Cloud-Computing).  

CERN315 (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), the European Organization for 
Nuclear Research, is the world’s leading laboratory for particle physics. It provides a unique 
range  of  particle  accelerator  facilities,  enabling  research  at  the  forefront  of  human 
knowledge.  It  concentrates  on  fundamental  physics  −  finding  out  what  the  universe  is 
made of and how it works.  

Founded in 1954, CERN is an intergovernmental organisation with 22 EU MS, as well as 
other  nations  from  around  the  globe  contributing  to  and  participating  in  its  research 
programmes. The resulting data is stored and analysed using a worldwide computing grid 
and  CERN  is  the  pioneer  in  data  management  practices.  The  CERN  computing  and  data 
storage infrastructures are challenged by a data deluge from the experiments. Tremendous 
progress has been made in reducing the number of derived data files written to tape. The 
CERN  Advanced  STORage  system  (CASTOR)  reached  the  milestone  of  400  petabytes  of 
data stored on tape, with 12−13 petabytes written to tape each month.  

310 (n.d.). NCCs - European Language Grid. Retrieved from https://www.european-language-grid.eu/ncc/ 

311 (n.d.). Home - ADA. Retrieved from https://ada.edu.au/ 

312 (n.d.). CoreTrustSeal – Core Trustworthy Data Repositories. Retrieved from https://www.coretrustseal.org/ 

313 (n.d.). About - SADiLaR. Retrieved from https://www.sadilar.org/index.php/en/about 

314 (n.d.). Home | EIROforum - Serving European Science. Retrieved from https://www.eiroforum.org/ 

315 (n.d.). CERN: Home. Retrieved from https://home.cern/ 

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CERN is a founding member of the Data Preservation in High Energy Physics (DPHEP316) 
collaboration.  A  consequence  of  the  greater  data  volume  is  increased  demand  for  data 
transfer and hence, greater network capacities. Three, 100-gigabit-per-second fibre optic 
circuits  are  linked  to  the  CERN  Data  Centre  with  its  remote  extension  hosted  1200  km 
away  at  the  Wigner  Research  Centre  for  Physics  (RCP)  in  Budapest.  The  additional 
bandwidth and redundancy provided by this third link allows CERN to reliably benefit from 
the computing power and storage at the remote extension. 

ESA317 (European Space Agency) is developing Europe’s space capability, and ensures that 
investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. 
It  is  an  intergovernmental  organisation  of  22  members.  ESA’s  aims  to  design  and 
implement the European space programme. ESA’s programmes are designed to find out 
more about Earth, its immediate space environment, our solar system and the universe, 
as well as to develop satellite-based technologies and services, and to promote European 
industries. ESA also works closely with space organisations outside Europe.  

ESA generates and collects vast amounts of valuable research data every year. Keeping 
these records for future generations, as a record of earth and space as we know them, and 
to leverage them with new technologies, is an important mission for the whole of ESA. To 
securely manage this data, ESA had to develop its own private cloud, which fulfils all the 
high  security  and  redundancy  standards  required  by  ESA.  ESA  also  expanded  into 
virtualised computing, improving access, efficiency and security for ESA and its MS. 

ESO318  (European  Center  Southern  Observatory)  is  the  foremost  intergovernmental 
astronomy  organisation  in  Europe  and  the  world's  most  productive  astronomical 
observatory. ESO provides state-of-the-art research facilities to astronomers. The annual 
MS contributions to ESO are approximately 198 million euros and ESO employs around 700 
staff  members.  By  building  and  operating  a  suite  of  the  world's  most  powerful  ground-
based  astronomical  telescopes  enabling  important  scientific  discoveries,  ESO  offers 
numerous  possibilities  for  technology  spin-off  and  transfer319,  together  with  high 
technology contract opportunities and is a dramatic showcase for European industry320. 

EMBL321  (European  Molecular  Biology  Laboratory)  performs  fundamental  research  in 
molecular  biology,  studying  the  story  of  life.  EMBL  offers  services  to  the  scientific 
community;  trains  the  next  generation  of  scientists;  and  strives  to  integrate  the  life 
sciences  across  Europe.  EMBL  is  international,  innovative  and  interdisciplinary.  1600 
people, from over 80 countries are operating across six sites in Barcelona (Spain), Grenoble 
(France),  Hamburg  (Germany),  Heidelberg  (Germany),  Hinxton  (UK)  and  Monterotondo 
(Italy), and conduct research and offer services in all areas of molecular biology. EMBL-
EBI  maintains  the  world’s  most  comprehensive  range  of  freely  available  and  up-to-date 
molecular data resources. 

ESRF322 (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) is the world’s most intense X-ray source 
and a centre of excellence for fundamental and innovation-driven research in condensed 
and living matter science. Located in Grenoble, France, the ESRF owes its success to the 
international  cooperation  of  22  partner  nations,  of  which  13  are  Members  and  9  are 

316 (n.d.). Data Preservation in High Energy Physics | Collaboration for .... Retrieved from https://dphep.org/ 

317 (n.d.). European Space Agency. Retrieved from https://www.esa.int/ 

318 (n.d.). ESO. Retrieved from https://www.eso.org/ 

319 (n.d.). Technology for Telescopes | ESO. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/ 

320  (n.d.). Doing Business with ESO | ESO. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from https://www.eso.org/public/industry/ 

321 (n.d.). European Molecular Biology Laboratory | EMBL.org. Retrieved from https://www.embl.org/ 

322 (n.d.). European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Retrieved from https://www.esrf.eu/ 

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Associates323. The ESRF produces X-rays endowed with exceptional properties, which are 
produced by the high energy electrons that race around a recently renewed storage ring 
(EBS      -Extremely  Brilliant  Source),  and  guided  to  44  ‘beamlines’,  each  equipped  with 
state-of-the-art instrumentation, and managed by highly qualified scientific and technical 
experts. The ESRF allows to carry out close to 1000 experiments per year leading to almost 
2000 publications. State of the art computing support, computing resources and services 
help accomplish the ESRF's scientific mission.  

European XFEL324 (European XFEL Free-Electron Laser Facility) provides scientists from 
all  over  the  world  with  ultrashort  X-ray  flashes  –  27  000  times  per  second,  and  with  a 
brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray radiation 
sources  –  that  is  opening  up  completely  new  research  opportunities  for  scientists  and 
industrial users.  The  construction  and  operation  of  the  facility  has  been  entrusted  to  an 
independent research organisation, the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility GmbH 
(European XFEL GmbH), a non-profit limited liability company under German law that has 
international shareholders. At present, 12 countries are participating in the European XFEL: 
Denmark,  France,  Germany,  Hungary,  Italy,  Poland,  Russia,  Slovakia,  Spain,  Sweden, 
Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 

EUROfusion325 (European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy) consists of 
two  organisations  coordinating  activities  directed  towards  realising  fusion  energy 
generation: EUROfusion and Fusion for Energy (F4E). Both organisations are represented 
in  EIROforum  via  EUROfusion.  EUROfusion,  coordinates  fusion  energy  research  in  28 
European  countries326  through  30  Consortium  Members  and  about  150  universities, 
laboratories and industry. Its research & development programme combines European and 
national resources to carry out a coherent programme that is aligned with the European 
Roadmap to fusion electricity. The research programme involves the collective exploitation 
of  the  Joint  European  Torus  (JET),  the  world’s  largest  operating  tokamak.  JET  attains 
plasma conditions sufficient for fusion to occur, and is providing invaluable input for the 
design and operation of ITER, which will begin its experiments in the mid-2020s. A range 
of national devices in Germany, France, Switzerland, UK, and The Netherlands contribute 
to the programme, which is further accompanied by a strong theoretical and computational 
effort. Fusion for Energy is responsible for the European part of the construction of ITER, 
and for this purpose, works closely with European industry.  

ILL327 (Institut Laue-Langevin) is the world’s leading research centre for research using 
neutron beams. The ILL also tackles questions relating to the fundamental properties of 
matter. Situated in Grenoble,  France, the  ILL is a service laboratory  which operates the 
most intense neutron source in the world. Its suite of 40 high-performance instruments is 
used to probe the structure and dynamics of existing and newly created materials in the 
finest detail. The ILL neutron scattering facilities provide an indispensable analytical tool 
for  the  analysis  of  the  structure  of  novel  conducting  and  magnetic  materials  for  future 
electronic  devices,  the  measurement  of  stresses  in  mechanical  materials,  and 
investigations into how complex molecular assemblies behave, particularly in a biological 
environment.  The  ILL  is  owned  and  operated  by  its  three  founding  countries:  France, 

323 France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden 

are member countries. Israel, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, India, South Africa are scientific associates. 

324 (n.d.). European XFEL. Retrieved from https://www.xfel.eu/ 

325 (n.d.). EUROfusion. Retrieved from https://www.euro-fusion.org/ 

326 Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, 

Italy,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Netherlands,  Poland,  Portugal,  Romania,  Slovakia,  Slovenia,  Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  United  Kingdom  and 

Ukraine.  

327 (n.d.). Institut Laue-Langevin. Retrieved from https://www.ill.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Germany and the United Kingdom, and ten scientific partners: Spain, Switzerland, Austria, 
Italy, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Denmark and Poland.  

ECWM328 (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast), is an intergovernmental 
organisation  offering  24/7  operational  services,  providing  global  numerical  weather 
predictions  and  other  data  for  the  MS  and  cooperating  states  and  other  broader 
communities. The centre has one of the largest supercomputer facilities and meteorological 
data archives in the world. It operates two services from EU’s Copernicus Earth observation 
programme:  the  Copernicus  Atmosphere  Monitoring  Service  (CAMS329);  and  the 
Copernicus  Climate  Change  Service  (C3S330).  It  contributes  to  Copernicus  emergency 
management service (CEMS331). The ECMWF's supercomputers operate at more than 330 
trillion floating-point operations per second,  or 330 teraflops, with 25%  of that  capacity 
dedicated  to  operational  forecasts  and  50%  for  research.  The  other  25%  is  used  by  its 
members. The ECMWF’s computers process 40 million observations daily, most of which 
come from about 90 satellite data products. As a result, it is adding about 250TB every 
day to its MARS meteorological data archive, which the ECMWF describes as the largest in 
the  world.  As  of  December  2018,  it  contained  around  225  petabytes  of  operational  and 
research data. 

ERIC  Forum332brings  together  the  European  research  infrastructures  established  using 
the ERIC instrument (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, established by the EC 
Regulation 723/2009). The objective of the ERIC Forum is to be the voice of the ERICs on 
matters  of  joint  interest  and  to  help  develop  the  ERICs.  The  ERIC  Forum  contributes  to 
address  critical  challenges,  develop  best  practices  and  share  relevant  know-how  for  the 
effective operation of ERICs and ERICs-to-be. 

2.7. 

e-infrastructures with identified potential to be federated / accessible to the EOSC 

This  chapter  highlights  selected  information  which  has  been  provided  by  the  MS/AC 
through  a  survey  undertaken  by  the  WG.  Detailed  information  was  provided  through 
country  sheets.  Most  countries  have  announced  that  identification  of  EOSC-ready 
infrastructures  has  begun,  so  only  selected  examples  from  the  country  sheets  are 
presented below. 

2.7.1.  Austria 

Austria  has  several  organisations  that  offer  national,  generic  e-infrastructure  services: 
CLARIN; AUSSDA (Austrian Social Science Data Archive), which is a part of CESSDA ERIC; 
BBMRI  ERIC  (the  headquarters  of  the  Biobanking  and  BioMolecular  resources  Research 
Infrastructure operating in 20 countries and WHO/IARC); EODC (Earth Observation Data 
Centre for Water Resources Monitoring GmbH); VSC (Vienna Scientific Cluster); MACH-2, 
a  cooperation  project  coordinated  by  the  Univ.  of  Linz,  in  the  frame  of  the  HRSM 
programme of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF); 
ACOnet  (Austrian  NREN);  Austrian  State  Archives;  BRZ;  IIASA;  JKU  ePub  (University 
Library Linz); Phaidra – Permanent Hosting, Archiving and Indexing of Digital Resources 
and Assets (Univ. of Vienna); reposiTUm (TU Wien); Volare (Land Vorarlberg); IST PubRep 
(Institute  of  Science  and  Technology);  Architektur-Informatik;  CCCA  (Climate  Change 
Center Austria); LBI-HTA – Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Health Technology Assessment; 
ePUBWU (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Digital Repository KUG-PHAIDRA 

328 (n.d.). ECMWF. Retrieved from https://www.ecmwf.int/ 

329 (n.d.). Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Retrieved from https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/ 

330 (n.d.). Copernicus Climate Change Service. Retrieved from https://climate.copernicus.eu/ 

331 (n.d.). Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Retrieved from https://emergency.copernicus.eu/ 

332 (n.d.). HOME | About the ERIC Forum. Retrieved from https://www.eric-forum.eu/ 

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(University of Music and Performing Arts Graz – KUG); GAMS, Asset Management System 
for the Humanities; Statistik Austria Institutional Repository of the University of Art and 
Design Linz.  

As  of  March  2020,  no  formal  decisions  exist  in  Austria,  as  to  which  national  e-
infrastructures  should  be  federated/accessible  to  the  EOSC.  However,  there  are  e-
infrastructures that are of potential interest to EOSC. The landscape is rather fragmented. 
Several Austrian e-infrastructures are also connected to European Research Infrastructures 
and could be federated / accessible through the ESFRI Clusters. For example, the EODC 
(Earth  Observation  Data  Centre)  for  Water  Resources  Monitoring  GmbH333  is  a  public-
private partnership (PPP).  

The  mission  of  the  EODC  is  to  work  together  with  its  shareholders  and  multinational 
partners  from  science,  the public and private  sectors in order to foster the use  of  earth 
observation (EO) data. The EODC provides a cloud computing environment for the Earth 
Observation  ground  segment  for  deriving  geophysical  parameters  and  land  cover 
properties  from  Sentinel-1(synthetic  aperture  radar),  Sentinel-2  (high-resolution  optical 
imaging) and other EO missions. 

The number of researchers in Austria that can use the available e-infrastructures, is around 
36,000  (full-time  equivalents).  A  substantial  number  of  initiatives  either  directly  or 
indirectly support open and FAIR science practices at present, which would align with EOSC 
policies,  but  coordination  is  not  yet  apparent.  The  project  e-Infrastructures  Austria  Plus 
(ended  2019)  had  a  WP  dedicated  to  the  introduction  of  RDM  Policies  at  Austrian 
Universities (according to the FAIR principles) and a WP dedicated to the establishment of 
FAIR reference points at Austrian Universities. As a result, in 2020 TU Wien will establish 
a national FAIR Office (planned activity). TU Graz, TU Wien and UNIVIE are planning to set 
up a FAIR data and services project, which is intended to also serve other universities.  

Austrian  decision  makers  do  have  a  significant  amount  of  structured  and  refined  data 
concerning the status quo of Austrian research activities at their disposal. This structured 
information  is  provided  through  the  project  e-Infrastructures  Austria.  For  instance,  the 
‘National  survey  of  Researchers  and  their  data’  asked  36,000  researchers  about  their 
stance on several issues concerning lifecycle management, the lifecycle of data, and related 
questions. See the e-Infrastructures Austria report Researchers and Their Data334, as well 
as the survey questionnaire Questionnaire National Research Data Survey335.  

2.7.2.  Belgium 

In  Belgium,  the  Federal  Research  Funding  Organisation  BELSPO  has  issued  an  Open 
Research Data Mandate, which complies with FAIR principles and is to be considered fully 
within  the  EOSC  framework.  The  ERAC  Taskforce  on  Open  Data,  to  which  the  Belgian 
Federal  Science  Policy  Department  contributed,  and  the  European  Community's  H2020 
RECODE project were instrumental in shaping the mandate. Furthermore, BELSPO has put 
an Open Access Mandate to Publications336 in place which states that all BELSPO financed 

333 (n.d.). EODC: Collaboration for Earth Observation. Retrieved from https://www.eodc.eu/ 

334 (n.d.). o:409318 - University of Vienna Phaidra - Universität Wien. Retrieved from https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:409318 

335 (n.d.). activity report 2014-2016 - Universität Wien. Retrieved from 

https://services.phaidra.univie.ac.at/api/object/o:460780/diss/Content/get 

336 (n.d.). BELSPO Open Access Policy. Retrieved from https://www.belspo.be/belspo/openscience/pub_belspo_policy_en.stm 

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research results have to be deposited in an open access repository, possibly in BELSPO’s 
own central repository (ORFEO337).  

In the Flemish region, the Flanders Research Information Space (FRIS338) is the regional 
digital platform containing information on 82 353 researchers and their research (39 021 
projects and 419 216 outputs, dated 14-05-2020), funded via public Flemish funds since 
2008. All information from the FRIS platform is displayed on a portal website.  FRIS has 
been established as close cooperation between the Department of Economics, Science and 
Innovation of the Flemish Government and the knowledge institutions339 in Flanders, i.e. 
Flemish  universities,  higher  education  colleges,  strategic  research  centres,  and  other 
scientific institutions.  

The platform integrates metadata on different research information objects, using CERIF, 
the  European  standard  for  integrating  and  exchanging  research  information  in  a 
semantically interoperable manner. In the future, it will also include dataset metadata, and 
will  be  used  as  a  monitoring  tool  for  open  science.  In  the  FRIS  IT  architecture,  the 
necessary  developments  have  been  made  to  allow  direct,  automated  and  continuous 
integration between external systems and the FRIS system in both directions. As a result, 
all FRIS metadata are offered as Open Data, more specifically through web services.  

In  Belgium,  several  research  organisations  offer  e-infrastructures  services:  Alamire 
Foundation,  BeGrid,  Hiruz  Biobank340,  CESSDA  -  SODHA341,  Consortium  des  Equipments 
de  Calcul  Intensif   ́(Céci),  DaRWIN,  ESO,  FRIS,  Flanders  Make,  ILVO,  IMEC,  INBO,  ITG, 
PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), Plantentuin Meise, Royal Belgian 
Institute of Natural Sciences - KBIN-IRNSB, Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy - 
BIRA-IASB, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage - KIK-IRPA, Royal Library Belgium - KBR, 
Royal Meteorological Institute  of Belgium  - KMI, Royal Museum for  Central Africa, Royal 
Museums for Art and History, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Royal Observatory 
of Belgium and the Planetarium - ROB, State Archives of Belgium - AE-RA, The Centre for 
Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society - SOMA-CEGES, 
VIAA, VIB, VITO, VLIZ, VMM, VSC, Von Karman Institute, War Heritage Institute. Research 
data repositories and infrastructures that have the potential to be federated / accessible 
to EOSC, can be found in the country sheets. 

In  terms  of  networking  infrastructure,  Belgium  has  a  national  research  and  education 
network,  Belnet342  that  provides  high-bandwidth  internet  connection  and  services  to 
Belgian researchers. Furthermore, BEgrid343 is a grid and cloud infrastructure open to all 
Belgian researchers, connected to EGI. Finally, HPC infrastructure is available, i.e. Space 
Pole344  (Tier-2)  hosted  by  federal  institutions,  Flemish  Supercomputer  Center345  (Tier-1 
and  Tier-2)  managed  by  FWO346  in  partnership  with  the  five  Flemish  university 

337 (n.d.). ORFEO Home. Retrieved from https://orfeo.kbr.be/ 

338 (n.d.). Welcome to Research Portal | Research Portal. Retrieved from https://researchportal.be/en 

339 (n.d.). Partners of the FRIS programme | Research Portal. Retrieved 24 May 2020, from https://researchportal.be/en/who-participates-

fris 

340 (n.d.). Biobank – Health, innovation and research institute. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from http://hiruz.be/service/hb/ 

341 (n.d.). Social Sciences and (Digital) Humanities Archive – SODHA. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from https://www.sodha.be/ 

342 (n.d.). Belnet. Retrieved from https://belnet.be/en 

343 (n.d.). BEgrid website – The Belgian Grid for Research. Retrieved from https://www.begrid.be/ 

344 (n.d.). Welcome. Retrieved  from https://spacepole.be/en/ 

345 (n.d.). ABOUT VSC | Vlaams Supercomputer Centrum. Retrieved from https://www.vscentrum.be/about 

346 (n.d.). Research Foundation - Flanders. Retrieved from https://www.fwo.be/en/ 

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associations, and CÉCI347 (Tier-2) and Cenaero348 (Tier-1), supported by the F.R.S-FNRS349 
and the Walloon Region350, and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, respectively.  

In Belgium there is an example of a federated model where policy making bodies are acting 
at  different  levels.  The  governance  of  the  Belgian  research  systems  reflects  the  federal 
structure  of  the  country.  Strategic  science  policy  making  bodies  at  the  federal,  regional 
and community levels (with shared competence) are involved in the inter-federal (Belgian) 
coordination in the field of research infrastructures/Open Science. Although no overarching 
research  council  exists  in  Belgium,  the  federated  entities  are  in  constant  dialogue.  A 
coordination/consultation commission involving all these actors is organised to decide on 
the Belgian position in international matters. The Committee for International Cooperation 
–  Committee  for  Federal  Cooperation  (CIS-CfS),  has  a  subcommittee  specialised  in 
research  infrastructures  called  CIS/INFRA,  the  subcommittee  for  Open  Science  is  called 
CIS/Open Science. On the national level, the Brussels Declaration on Open Access351 and 
the  National  ERA-Roadmap352  were  signed/published,  including  the  Belgian  copyright 
law353, which allows the authors of scientific articles financed by the public sector, to retain 
the right to make their article available in Open Access even if otherwise stipulated in their 
contract with the publisher. Furthermore, ERA roadmaps were published on the Federal354, 
Flemish355 level as well as in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Walloon Region356 and the 
Brussels-Capital Region357. Furthermore, the Flemish level specifically included a paragraph 
on  Open  Science  in  the  Flemish  government  agreement  2019-2024,  stating  that  the 
‘Flemish Government fully draws the map of Open Science in the European context, and 
we make our knowledge institutions responsible for implementing a policy in this area. This 
applies both to access to publications as well as for access to the underlying research data.’  
In addition, the Flemish Government has included in its Decree of the Flemish Government 
concerning the financing of the Special Research Funds at the universities in the Flemish 
Community358,  as  well  as  in  its  Decree  on  the  Industrial  Research  Funds359,  specific 
regulations on the obligation to report datasets to the Flanders Research Information Space 
(FRIS), according to the FAIR principles, which makes these accessible to EOSC. Finally, 

347 (n.d.). Clusters - CECI. Retrieved from http://www.ceci-hpc.be/clusters.html 

348 (n.d.). High Performance Computing at Cenaero | Operator of the Tier-1 supercomputer of Wallonia Retrieved from 

https://tier1.cenaero.be/en/Home 

349 (n.d.). Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS - Le FNRS. Retrieved from https://www.frs-fnrs.be/ 

350 (n.d.). DGO6 - Wallonie. Retrieved from https://recherche-technologie.wallonie.be/ 

351 (n.d.). signedbrussels-declaration-on-open-access.pdf - WordPress .... Retrieved from 

https://openaccessbelgium.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/signedbrussels-declaration-on-open-access.pdf 

352 (2016, April 28). ERA Roadmap Belgium. Retrieved from 

https://www.belspo.be/belspo/coordination/doc/scienPol/20160428%20National%20ERA%20Roadmap%20VF.pdf 

353 (2018) Belgisch Staatsblad - Moniteur Belge. Retrieved from 

http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/article.pl?urlimage=%2Fmopdf%2F2018%2F09%2F05_1.pdf%23Page81&caller=summary&languag

e=fr&pub_date=2018-09-05&numac=2018031589 

354 (2016, April 28). ERA Roadmap Belgium. Retrieved from 

https://www.belspo.be/belspo/coordination/doc/scienPol/20160428%20National%20ERA%20Roadmap%20VF.pdf 
355 (2016, April 28). BELGIAN ERA-ROADMAP April 2016. Retrieved from 

https://www.belspo.be/belspo/coordination/doc/scienPol/20160428%20National%20ERA%20Roadmap%20VF.pdf 

356 (2016, April 28). BELGIAN ERA-ROADMAP April 2016. Retrieved from 

https://www.belspo.be/belspo/coordination/doc/scienPol/20160428%20National%20ERA%20Roadmap%20VF.pdf 

357 (2016, April 28). BELGIAN ERA-ROADMAP April 2016. Retrieved from 

https://www.belspo.be/belspo/coordination/doc/scienPol/20160428%20National%20ERA%20Roadmap%20VF.pdf 

358 (n.d.). Vlaamse Codex > Zoeken > Document. Retrieved from 

https://codex.vlaanderen.be/Zoeken/Document.aspx?DID=1032020&param=inhoud&ref=search&AVIDS=1381752,1381753,1381755,13

81757,1381781,1381786 

359 (n.d.). Vlaamse Codex > Zoeken > Document. Retrieved from 

https://codex.vlaanderen.be/Zoeken/Document.aspx?DID=1032123&param=inhoud&ref=search&AVIDS=1383107 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

the  Wallonia-Brussels  Federation  published  an  Open  Access  Decree360  in  2018,  which 
stipulates  that  all  scientific  articles  subsidised  by  public  funds  must  be  deposited  in  an 
institutional directory.  

2.7.3.  Finland 

In Finland, the services and infrastructures required for federation are evolving (especially 
on  HPC-side), so there  are currently no usage  statistics. The FAIRdata-services361 cover 
data lifecycle management services, and Research Information Hub covers metadata about 
research  activities,  DL2021  covers  storage/disk  capacity  and  HPC  services,  as  does 
EuroHPC/Finland.  The  time  period  for  Fairdata  Service  validation  is  approximately  five 
years;  Research  Information  Hub  approximately  3  years  +  2  years  to  launch;  DL2021 
approximately 5 years after 2021. A total of 31 national research infrastructures have been 
selected  for  Finland’s  research  infrastructure  roadmap  2014–20,  18  of  which  are  ESFRI 
partnerships.  

In general, the meaning of the term federation is dependent on the specific infrastructures: 
a) data infrastructures, which provide capacity, need to be federated on user and project 
identity. b) the same applies for  HPC; and c) repositories need to be federated for data 
and metadata objects. 

Since 2019, the national coordination is supported by The Federation of Finnish Learned 
Societies. Coordination is strongly based on the cooperation of the entire research sector, 
and thus involves universities, polytechnics, research institutes, funding bodies, libraries 
and archives. As one of the outcomes, in January 2020 was published the Declaration for 
Open Science and Research 2020-2025362. It was jointly created by the Finnish research 
community and approved by the National Open Science and Research Steering Group on 
Dec. 2019. 

The Finnish universities’ council of rectors (UNIFI) established the 2018 Open Science and 
data  -  Action  Programme  for  the  Finnish  Scholarly  Community363,  which  is  being 
coordinated by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. The Action programme refers 
to FAIR data as one of the key three themes of the programme, the other two being ‘open 
publications’  and  ‘culture  of  openness’.  The  action  programme  follows  on  from  the 
development of Finland’s “Open Science and Research Roadmap 2014–2017”, which was 
led  by  the  government’s  Ministry  of  Education  and  Culture,  and  sets  out  the  policy 
framework for a national approach.  

2.7.4.  France 

There  are  four,  main  national  computing  centres  in  France:  TGCC364  (CEA),  CINES365 
(Universities), IDRIS366 (CNRS / INS2I), and CC-IN2P3367 (CNRS / IN2P3). The first three 
provide  HPC,  while  CC-IN2P3  focuses  on  HTC.  Access  to  the  HPC  resources  is  mainly 

360 Projet De Décret Visant À L’établissement D’une Politique De Libre Accès Aux Publications Scientifiques (Open Access), 603 (2017-

2018) — No5, http://archive.pfwb.be/10000000208d0d1  

361 (n.d.). Huolehdi tutkimusaineistoistasi - Fairdata. Retrieved 13 July 2020, from https://www.fairdata.fi/en/ 

362 (n.d.). Julistus / Deklaration / Declaration | Avoin tiede. Retrieved from https://avointiede.fi/fi/julistus and 

https://doi.org/10.23847/isbn.9789525995251 

363 (2018, May 28). Open Science and Data. Action Programme for the ... - Doria. Retrieved from 

https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/164174 

364 (n.d.). TGCC - CEA - HPC. Retrieved from http://www-hpc.cea.fr/en/complexe/tgcc.htm 

365 (n.d.). National Computing Center for Higher Education - CINES. Retrieved from https://www.cines.fr/en/ 

366 (n.d.). Institute for Development and Resources in Intensive Scientific  Computing  - IDRIS. Retrieved from http://www.idris.fr/eng/ 

367 (n.d.). CC-IN2P3. Retrieved from https://cc.in2p3.fr/en/ 

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granted through GENCI368, (Grand équipement national de calcul intensif), which is owned 
by the ministry (49%), CEA (20%), CNRS (20%), and the universities (10%). CC-IN2P3 is 
the largest data centre (2018: 63 PB tape, 27 Pb disk), while CINES provides data archive 
services. In addition, about 30 larger regional computing centres provide computing and 
data storage services. The national grid infrastructure France Grilles provides services (HTC 
computing  on  the  grid  and  on  an  academic  cloud,  data  storage)  and  is  providing  about 
11%  of  the  resources  federated  by  the  European  Grid  Infrastructure  (EGI369).  The 
SILECS370  research  infrastructure  provides  computing  environments  for  large-scale 
experimental  computer  science,  e.g.  through  the  Grid’5000371  testbed.  A  number  of 
publicly available repositories are operated in France (see e.g. re3data.org, 151 entries in 
OpenDOAR372).  The  infrastructure  hosting  the  HAL  national  repository  for  publication  is 
CCSD. The creation of a national data repository is currently under investigation. 

2.7.5.  Germany 

The  Deutsche  Forschungsgemeinschaft  (the  main  German  research  funder)  published  in 
2015  “DFG  Guidelines  on  the  Handling  of  Research  Data,”  developed  in  partnership 
between a number of high-profile German research organisations. Indeed, the Alliance of 
Science  Organisations  in  Germany  voiced  its  support  for  the  long-term  archiving  of 
research  data,  open  access  to  it  and  compliance  with  the  conventions  of  individual 
disciplines in the "Principles for the Handling of Research Data", since its adoption in 2010.  

The DFG policy focuses on research data, it’s important to notice that it also addresses the 
software and methods necessary for validation and/or replication. Differently from France 
and  Lithuania,  it  is  a  hard  policy  which  makes  reference  to  the  necessity  of  national 
infrastructure funding. Moreover, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research 
(BMBF) seeks to bring about digital change in five key areas: strengthen digital education 
and  training;  generate  knowledge  and  innovations  from  data;  ensure  technological 
sovereignty and scientific leadership; create security and trust; as well as to live and work 
better and be more sustainable. BMBF’s digital strategy is complementary to the High-Tech 
Strategy  and  Digital  Agenda  and  provides  concrete  measures  on  how  to  achieve  these 
goals. 

Based on a recommendation of the RfII, the Federal Government and the Länder agreed 
in  the  Joint  Science  Conference  GWK  to  set  up  a  national  research  data  infrastructure 
(NFDI373). The aim of the NFDI is to systematically manage scientific and research data, 
provide  long-term  data  storage,  backup  and  accessibility,  and  network  the  data  both 
nationally and internationally.  

From 2020 onwards, in three successive years up to 30 consortia are expected to become 
a member of the NFDI, with a funding of up to €90 M annually. Besides the NFDI, there 
are e-infrastructures with potential interest in EOSC. The landscape is rather fragmented. 
Several German e-infrastructures are also connected to European Research Infrastructures 
and could be federated / accessible through the ESFRI Clusters. The number of researchers 
in  Germany,  which  can  use  the  available  e-infrastructures,  is  around  700 000  (full  time 
equivalents).  Concerning  salary  levels,  all  publicly  funded  e-infrastructures  follow  the 

368 (n.d.). Genci. Retrieved from http://www.genci.fr/en 

369 (n.d.). EGI.eu. Retrieved from https://www.egi.eu/ 

370 (n.d.). SILECS | SILECS Infrastructure for Large-scale Experimental Computer Science ... Retrieved from https://www.silecs.net/ 

371 (2019, December 16). Grid5000:Get an account - Grid5000. Retrieved from https://www.grid5000.fr/w/Grid5000:Get_an_account 

372 (n.d.). Directory of Open Access Repositories. Retrieved from https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar 
373 

Research 

Research 

National 

German 

(n.d.). 

DFG, 

Data 

... 

- 

https://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/programmes/nfdi/ 

Foundation. 

Retrieved 

from 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

remuneration levels of the Tarifvertrag für den Öffentlichern Dienst (TVöD, German civil 
service pay scale).  

2.7.6.  Greece 

The Greek national roadmap for Research Infrastructures374 is publicly available. The RIs 
are following the categories of the smart specialisation strategy RIS3. In general, there are 
28  RIs  (17  ESFRI  related  and  11  non-ESFRI  related),  which  were  summarised  in  the 
country sheet, along with the financing scheme for the period 2017-2019. Those national 
RIs  can  serve  as  potential  infrastructures  that  can  be  federated/accessible  to  EOSC  but 
(most of them) cannot be considered “EOSC ready”. 

2.7.7.  Italy 

Data and HPC infrastructures and repositories in Italy are mainly funded from Ministries 
through  research  performing  organisations  (RPOs),  and  there  are  both  general  purpose 
allocations as well as dedicated funds for specific national and international initiatives (e.g., 
ESFRI).  Thus,  deriving  a  single  figure  for  the  entire  national  landscape  would  result  in 
approximated and possibly incorrect results. The ongoing survey from EOSC Pillar would 
be likely to provide some more information at RPO level. 

2.7.8.  Norway 

Norway has several organisations that offer national generic e-services: UNIT375 offers a 
wide  range  of  services  for  research  and  higher  education,  within  the  areas  of  education 
and  research  management,  general  administration,  learning  management  and  support, 
digital library and archive services. It delivers the national services for reporting of scientific 
in  Norway;  Cristin376),  the 
publications  (Current  Research  Information  System 
management of research data through the data repository BIRD, and it assists with open 
access  as  well  as  provides  the  national  library  services  to  the  education  and  research 
sector. 

UNINETT377 delivers internet and network services to Norwegian universities, colleges and 
research  institutions  and  handles  other  national  ICT  tasks.  The  network  connects  all 
institutes  and  users  on  the  national  level  and  links  them  with  other  international,  high-
speed networks.  

UNINETT  Sigma2378  manages  the  national  infrastructure  for  computational  science  for 
research and education in Norway and offers services in high performance computing, data 
storage (NIRD) and related services for sensitive data (and a list of all services are provided 
in  Evaluation  of  UNINETT  Sigma2379).  Sigma2  also  coordinates  Norway’s  participation in 
Nordic and European e-infrastructure collaborations and projects. 

374 

(n.d.).  National  Roadmap 

for  Research 

Infrastructures 

- 

IMBB-FoRTH.  Retrieved 

24  May 

2020, 

from 

http://www.imbb.forth.gr/news/RoadMap.pdf 

375 (n.d.). Unit | Direktoratet for IKT og fellestjenester i høyere utdanning og forskning.  Retrieved from https://www.unit.no/ 

376 (n.d.). Cristin - University of Tromsø - Uit.no. Retrieved from https://en.uit.no/go/target/318428 

377 (n.d.). About Uninett | Uninett. Retrieved from https://www.uninett.no/en/about-uninett 

378 (n.d.). About Sigma2 | Uninett Sigma2. Retrieved from https://www.sigma2.no/about-sigma2 

379 

(n.d.). 

Evaluation 

of 

UNINETT 

Sigma2 

- 

Norges 

forskningsråd. 

Retrieved 

from 

https://www.forskningsradet.no/contentassets/b7dd5e1a046e464abdb1becb51f06484/nfr-evaluation-sigma2.pdf 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

NSD, The Norwegian Centre for Research Data380, provides national archiving services 
for research data and assists researchers with data gathering, data analysis, and issues of 
methodology, privacy and research ethics. 

2.7.9.  Poland 

The  e-infrastructures  available  in  Poland  are  federated/accessible  via  PIONIER/MANs 
infrastructure, which also offers above the net services (e.g. Digital Libraries, Science TV, 
group  communication,  PIONIER  identity,  cloud,  archive).  PIONIER381  is  the  largest 
research infrastructure in Poland, which brings together 22 scientific centres. The PIONIER 
consortium382 is in the process of implementing a large infrastructure for science on the 
Polish  Roadmap  of  Research  Infrastructures383  -  PIONIER-LAB  (2017-2023).  PIONIER-
LAB  consists  of  eight  research  laboratories  that  are  the  response  of  the  scientific 
community to current research challenges in the field of ICT. 

2.7.10.  Portugal 

In  Portugal  the  Science,  Technology  and  Society  Network,  RCTS384,  corresponds  to  the 
national  education  and  research  network  responsible  for  national  scientific  computing, 
managed and operated by the National Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN), a branch of FCT. 
It offers  researchers, teachers and  students  a  high-performance digital infrastructure to 
support projects on a national and international level. As the Portuguese NREN, FCT is part 
of the GÉANT network. 

The  National  Distributed  Computing  Infrastructure,  INCD385,  provides  computing  and 
storage services to the scientific and academic community, covering all subject areas. INCD 
delivers  High  Performance  Computing  (HPC),  High  Throughput  Computing  (HTC),  Cloud 
Computing,  Grid  Computing  and  data  related  services  to  the  Portuguese  academic  and 
research community. INCD is part of the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI), the Iberian 
Distributed  Computing  Infrastructure  (IBERGRID),  the  Worldwide  LHC  Computing  Grid 
(WLCG)  and  also  EOSC  (EOSC-hub  and  EOSC  Synergy).  The  organisations  providing 
support to INCD activities are as follows: Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental 
Particles Physics (LIP), the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) and FCCN. 

2.7.11.  Serbia 

The  Academic  and  Educational  Grid  Initiative  of  Serbia  (AEGIS)  is  in  charge  of  the 
development  of  High-Throughput  Computing  (HTC)  resources,  while  the  Institute  of 
Physics Belgrade (IPB) coordinates the evolution of national High-Performance Computing 
(HPC) resources. In terms of HTC, AEGIS (managed by IPB) provides seamless access to 
ten computing clusters installed at separate research institutions within the country, while 
the use of HPC resources at IPB is organised through an open call. The same channels also 
provide access to the data infrastructures.  

The total computing and storage capacity of the HTC infrastructure is around 3,000 CPU-
cores and 150 TB of storage space, while the size of the HPC resources reaches 2,500 CPU-
cores and 300 TB of storage space. On top of hardware resources, more than 10 generic 

380 (n.d.). Norwegian Centre for Research Data | NSD - Norsk ... - NSD. Retrieved  from http://www.nsd.uib.no/nsd/english/index.html 

381 (n.d.). PIONIER online - Strona główna. Retrieved from http://www.pionier.net.pl/online/ 

382 (n.d.). PIONIER Consortium - PIONIER online. Retrieved from http://www.pionier.net.pl/online/en/entities/ 

383 

(2020, 

January  14).  20200114  Polska  Mapa 

Infrastruktury  Badawczej.pdf.  Retrieved  13 

July  2020, 

from 

http://www.bip.nauka.gov.pl/g2/oryginal/2020_01/3175b4b7b9daae8d0f255b3670d54361.pdf 

384 (n.d.). RCTS Science, Technology & Society Network | FCCN. Retrieved from https://www.fccn.pt/en/institutional/rcts/ 

385 (n.d.). INCD Computing and Storage Resources | FCCN. Retrieved from https://www.fccn.pt/en/computing/incd/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

and  more  than  100  thematic  services  have  been  developed  and  deployed  as  production 
services.  Furthermore,  AEGIS  and  IPB  host  a  set  of  services  that  enable  federation  and 
uniform access to the national e-infrastructure resources. They also organise dissemination 
and  training  activities,  help  the  Serbian  research  community  to  develop  and  deploy 
services, and coordinate related fundraising activities. 

2.7.12.  Spain 

In the Spanish Landscape on Research Infrastructures and e-Infrastructures, we identify 
two main categories: 

RIs as producers and consumers of Computing and Data processing services. In 
this category we can find first those included in the ESFRI Roadmap (such as  LifeWatch 
ERIC, Instruct, EMSO, SKA, among others), which mainly act as data and service providers 
but could also include e-infrastructure offerings. Secondly, we can find the RIs included in 
the Map of Unique Scientific and Technological Infrastructures (ICTS-RI386), which provide 
unique (at national level) scientific resources and data. Some of them integrate RI facilities 
such as the Astronomy Infrastructures Network (RIA), the Coastal Observation System of 
the  Balearic  Islands  (SOCIB),  Spanish  Antarctic  Facilities  (BAES),  or  FLOTA  the  Spanish 
Oceanographic Research Fleet.  

RIs  as  Computing  and  Data  services  providers,  in  which  we  identify  four  main 
categories: 
the  Spanish  Supercomputing  Network  (RES),  a  distributed  virtual 
infrastructure  of  11  supercomputers;  the  Iberian  Grid  Infrastructure  (IBERGRID387, 
operating  within  EGI)  which  federates  and  operates  distributed  computing  and  data 
resources  across  the  Iberian  area.  IBERGRID  is  one  of  the  research  and  technology 
collaboration pillars in the Iberian area. It was created under the agreement of Scientific 
and Technological cooperation signed by Spain and Portugal in 2003, and the collaboration 
agreements signed in 2005 in terms  of  Grid Technologies and Communication Networks 
for Research & Development.  

In  2018  IBERGRID  has  been  identified  as  the  key  framework  to  support  distributed 
computing and data repositories in the framework of EOSC388. The infrastructure relies on 
the EGI federation services to federate at European scale, also supporting the development 
and deployment of innovative services for researchers in the EOSC. 

Last but not least, the Spanish Academic & Research Network (RedIRIS) which operates 
in  close  collaboration  with  other  research  and  education  networks,  both  regional  and 
international (GÉANT) provides the required connectivity. 

These Research Infrastructures provide support to a wide range of disciplines: Astronomy 
and  Astrophysics:  Large  Telescope  of  Canarias,  Observatories  of  the  Canary  Islands, 
Astronomical Observatory of Calar Alto, IRAM 30M Radio Telescope, Astronomical Center 
of  Yebes,  Astrophysical  Observatory  of  Javalambre  and  Underground  Laboratory  of 
Canfranc; Ocean, Life and Earth Sciences: Canary Islands Oceanic Platform, Les Illes 
Balears  Coastal  Observation  System,  Spanish  Oceanographic  Fleet,  Spanish  Antarctic 
Bases,  Doñana  Biological  Reserve  and  Infrastructure  for  Bluefin  Tuna  Farming;  Health 
Sciences  and  Biotechnology:  Integrated  Infrastructure  for  the  Production  and 
Characterization of  Nanomaterials, Biomaterials and Systems in Biomedicine,  Integrated 

386 See list in:  

https://www.ciencia.gob.es/portal/site/MICINN/menuitem.eed4570ef37d2c8fbaa777b9026041a0/?vgnextoid=928d5ef3677c4610VgnVCM

1000001d04140aRCRD 

387 (n.d.). IBERIAN GRID INFRASTRUCTURE – IberGrid. Retrieved from https://www.ibergrid.eu/ 

388 (n.d.). Institutional information – IberGrid – IBERIAN GRID .... Retrieved from https://wibergrid.lip.pt/site/institutional-information/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Infrastructure  of  Omic  Technologies,  Network  of  High  Biological  Safety  Laboratories, 
Distributed Network of Biomedical Image and Network of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of 
Biomolecules;  Energy:  Almería  Solar  Platform  and  National  Fusion  Laboratory; 
Engineering:  Aggregate  Infrastructures  for  Maritime  Hydraulic  Research;  Materials: 
ALBA  Synchrotron,  Network  of  Micro  and  Nanofabrication  White  Rooms,  Integrated 
Infrastructure of Electronic Materials Microscopy, Center of Ultra-Intense Pulsed Lasers and 
National Center of Accelerators;  Social Sciences and Humanities: National Center for 
Research on Human Evolution. 

2.7.13.  Switzerland 

For  Switzerland,  the  potential  federation  of  the  following  infrastructures  need  to  be 
confirmed: Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS); SWITCH; Blue Brain389; BMRI 
CH node: Swiss Biobanking Platform390; ELIXIR CH node: Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics 
SIB391; CESSDA CH node: Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS); SHARE 
CH node: Institut d'Économie et de Management de la Santé (IEMS); FORS392; Swiss Data 
Science  Centre  (SDSC)393;  Data  and  Service  Centre  for  the  Humanities  (DASCH)394;The 
Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN)395.  

2.7.14. 

United Kingdom 

The UK has a federated e-infrastructure involving UKRI facilities (HPC, content and national 
scientific infrastructure), Jisc services and resources (content and library services, analytics 
and  research  information  systems,  AAI  and  network  open  research  hub396),  national 
subject specific repositories and university facilities. A summary can be found in Chapter 
8 of the UK research and innovation landscape analysis397. A full list of over 600 facilities 
can be found at the UKRI Infrastructure portal398. 

All  these  facilities  have  the  potential  to  be  federated/accessible  to  EOSC  –  however, 
national processes and considerations are ongoing, and the decisions would depend on the 
identified benefits of this association/federation to the resource and the community, policy 
issues  as  regards  usage,  IPR  and  branding,  and  funding  and  procurement  issues;  it  is 
difficult to make more precise decisions until EOSC including its nature, sustainability, and 
principles of participate, is better defined. 

2.8.  Other EOSC-relevant initiatives and projects 

A  significant  number  of  RPOs  are  using  their  institutional  CRIS  to  store  and  manage 
research datasets and multiple examples can be found throughout the report (ex. CRIStin, 

389 (n.d.). Blue Brain Project - EPFL. Retrieved from https://www.epfl.ch/research/domains/bluebrain/ 

390 (n.d.). Swiss Biobanking Platform – National coordination platform.  Retrieved from https://swissbiobanking.ch/ 

391 (n.d.). SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics: Homepage. Retrieved from https://www.sib.swiss/ 

392 (n.d.). FORS - Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences. Retrieved from https://forscenter.ch/ 

393 (n.d.). Swiss Data Science Center. Retrieved from https://datascience.ch/ 

394 (n.d.). Data and Service Center for the Humanities DaSCH. Retrieved from https://dasch.swiss/ 

395 (n.d.). SPHN - Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN). Retrieved from https://sphn.ch/ 

396 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/open-research-hub 
397 (n.d.). UKRI Infrastructure Roadmap - Progress report - UK Research and innovation. Retrieved from 

https://www.ukri.org/files/infrastructure/landscape-analysis-final-web-version/ 

398 (n.d.). InfraPortal, the UK's Research and Innovation Infrastructure .... Retrieved from 

https://www.infraportal.org.uk/Search?search_api_fulltext=&amp;sort_by=search_api_relevance&amp;sort_order=DESC&amp;f%5B0%

5D=macro_domains%3Ae-infrastructure%20%26%20dat. 

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FRIS, RedIRIS, ...). Current research information systems CRIS 399 or research information 
management  systems  (RIMS)400  are  databases  or  other  information  systems  used  for 
storing and managing metadata about research, i.e. information on researchers, research 
organisations,  scientific  projects,  publications,  patents, 
including 
equipment, facilities, software and research data. A standard has now been developed and 
recommended by the EU that enables the standardisation, integration and interchange of 
research  information  and  that  can  serve  as  a  (semantic)  interoperability  layer  to  EOSC, 
the  Common  European  Research  Information  Format  (CERIF).  The  CERIF401,  developed 
and maintained by euroCRIS, has been implemented in many CRIS systems in Europe (and 
beyond).  OpenAire  is  CERIF-compliant  as  are  many  commercial  and  open  source  CRIS 
systems.  An  overview  of  the  CRIS  systems,  as  implemented  by  research  institutions, 
research funders and other bodies in European countries can be found in the Directory of 
Research Information Systems (DRIS402). 

infrastructures, 

The  Italian  Computing  and  Data  Infrastructure  (ICDI)403  is  a  forum  created  by 
representatives of major Italian RIs and e-infrastructures, a bottom-up initiative born from 
the need, expressed by many scientific communities, with the aim of promoting synergies 
between national resource and service providers to improve the coordination in national, 
European,  and  global  initiatives,  such  as  the  EOSC,  EDI,  and  the  EuroHPC  Joint 
Undertaking.  

ICDI  has  recently  mapped  the  Italian  participation  in  European  RI  and  e-infrastructure 
programmes, thus  co-opting the initial contributors to the initiative.  It now involves the 
main  infrastructure  providers  for  the  Italian  research  community  (network,  storage, 
computing, cloud services), and research communities characterised by the participation 
in  large  national  and  international  research  and  strong  use  cases  relating  to  data.  The 
Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research has joined ICDI as an observer and 
expressed an interest in the initiative, as it is a good candidate to represent the national 
stakeholders and support the Ministry in setting out national strategies in the field of data-
driven research. In this respect, ICDI has a dual role, acting both as a resource and service 
provider, and as a stakeholder for the definition of a national strategy for the participation 
to the European initiatives. 

The EUREF Permanent Network (EPN)404 is a voluntary federation of over 100 self-funding 
agencies, universities, and research institutions in more than 30 European countries. They 
work together to maintain the European Terrestrial Reference System (ETRS89), which is 
the single, European-wide standard coordinate reference system adopted by the European 
Commission 

While  the  INSPIRE  directive  is  a  legal  and  technical  framework,  the  European  Location 
Framework  (ELF)  (European  Location  Framework,  2019)  project  was  a  practical 
implementation of that directive. Building on the experiences of the European Spatial Data 
infrastructure  Network  (ESDIN)  (European  Commission,  2019a)  and  European  Address 
Infrastructure  (EURADIN)  (European  Commission,  2019b)  projects,  ELF  was  conceived 

399 (n.d.). Current research information system - Wikipedia. Retrieved from 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_research_information_system 

400 (2020, March 17). Research Information Management System (RIMS) : TechWeb. Retrieved from 

https://www.bu.edu/tech/services/admin/research-systems/rims/ 

401 (n.d.). Main features of CERIF | euroCRIS. Retrieved from https://www.eurocris.org/cerif/main-features-cerif 

402 (n.d.). DRIS | euroCRIS. Retrieved from https://dspacecris.eurocris.org/cris/explore/dris 

403 (n.d.). home - Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure. Retrieved from https://www.icdi.it/en/ 

404 (n.d.). EUREF Permanent GNSS Network. Retrieved from https://www.epncb.oma.be/ 

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with the aim of ‘developing standards, specifications, tools and technical infrastructure to 
deliver pan-European geospatial content’.  

The  Open  European  Location  Services  project  (Open  ELS)  builds  on  key  ELF  project 
results. Open ELS is a two-year project co-financed by the European Union's Connecting 
Europe Facility. It is developing pan-European data services using authoritative geospatial 
information. In doing so, it aims to improve the availability of geospatial information from 
the public authorities responsible for mapping, cadastre and land registries. The Open ELS 
project  demonstrates  the  potential  of  a  single  access  point  for  international  users  of 
harmonised,  pan-European,  authoritative  geospatial 
information  and  services. 
EuroGeographics,  which  represents  Europe’s  national  mapping,  cadastral  and  land 
registration authorities, is coordinating the two-year initiative co-financed by the European 
Union’s Connecting Europe Facility. The international not-for-profit association is working 
with  partners  from  member  organisations  in  Finland,  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Norway, 
Poland, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands to deliver this core. 

As part of the implementation of the Public Sector Information Re-Use (PSI) Directive, the 
Malta  Information  Technology  Agency  (MITA)  on  behalf  of  the  Government  of  Malta  is 
currently drafting a National Data Strategy405 that provides a holistic and comprehensive 
vision for the management of data across the whole Public Administration.  

Over the past two decades, there has been a great increase in the volume of survey data 
collected  by  the  CSO.  The  Irish  Government  has  embarked  on  the  National  Data 
Infrastructure (NDI)406 which concerns itself with the consistent and reliable identification 
of data that relates to a particular location through the use of an Eircode, a person through 
the use of a PPSN, and a business through the use of a Unique Business Identifier (UBI). 
The consistent identification of these core data assets is crucial to successfully linking data, 
connecting with government initiatives, and delivering integrated services407. 

The  Swiss  national  data  infrastructure  (NDI)  provides  data,  data-related  services  and 
guidelines  for  the  re-use  of  data  to  individuals  and  organisations.  It  facilitates  efficient 
sharing of data, supports new business models, and as such is a key enabler for the digital 
economy, open research, and societal benefits.  

The  Spanish  National  Geographic  Information  Centre  has  developed  a  platform  for  the 
dereferencing  of  entities  through  the  generation  of  Persistent  Identifiers  (PIDs)  from  its 
INSPIRE WFS services. In addition, a SPARQL endpoint has been created with the aim of 
generating and storing the RDF triples in Turtle format for these same themes, as well as 
its link to other Linked Open Data, such as DBpedia and GeoNames.  

The Netherlands have a production Linked Data platform408 in use for publishing several 
maintained  linked  datasets  such  as  Key  Register  Addresses  and  Buildings,  Key  Register 
Topography  and  Cadastral  Parcels.  This  production  environment  consists  of  a  complete 
stack of tools covering all processes, from creating to publishing linked data.  

405 (n.d.). MITA Home. Retrieved from https://www.mita.gov.mt/ 

406 (2018, April 12). Building the National Data Infrastructure through partnerships. - UNECE. Retrieved from 

https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/documents/ece/ces/ge.58/2018/mtg2/Session_2_Ireland.pdf 

407 (2020, April 30). Government of Ireland - PUBLIC SERVICE DATA STRATEGY 2019 – 2023. 

https://data.gov.ie/uploads/page_images/2019-01-03-110200.740673Public-Service-Data-Strategy-2019-2023.pdf 

408 (n.d.). PDOK: Home. Retrieved from https://www.pdok.nl/ 

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There have been several prototypes to publish  Linked Open Data in the National Land 
Survey  of  Finland.  Geographical  Names,  Buildings  and  Administrative  Units  have  been 
published as demo services.  

The Norwegian mapping authority currently has one national dataset available as Linked 
Open Data (LOD) through a production environment, Administrative Units. This is currently 
being utilised by the national geoportal409 for indirect geocoding of dataset coverage within 
metadata records. It is also planned that the national data catalogue will begin to use the 
data and associated services within 2019. 

Regarding big data, within the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme, more than 87 
projects  were  supported,  including  SoBigData  Research  Infrastructure410,  Education 
for Data Intensive Science to Open New Science Frontiers (EDISON)411, High Performance 
Computing  and  Big  Storage.  The  H2020  funded  project  RISCAPE412 makes  links  to  the 
CoreTrustSeal  data  repository  certification413  and  WISE  ‘information  security  for  IT 
infrastructures for research’ community414. 

2.9.  Overview of country sheets 

A questionnaire in the form of country sheets was used to collect the information used in 
this chapter. The questionnaire was distributed through three channels: 

1.  EOSC Governance Board (GB) members were required to fill in the questionnaire 

on behalf of their countries. 

2.  WG members reached out to other national experts to collect as much information 

as possible. 

3.  For 10 countries (without representatives in EOSC-GB and WG) the information was 
collected  using  publicly  available  sources  of  information,  which  were  validated  / 
completed by the country authorities when possible. 

The WG members would like to acknowledge the fruitful collaboration in the data gathering 
process and thank all national experts for their support. The information extracted from 
the country sheets will be subsequently amended based on the findings of the INFRAEOSC-
5B projects and  other  sources. This will be particularly important for the analysis of the 
findings of the landscaping activity. Both the updated country sheets and the analysis of 
the landscaping activity will be published in a separate report. 

The information provided in this document has been subject to validation by the MS/AC 
(notably during the Validation Workshop (VW), which took place in April 2020) to verify 
the information provided and to consolidate opinions. The aim of the questionnaire was to 
not only collect the necessary information to accurately reflect national positions at this 
stage, but to also form a foundation of information that could monitor progress. More than 
60% of the participants, who were a broader audience than the survey respondents, at the 
Validation  Workshop  indicated  that  the  results  accurately  depict  the  situation  in  their 

409 (n.d.). Geonorge. Retrieved from https://www.geonorge.no/ 

410 (n.d.). Index-old | SoBigData.eu. Retrieved from http://www.sobigdata.eu/index 

411 (2019, June 24). EDISON Project - Cordis. Retrieved from https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/675419 

412 (n.d.). RISCAPE: We are mapping the research infrastructure landscape. Retrieved from https://riscape.eu/ 

413 (n.d.). CoreTrustSeal – Core Trustworthy Data Repositories. Retrieved from https://www.coretrustseal.org/ 

414 (n.d.). WISE Community – Wise Information Security for .... Retrieved from https://wise-community.org/ 

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countries, about 30% indicated that the results did not reflect the current situation in their 
countries, and 5% did not know. 

Information  was  collected  for  47  countries  (EU  MS,  AC  and  border  countries)  listed  in 
Chapter  2.12.  Some  of  the  questionnaires  were  only  partially  completed.  The  collected 
information extracted both from fully and partially completed questionnaires is included in 
the maps and the data presented in this chapter. There were no mandatory questions, due 
to  which  the  aggregated  information  may  be  biased  where  countries  have  omitted 
particular  questions.  The  following  approach  was  applied  in  the  data  processing  and 
generalisation:  

1.  if  “Planning”  and  any  of  “Yes”  or  “No”  were  checked  in  the  same  question,  we 

assumed that the correct answer should be “Planning”. 

2.  if both “Yes” and “No” were checked in the same question, we tried to find more 
information in the narrative part of the answer (in each question it was possible to 
provide a narrative answer, i.e. to explain the situation in greater detail). 

Moreover, in order to fairly balance the complexity of the landscape in some countries, we 
did not distinguish between country-wide or regional-, local-wide policies in the aggregated 
information reported in the country sheets. 

2.9.1.  Current policy on open science and FAIR data 

As far as the adopted policies on open science and FAIR data are concerned, 34.04% (16) 
of the responding countries claimed to have a respective policy in place (see Figure 1). The 
other countries indicated that they either did not have a current policy in place or that a 
policy was in the planning phase (65.96%) (31).  

The  results  indicate  that  the  majority  of  responding  countries  either  adopted  an  open 
science/FAIR data policy or were getting ready to adopt relevant regulations in this area, 

Figure 1 Policy on open science and FAIR data 

65 

 
 
 
 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

which is certainly encouraging. On the other hand, countries can move forward to OS in 
different  areas,  in  different  regions  or  in  different  institutions.  There  are  examples  that 
show that policies exist and are put into practice at institutional level, and the main policies 
on  the  national  level  came  from  research  funding  agencies.  Some  of  the  countries  that 
have already adopted policies have also defined the target year when the policy should be 
fully implemented, which indicates that they have also defined detailed action plans.  

Some of the countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, Serbia, and Slovenia) now have 
dedicated portals for open science. 

In  order  to  align  policies  and  activities  of  national  initiatives  fostering  open  science  in 
Europe, the Council of National Open Science Coordination (CoNOSC) was established in 
October 2019415. 

2.9.2.  Policy regarding publications 

Figure 2  shows the countries that have already adopted a policy regarding publications. 
More than 64% (30) of countries claimed to have such a policy in place. Moreover, in all 
countries that have adopted a policy regarding publications, this either includes (25) open 
access to publications or an indication that such a requirement is planned (2). The countries 
planning  to  adopt  a  policy  regarding  publications  (15)  intend  to  include  an  open  access 
mandate in their policies.  

Along with the European Commission, which regularly maintains the  Monitor416  (relying 
on  data  from  Scopus,  i.e.  covering  only  journal  articles),  some  countries  maintain 

Figure 2 Policy regarding publications 

415 (n.d.). CoNOSC – Council for National Open Science Coordination. Retrieved May 24, 2020, from https://conosc.org/ 

416 

(n.d.).  Trends 

for  open  access 

to  publications 

|  European  Commission.  Retrieved 

July  13,  2020, 

from 

https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/strategy/goals-research-and-innovation-policy/open-science/open-science-

monitor/trends-open-access-publications_en 

66 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

applications  that  monitor  the  openness  of  publication  (e.g.  Denmark417,  France418,  and 
Netherlands419). 

Thirteen countries are either members of cOAlition S or signatories of Plan S420, whereas 
four  countries  have  made  an  explicit  reference  to  Plan  S  in  the  narrative  part  of  their 
responses.  

2.9.3.  Policy regarding data / services 

Policies  regarding  data/services  are  considerably  less  common  amongst  the  responding 
countries.  However,  the  reliability  of  the  results  may  be  disputed  because  some 
respondents implied that the question addressed open government data, as indicated by 
the narrative part of their responses. 

Figure  3  shows  that  31.91%  (15)  of  the  responding  countries  have  a  policy  regarding 
data/services  in  place,  whereas  46.81%  (22)  are  planning  to  adopt  one.  As  for  the 
openness of data, it may be observed that the countries planning to adopt a policy have 
concerns as to whether data should be open or not. Out of 22 countries planning to adopt 
a policy, only 3 plans to mandate open data. 

Figure 3 Policy regarding data and services 

417 (n.d.). Home - Danish Open Access Indicator. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from https://www.oaindikator.dk/en 

418 (n.d.). The French Open Science Monitor - Ouvrir la Science. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from https://www.ouvrirlascience.fr/the-french-

open-science-monitor/ 

419 

(n.d.).  Open  and  closed  access  scholarly  publications 

in  NARCIS  per 

....  Retrieved 

July  13,  2020, 

from 

https://www.narcis.nl/metrics/Language/en 

420 (n.d.). Plan S. Retrieved from https://www.coalition-s.org/ 

67 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

In  conclusion,  it  is  apparent  that  a  greater  number  of  countries  have  adopted  policies 
regarding open access to publications than those regarding open science and FAIR data. 
This  is  expected,  keeping  in  mind  that  the  latter  two  concepts  have  taken  shape  fairly 
recently, compared to open access to publications.  

In July 2018, The Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation in France adopted 
the ambitious National Plan for Open Science. The plan presents three broad commitments 
under the headings: ‘Generalising Open Access to Publications’; ‘Structuring Research Data 
and  Making  it  Available  through  Open  Access’;  ‘Be  part  of  a  sustainable  European  and 
international open science dynamic’ 

The Plan references the "Artificial Intelligence Strategy" which was launched in March 29, 
2018, where the President announced the establishment of openness principles by default 
for all data published by projects funded by public funds. The provisions establish that data 
produced  by  French  public  research  are  gradually  structured  in  accordance  with  FAIR 
principles (Easy to find, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), preserved and, when this is 
possible, open. It’s relevant to notice that the French law, unlike most of the other policies 
focuses on rights, rather than obligations, such as the right to access research data and 
the  right  to  deposit  publications  in  an  Open  Access  repository.  Moreover,  the  French 
regulations  recognizes  the  limitation  on  some  data  by  law,  professional  secrecy, 
commercial limitations and IPR issues etc. Data processing will now be an eligible research 
expense in funded projects and researchers will be invited to submit their data into certified 
data repositories. 

2.9.4.  Policy regarding research evaluation 

Although it was clearly stated in the instructions: ‘Please complete this part ONLY IF the 
current policy and responsibility are different from open science policy’, we found that there 
were  quite  many  responses  to  this  question  suggesting  that  many  respondents  did  not 
understand  the  question.  The  question  was  intended  to  explore  whether  research 
evaluation  was  specifically  addressed  in  policies.  However,  the  fact  that  response  was 
provided  by  countries  that  do  not  have  a  policy  reveals  that  some  respondents  did  not 
understand the question as intended. The majority of the respondents claimed that they 
had a policy on research evaluation, 46.81% (22), 21.28% (10) said  that there was no 
policy  in  place,  10.64%  (5)  claimed  that  the  policy  was  in  the  planning  phase,  whereas 
21.28% (10) did not respond. 

A significant number of institutions from the responding countries have already signed the 
Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)421. As many as 25 countries mentioned the 
DORA principles as the  basis for the planned research  evaluation policy in the narrative 
part of their responses. During the VW, the participants recognise the importance to be 
placed on the quality of the outputs, including on visibility and reproducibility of results. 
Research evaluation processes should give extra credits to individuals, groups and projects, 
that practice open science, based on appropriate indicators. There are already some good 
practices evident that need to be collected and further exploited. 

421 (n.d.). San Francisco Declaration on Research Retrieved from https://sfdora.org/ 

68 

 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Figure 4 Policy regarding research evaluation 

2.9.5.  Policy regarding open learning  

Only two responding countries (Netherlands and Slovakia) have already adopted a policy 
regarding open learning. The majority, 57.45% (27) of the respondents clearly stated that 
they had no such policy in place, whether 14.89% (7) said that they were working towards 
adopting an open learning policy. 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Figure 5 Policy regarding open learning 

2.9.6.  References to EOSC in the current policies 

Figure  6  shows  which  responding  countries  make  references  to  EOSC  in  their  current 
policies. In 25.53% (12) of the responding countries, EOSC is not mentioned in national 
policies, whereas 38.30% (18) of the respondents plan to include it in their future policies. 
The  situation  is  more  favourable  if  we  only  look  at  the  16  countries  that  have  already 
adopted a policy: 7 of these have already included references to EOSC in their policies, 6 
plan to do so, whereas 3 countries did not respond. 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Figure 6 References to EOSC 

References  to  EOSC  are  even  less  frequently  made  regarding  funding  or  criteria  for 
funding: only three countries (Bulgaria, Denmark, and Romania) have included references 
to EOSC in their funding criteria. Half of the responding countries did not have funding or 
criteria in place for EOSC-related work. Figure 7 shows that only 10 responding countries 
are planning to include funding or criteria for funding as regards to EOSC.  

Figure 7 Funding with regards to EOSC 

2.9.7.  National contact points 

More than half of the countries responding to this question have already nominated contact 
points for open science 53.19% (25) and for EOSC 42.55% (20). Other countries plan to 
do  this  in  the  future,  which  is  a  promising  initiative  towards  establishing  a  network  of 

71 

 
 
 
 
 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

institutions  or  individuals  involved  in  the  activities  related  to  open  science  and  EOSC 
(Figure 8). According to the results from the Validation Workshop, while the majority of 
the participants, 73%, are satisfied with the existing network of countries’ experts involved 
in OS, 18% of the participants think a new network is needed and 9% did not know. 

Figure 8 National contact points for open science and EOSC 

Interestingly,  most  countries  rely  on  their  OpenAIRE  NOAD-e  (14)  or  on  NPRs  (8).  The 
OpenAIRE  project  is  gathering  and  providing  an  updated  overview  of  open  science 
developments in individual EU MS and AC via the National Open Access Desks (NOADs) i.e. 
a dedicated reference or contact points (institutions or individuals). 

2.10.  National strategic documents 

The recent SPARC Analysis of Open Science Policies in Europe presents an updated review 
of open data and open science Policies in Europe as of July 2019. It summarises policies in 
Europe by type, the processes of creation, and some of their specific features. The report 
concentrates  on  the  EU  MS,  but  it  also  covers  relevant  countries  from  the  European 
Research Area, namely Iceland, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland.  

Due  to  the  varying  phases  at  which  national  policies  are  developed,  it  is  impossible  to 
present a comprehensive overview. Accordingly, we will offer only a snapshot of activities 
in the responding countries. Even though some countries have national policies in place, 
these are being updated and developed to embrace FAIR data or open data mandates, or 
additional strategy documents are being prepared to ensure a stronger focus. 

The activities mostly involve ministries, national funding bodies, or new teams and task 
forces established at the national level to coordinate the work on policy documents. These 
documents range from national plans, strategy documents or roadmaps, to codes of ethics, 
white papers, and even laws passed by national parliaments. The following table presents 
a snapshot of the ongoing work in each country. 

Country 

Open Data and Open Science Policy Activity 

Albania 

All  research  organisations  must  have  approved  Open  Access  Policies.  Academic  or 
research  institutions  which  are  funded  by  public  money  must  have  an  approved 
Document & Regulation before submitting applications for research grants from public 
funds. 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Country 

Armenia 

Open Data and Open Science Policy Activity 
The open science activities are limited to a few projects supported by EIFL422. 

Austria 

The  working  group  of  the  Open  Science  Network  Austria  (OANA)  has  developed 
recommendations  for  a  national  open  science  strategy,  which  will  be  published  in  the 
spring of 2020423. Austrian Transition to Open Access (AT2OA) 

Azerbaijan 

The  first  steps  towards  the  adoption  of  open  science  principles  are  made  by  OSI  and 
eIFL. 

Belarus 

The policies are being developed with the support from EIFL, UNESCO and BelCoLIB. 

Belgium 

The  Brussels  Declaration  on  Open  Access,  signed  by  the  Science  Policy  Ministers  of 
Flanders; Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO), which mandates Open Access to Publications, 
is validated by the Direction Committee of December 21, 2017 

Bosnia 
Hercegovina 

& 

Two institutions are joining OpenAIRE: University of Banja Luka and CREDI. The Centre 
for Development Evaluation and Social Science Research. CREDI hosts and manages the 
DASS-BiH  –  a  national  data  repository  that  preserves  &  disseminates  social  science 
research data. 

Bulgaria 

Croatia 

Consolidation of national policies is planned and a Fostering of Scientific Research and 
Innovation  bill  is  drafted  that  includes  commitments  and  regulations  regarding  open 
science. An OS portal and national repository are under development, recommendations 
to research institutions are being drafted, there is an active RDA BG Node.  

A new law on scientific activity, which will include regulation on open science is expected 
to be passed in 2020. The development of OA activities has been very intensive in line 
with the Open Access Declaration initiative (2012). 

Cyprus 

On 25 February 2016, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cyprus, approved the 
adoption of the National policy for Open Access in Cyprus Working Group for Open Access 

Czech 
Republic 

Action  Plan  for  implementation  of  the  National  Open  Access  to  Scientific  Information 
Strategy for 2017-2020, and was approved by the Czech government in April 2019. 

Denmark 

National Strategy on Open Access (Ministry of Higher Education and Science). 

Estonia 

In 2016, the Open Science Expert Group of the Estonian Research Council published a 
document  with  principles  and  recommendations  for  developing  national  policy:  Open 
Science in Estonia. 

Faroe Islands 

The Open Arctic Research Index pilot project focused on the open-access research data 
and the open-access research documents published on Polar regions. Part of the wider 
UARCTIC  network,  that  focuses  on  education  and  research  in  the  North  Region,  the 
Arctic. 

422 (n.d.). eIFL.net. Retrieved from https://www.eifl.net/ 

423 https://oana.at/arbeitsgruppen/ag-open-science-strategie/#c310661 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Country 

Open Data and Open Science Policy Activity 

Finland 

France 

Georgia 

Germany 

Jan 2020 published Declaration for Open Science and Research 2020-2025. It was jointly 
created by the Finnish research community, and approved by the National Open Science 
and Research Steering Group in December 2019. 

The French policy is based on the loi numerique (2016), which lays the foundation for 
open science in France. In July 2018, the MESRI ministry presented the national strategy 
for open science (Plan national pour la science ouverte). An Open Science Committee is 
in place. 

National Open Access working group has been created. The Georgian Integrated Library 
& Information System Consortium (GILISC) and EIFL spread awareness about OA policy. 
Two national repositories and OA publishing platform established. 

In  2016,  the  Federal  Ministry  of  Education  and  Research  (BMBF)  published  its  Open 
Access Strategy. Several Länder (federal states) and Research Organisations have also 
implemented open access strategies. While there is no specific open science strategy, a 
number of ongoing activities on Federal and Länder level contribute to forwarding open 
science and FAIR data. Within “Projekt DEAL” German academic institutions (including 
universities,  universities  of  applied  sciences,  research  institutions,  state  and  regional 
libraries) concluded nationwide publish- and read-agreements with Wiley and Springer 
Nature in 2019 and 2020. 

Greece 

Open Access policies are slowly adopted by HEI of Greece. A National Open Science Task 
Force has been established, with the participation of OS stakeholders across the country. 
It is supported by the General Secretariat of Research and Technology and is about to 
release the OS Plan for Greece. 

Hungary 

A  working  group  with  the  National  Research,  Development  and  Innovation  Office 
(NKFIH/NRDIO) was established to formulate a policy on open science. 

Iceland 

Ireland 

Israel 

Italy 

The Science and Technology Policy council has included open science in its Policy and 
Action  Plan  since  2017.  A  national  policy  for  open  access  to  publications  is  currently 
under review in the Ministry. 

The National Open Research Forum (NORF) was convened to progress the wider Open 
Research agenda for Ireland. NORF has prepared a National Framework on Transitioning 
to an Open Research Environment to provide a coordinated framework for Irish research 
funders and institutions and the wider research ecosystem. 

Established  the  Israel  Science  Foundation,  Israel-Europe  Research  &  Innovation 
Directorate (ISERD). 

Appointing  a  Commission  of  national  experts  from  different  domains  to  support  the 
definition of national OS priorities; Drafting a National Plan for open science. 

Kosovo* 

Kosovo  social  science  data  centre  (KSSDC)  works  with  CESSDA  in  order  to  develop 
knowledge and tools related to data service infrastructures. 

Latvia 

In 2016, the Ministry of Education and Science released the Latvian European Research 
Area Roadmap 2016-2020. 

Lithuania 

funding 
Recommendations 
organisations  with  an  action  plan  on  open  access  to  research  information  is  being 
prepared by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. 

institutions  and  research 

for  research  performing 

74 

 
 
 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Country 

Open Data and Open Science Policy Activity 

Luxembourg 

Luxembourg’s research institutions and the National Library of Luxembourg support an 
open access policy. The FNR (Fonds National de la Recherche) supports the open access 
fund National Policy on Open Access (2015). 

Malta 

Work underway to compile a National Open Science Policy for Malta. 

Moldova 

OS is part of the Open government plan. Open Data portal (different ministries). Well-
developed repository network. 

Montenegro 

Planning progress at the end of 2020. 

Netherlands 

In 2017, the Dutch government declared that open access and open science should be 
the norm for scientific research. The National Plan for Open Science was signed by the 
national  science  organisations  in  2017.  In  2019,  a  decision  on  EUR20  M  annual 
investments  in  digital  infrastructure  was  made  which  includes  a  network  of  so-called 
Digital Competence Centres at RPOs. A dedicated OS portal is currently in development. 

Rep 
Macedonia 

North 

Working  toward  joining  the  OpenAIRE.  Library  Information  Systems  and  EIFL  have 
started to spread open access awareness. Metamorphosis Foundation actively promotes 
OA. 

Norway 

Poland 

Portugal 

Romania 

Serbia 

Slovakia 

Slovenia 

Spain 

Sweden 

The  Research  Council  has  prepared  a  policy  for  open  science.  The  policy  will  be 
implemented from January 2020. 

In  2015,  the  ministry  responsible  for  science  adopted  the  document  Directions  of 
development of open access to publications and research results in Poland. 

The  National  Council  approved  a  resolution  with  the  guidelines  for  the  National  Open 
Science Policy, and a working group was established to carry out an in-depth analysis of 
open science in Portugal and define recommendations. The recommendations have never 
been officially adopted. 

In November 2018, the Romanian government approved the National Action Plan 2018-
2020 for Open Government Partnership (NAP 2018-2020). Proposal for an open science 
national strategy. 

Adopted  the  National  Open  Science  Platform  in  2018.  The  Team  for  Open  Science  in 
Serbia  (TONuS),2020  established  in  order  to  identify  and  define  all  improvements, 
measures and regulations related to OS, and to ensure the implementation. 

It  is  planned to  develop  and  adopt  the  National  Open Science  Strategy  by the  end  of 
2020. 

In 2015, the National strategy of open access to scientific publications and research data 
in Slovenia 2015-2020 was adopted. 

Spanish Strategy on Science, Technology and Innovation 2013-2020 (promote OA), two 
additional documents produced. 

In April 2019, the Swedish National Roadmap for European Research Area 2019–2020 
was published, stating that,  research products must comply with the FAIR principles as 
far as possible, and that scientific publications produced with public funds no later than 
2020 should be directly and openly available. 

Switzerland 

Open access to publications is mandated by the National Open Access Strategy and the 
corresponding Action Plan, supported by the SNSF. The newly established Delegation for 
Open  Science  is  responsible  for  the  ongoing  elaboration  of  a  national  Open  Research 
Data Strategy. 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Country 

Open Data and Open Science Policy Activity 

Tunisia 

Turkey 

There  is  no  national  open  science  policy  and  the  relevant  infrastructure  is 
underdeveloped. Part of a few African and Arab initiatives for open access. 

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) has adopted the 
Open Science Policy. 

Ukraine 

In 2019, the government adopted an action plan in which Open science is a priority. 

United 
Kingdom 

Open Research Data Task Force, Open Research Data Concordat, and JISC is part of the 
UK National Open Access Desk (OpenAire). 

Table 2 Summary of national strategy documents 

3.  Descriptive  Examples  of  European,  National  and  Regional  Structures  and 

Initiatives 

The  overall intention  of  this  chapter  is  to  present  a  range  of  initiatives,  which  might  be 
used  as  case  stories  as  contributions  to  the  EOSC  building  processes.  Moreover,  the 
presentation of these illustrated cases is succinct, depicting the main objectives pursued 
by the representatives of the respective initiatives/projects. The resulting picture should 
be considered as a starting point for further enquiries, to be discussed and decided with 
involvement  of  colleagues  from  the  following  working  groups:  Rules  of  participation, 
Sustainability,  Internationalisation  and  Skill  Development.  Further,  some  aspects 
addressed by this chapter may then be deepened by other working groups, such as FAIR. 

Input to this chapter has been derived from the country sheets, from reports of initiatives 
and European projects, and from individual input from EOSC WG Landscape members. 

Chapter 3.1 describes how data is created with respect to FAIR data rules and how data 
management mechanisms (e.g. data management plans) are implied and made possible. 
Chapter  3.2  describes  different  approaches  to  data  storage  and  how  repositories  are 
created and maintained. In Chapter 3.3, the possibilities of data processing using different 
types  of  infrastructures  and  ways  of  data  preservation  are  presented.  Solutions  for 
persistent  identifiers,  such  as  DOIs  and  ORCID  numbers,  are  presented  in  Chapter  3.4. 
Finally,  Chapter  3.5  presents  the  surveys  conducted  by  two  of  the  INFRAEOSC-05B 
projects,  EOSC-Synergy  and  EOSC-Pillar.  These  surveys,  together  with  the  ongoing  and 
upcoming surveys from the other regional projects, will be an important input for the next 
part of this report, but results are not yet available at the present time.  

3.1. 

IT services and data management mechanisms 

3.1.1.  FAIR data generation 

For  the  first  time,  the  European  directive  on  open  data  and  the  re-use  of  public  sector 
information  1024/2019424  includes  research  data,  in  recognition  that  the  volume  of 
research data generated is growing exponentially and has potential for re-use beyond the 
scientific  community.  Research  data  in  this  context  includes  statistics,  results  of 
experiments,  measurements,  observations  resulting  from  fieldwork,  survey  results, 
interview recordings and images. It also includes metadata, specifications and other digital 
objects. In addition to open access, commendable efforts are being made to ensure that 

424 (2019, June 26). DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/ 1024 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 June 2019 on open data 

and 

the 

re-use 

of 

public 

sector 

information 

- 

EUR-Lex. 

Retrieved 

from 

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-

content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.172.01.0056.01.ENG 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

data  management  planning  becomes  a  standard  scientific  practice,  and  to  support  the 
dissemination of research data that are findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable 
(the  FAIR  principles).  For  these  reasons  it  is  appropriate  to  motivate  Member  States  to 
adopt open access policies with respect to publicly funded research data, and ensure that 
such  policies  are  implemented  by  all  research  performing  organisations  and  research 
funding organisations. 

Naturally,  all  sciences  today  are  data  producers,  creating  raw  (binary)  data,  images, 
documents,  and  software.  However,  the  FAIRness  of  data  produced  varies  widely.  The 
large,  international  scientific  projects  (e.g.  ESFRIs)  and  research  infrastructures  lead  in 
FAIR data production, as the combination of large data volumes and the distributed nature 
of the community involved, requires FAIR data in order to provide the high-quality scientific 
results  expected.  Universities  also  play  a  major  role  in  data  generation,  as  they  often 
channel the scientific productivity of their researchers and help them to store their data in 
repositories (see next chapter). The FAIRness of data is also closely linked to good research 
data management, and as a first step in that, the construction of a data management plan. 

In a more general context, a multi-step effort is necessary to achieve FAIR data generation 
for all communities, including the long tail of science. This is described in Turning FAIR to 
Reality425, the final report and action plan from the European Commission Expert Group on 
FAIR  Data.  Although  some  of  the  recommendations  (in  chapter  8  of  the  report)  have 
already been taken into account, it would be advisable to follow all the proposed priority 
recommendations  and  implementation  plans  in  order  to  achieve  FAIR  data  generation 
across countries and disciplines in Europe. 

Of  the  106  respondents  to  FAIRsFAIR’s  open  consultation,  two-thirds  offer  in-house 
support services. Most responses came from countries with a high level of commitment to 
open science and the FAIR principles. In-house support was most frequently provided by 
respondents based in Belgium, Finland, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany426. 
The related FAIRsFAIR policy landscape study found that ‘while some HEIs are introducing 
domain specific RDM support in faculties, most universities do not have the staff or financial 
resources to provide this level of support. As such, there is a need to develop and curate 
a shared set of discipline specific guidance and training resources that can be easily found 
and reused. This should be done in close cooperation with the ESFRIs and related Cluster 
projects’427. While there is a relative abundance of studies and reports on research data 
management policies and support provision, the area of training provision within university 
curricula  has  received  little  attention.  The  FAIR  in  European  Higher  Education  report428, 
establishes a foundation for the identification of existing Research Data Management and 
FAIR  practices  and  the  needs  of  higher  education  institutions.  The  report  builds  on 
information  gathered  through  an  online  survey  with  90  responses,  and  two  live  focus 
groups  with  a  total  of  50  participants  implemented  between  September  and  November 
2019. This report presents insights into three main dimensions, namely: 

1.  the  integration  of  FAIR  and  Research  Data  Management  into  higher  education 

activities; 

425 

(n.d.). 

Turning 

FAIR 

into 

reality 

- 

European 

Commission 

- 

Europa 

EU. 

Retrieved 

from 

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/turning_fair_into_reality_1.pdf 

426 FAIRsFAIR Policy and Practice Survey 2019 data for D3.1_D3.2_D6.1 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3550529    

427 Davidson, Joy, Engelhardt, Claudia, Proudman, Vanessa, Stoy, Lennart, & Whyte, Angus. (2019). D3.1 FAIR Policy Landscape Analysis 

(Version v1.0_draft) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3558172 

428 (2020, February 28). D7.1 FAIR in European Higher Education | Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/record/3629683 

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2.  the  status  of  Research  Data  Management  policies  and  support  services  and  their 

relation to the FAIR principles;  

3.  university perspectives on the European Open Science Cloud.  

Based  on  its  findings,  the  report  also  synthesises  possible  recommendations  on  how  to 
develop  Research  Data  Management  and  FAIR  competencies  and  capacities  within  the 
higher education sector. 

Science  Europe  recently  published  a  report,  Implementing  Research  Data  Management 
Policies  Across  Europe429,  which  is  based  on  the  experiences  of  seven  member 
organisations that have already implemented research data management (RDM) and the 
RDM Guide430 into their policies. It features the  organisations’ approaches to developing 
research data management (RDM) policies and the forms of communication they use to 
inform researchers and their institutions on the concept of RDM and the requirements of 
these policies. It also explores the challenges faced by researchers, their home institutions 
and funding organisations, both during and after implementation of the new policies, and 
provides examples on how researchers can be supported in their RDM efforts.  

3.1.2.  Data processing and data preservation 

Data  Management  Plans  (DMPs)  are  a  basis  of/support  for  good  research  data 
management. More practical support in setting up DMPs is provided on a local, regional, 
and/or  national level,  but  greatly  varies  from  country  to  country,  and  even  in  countries 
between regions and scientific domains. Transnational examples are RDA and OpenAIRE, 
which provide advice, discussions, and training to set up DMPs. Data access across data 
repositories  is  currently  an  area  which  many  member  states  have  not  adequately 
addressed and is an area of current and future development. 

The European Commission requests DMPs for projects funded under the current research 
and  innovation  framework  Horizon  2020  and  the  future  Framework  Programme  for 
Research and Innovation Horizon Europe (2021-2027).  

In  France,  funding  proposals  to  the  National  Research  Agency  (Agence  nationale  de  la 
recherche (ANR) have to include a data management plan. In order to help researchers in 
this,  ANR  collaborated  with  DORANum431  (Données  de  la  Recherche:  Apprentissage 
Numérique) to use DMP OPIDoR432, an online tool that helps create DMPs.  

The Finnish online tool DMPTuuli433 also provides DMP services to researchers and contains 
the  AKA  DMP  template  along  with  other  public  DMP  templates.  In  order  to  meet 
researchers’ expressed needs, SRC (SE) is looking into possibilities to provide a DMPtool 
as well. NWO (NL) does not provide its own tool, but strongly encourages its researchers 
to use the DMPonline tool provided by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC). The NWO DMP 
template is also available on DMPonline. FWO (BE) similarly does not provide a tool, but 
uses  a  DMP  template  which  was  developed  together  with  the  Flemish  universities.  This 
DMP template is made available in DMPonline.be, which is an instance made available by 

429 

(2020, 

January 

3). 

Download 

- 

Science 

Europe. 

Retrieved 

from 

https://www.scienceeurope.org/media/jikjlb2g/se_rdm_best_practices.pdf 

430  (n.d.).  Practical  Guide  to  the  International  Alignment  of  Research  Data.  Retrieved  from  https://www.scienceeurope.org/our-

resources/practical-guide-to-the-international-alignment-of-research-data-management/ 

431 (n.d.). Data Management Plan (DMP) - DoRANum. Retrieved from https://doranum.fr/wp-content/uploads/FicheSynthDMP.pdf 

432 (n.d.). DMP OPIDoR. Retrieved from https://dmp.opidor.fr/ 

433 (n.d.). DMPTuuli. Retrieved from https://www.dmptuuli.fi/ 

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the DMPBelgium Consortium, a result of cooperation between several Flemish and Walloon 
universities and scientific institutes.  

Another interesting example is the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) which also 
strives  to  support  its  researchers  who  encounter  RDM-related  problems.  CSIC  does  this 
through  different  services  available  in  the  institutional  repository  DIGITAL.CSIC.  These 
services  include  documentation,  training  and  support  on  how  to  set  up  DMPs.  It  also 
provides  support  for  different  stages  along  the  data  lifecycle,  including  publication  of 
datasets with a proper metadata document.  

HRB (IE) is currently in discussion with the DCC to set a bespoke DMP platform that meets 
the needs of all actors involved. It is expected that such a platform will act as a one-stop 
shop  for  the  management  of  DMPs  through  the  lifetime  of  the  research  project  and  will 
integrate the needs of the researcher, research institutions and funding organisations. 

Other  examples  of  countries  where  national  agencies  require  DMPs  are:  Austria,  where 
approved  proposals  have  to  include  a  DMP  before  the  project  starts;  Belgium,  where 
funding proposals to the FWO have to include a data management plan; and Switzerland, 
where the SNSF requires a DMP in funding proposals. Also the Irish Health Research Board 
(HRB)  and  the  Polish  National  Science  Centre  (NCN)  have  developed  their  DMP 
requirements.  

The Swedish Research Council has within the assignment on national coordination of open 
access  to  research  data  appointed  a  working  group  to  coordinate  the  work  on  data 
management plans on the national level. The aim is to support increased open access to 
research data. The working group has representatives from higher education institutions 
and  their  units  that  support  the  processes  of  data  management,  representatives  for 
infrastructures  and  services  linked  to  storage  and  accessibility,  representatives  for 
research funders, and researchers. 

In Sweden there is also a collaborative infrastructure for Register-based Research, RUT, 
developed as a result of a government commission to the Swedish Research Council. The 
aim  of  RUT  is  to  increase  the  value  and  use  of  Swedish  registers,  research  databases, 
sample collections and research datasets. Through the RUT infrastructure, researchers are 
able to access and explore rich metadata and semantic descriptions in different registers, 
making the process of gathering and understanding knowledge about their content easier 
and more harmonised throughout the research process. 

Also, the Swedish National Data Service (SND) is a national research infrastructure and 
consortium whose primary function is to support the accessibility, preservation, and re-use 
of research data and related materials. SND strives to create a national infrastructure for 
open access to research data, for example by ensuring that the organisations' metadata is 
made visible in a national domain-specific portal and/or other international portals. EOSC-
Nordic434  is  a  project  funded  by  the  EU  Commission  and  coordinated  by  the  Nordic  e-
Infrastructure  Collaboration  under  NordForsk.  The  Nordic  e-Infrastructure  Collaboration 
(NeIC)435, is a collaboration platform for different projects such as sensitive data, WLCG 
Tier-1  node,  Nordic  language  processing.  The  EOSC-Nordic  project  started  in  2019  and 
aims to foster and advance the take-up of the EOSC at the Nordic level by coordinating the 
EOSC-relevant initiatives in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, 
Lithuania, Netherlands and Germany. One of the objectives is to improve interoperability 
practices  across  the  national  initiatives.  Among  other  things,  a  series  of  demonstrators 

434  (n.d.).  EOSC-Nordic  proposal  awarded  funding  from  the  ...  -  -  NeIC  web.  Retrieved  from  https://neic.no/news/2019/02/22/EOSC-

Nordic-announcement/ 

435 (2020, March 10). Home - NeIC web. Retrieved from https://neic.no/ 

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addressing  different  parts  of  the  research  and  data  lifecycle  will  be  developed  to  test 
discovery and re-use, analysis and post-processing, data management (including sensitive 
data management), sharing and archiving. 

Another relevant initiative on the Nordic level is focused on secure digital infrastructure for 
health  data436.  A  report  describing  this  initiative  and  vision  of  a  Nordic  secure  digital 
infrastructure for health data, the Nordic Commons, was published in December 2019, and 
includes suggestions for policy implications with specific recommendations, supporting the 
vision  of  a  common  infrastructure  supporting  reproducible  and  open  research  for  the 
benefit of Nordic public health and societies. 

3.2.  Data storage and data repositories 

A  prerequisite  for  any  FAIR  data  activity  is  storage  of  data.  International  scientific 
collaborations often distribute their storage over several sites in the participating countries, 
as, for example, the data of the LHC experiments at CERN. In other cases, data is stored 
centrally for international collaboration, as in the case of the European Spallation Source 
(ESS)  at  the  Danish  Data  Management  and  Software  Centre.  In  general  terms,  large 
scientific  collaborations  tackle  the  challenge  of  data  storage  of  their  large-scale 
experiments early on and include this aspect in their budget. Smaller-size experiments are 
more of a challenge throughout Europe as they often do not include a thorough plan for 
data storage; instead, use e-infrastructures in an opportunistic or ad hoc manner such as 
using local disk storage or storing data in their geographical or scientific neighbourhood. 
Because data produced by all of these experiments is significant, several national initiatives 
have been launched in order to provide solutions for data  storage. These solutions vary 
significantly in size, technology, and connected services. 

In Sweden, for example, universities are generally responsible for data storage, however, 
some storage services are also provided by SUNET (the Swedish NREN), SNIC and SND.  

In Finland, the Ministry of Education and Culture is carrying out the Data and Computing 
2021 development programme (DL2021), which provides data storage disk capacity, and 
Norway also has a national data storage offer through NIRD and CLARINO.  

National  data  storage  initiatives  in  Eastern  Europe  include  the  National  Open  Access 
Research  Data  Archive  (MIDAS)  and  LiDA437  in  Lithuania;  the  Polish  national  system  for 
secure data storage (KMD); and the Serbian AEGIS national data storage resources.  

In France, data storage is for example provided by the NGI France Grilles, and (mainly for 
physics)  in  the  CC-IN2P3  computing  and  data  centre,  as  well  as  by  a  larger  number  of 
regional computing centres.  

In Austria, the EODC438 provides multi-Petabyte-scale storage (discs and tape) connected 
to  the  EOSC  cloud,  while  Germany  recently  launched  its  National  Research  Data 
Infrastructure  (NFDI),  which  will  provide  national  research  data  management  services; 
data  storage  for  various  scientific  disciplines  is  e.g.  provided  by  the  Helmholtz  Data 
Federation (HDF) as well as by many university-based computing and data centres.  

436 

(n.d.). 

A 

vision 

of 

a 

Nordic 

secure 

digital 

infrastructure 

for 

health 

data 

.... 

Retrieved 

from 

https://old.nordforsk.org/no/publikasjoner/publications_container/a-vision-of-a-nordic-secure-digital-infrastructure-for-health-data-the-

nordic-commons 

437 (n.d.). Lidata.eu. Retrieved from http://www.lidata.eu/en/ 

438 (n.d.). EODC :: Collaboration for Earth Observation. Retrieved from https://www.eodc.eu/ 

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In Italy, there is a large number of local repositories at the level of the single university, a 
significant part of which adopt the Institutional Research Information System439 - IRIS, a 
local  CRIS  serving  also  as  an  Institutional  OA  repository.  In  addition,  many  thematic 
repositories from domain-specific RPOs are present. INFN, ENEA, INAF, INGV, ASI, OGS, 
CNR,  CREA,  have  computing  and  data  centres  mainly  for  their  researchers,  but 
interdisciplinary usage is foreseen. It is worth mentioning that there are also a number of 
repositories for cultural heritage, most of which are part of Europeana440. 

In  the  last  two  years,  a  network  of  14  institutional  repositories  has  been  established  in 
Serbia,  which  includes  more  than  30 000  records.  They  used  open-source  software 
(DSpace)  and  are  working  on  permanent  development  and  integration  with  relevant 
international infrastructures. This has significantly increased the visibility of local research 
(especially in humanities, where the sharing of OA content is above 90%). The network, 
which is still growing, may serve as a valuable source of high-quality metadata (available 
under the CC0 license) and OA content, as well as a solid basis for thematic services based 
on content aggregation, educational websites, etc. 

The  landscape  of  research  data  repositories  in  Europe  is  highly  fragmented.  Significant 
repositories, in terms of users and the quantity of data available, are mostly domain and 
community  specific.  Large  examples  are  e.g.  open  data441  at  CERN  for  particle  physics, 
CDS Strasbourg442,  INAF  IA2443 and ASI SSDC444 for astrophysics, and the  International 
Genome  Sample  Resource  (IGSR)445.  Some  of  these  examples  are  indeed  intrinsically 
international,  while  others  are  national,  which  gives  rise  to  different  business  and 
organisational models in the various cases. 

Multi-disciplinary  repositories  are  mostly  provided  on  an  institutional  or  university  level. 
They mainly serve their own researchers as a means to store and publish their research 
data. The Anglo-Saxon countries lead in this domain, but there are other significant, multi-
disciplinary data repositories in e.g. Scandinavia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. One 
step further is to combine forces between several universities and to provide services on a 
near-national level, as can be seen e.g. in the Dutch 4TU.ResearchData repository, which 
as of 2019, hosted 900 data collections from various disciplines, with a user base of 23 000 
individuals in 2018. 

Multi-disciplinary  and  international  data  repositories  are  hosted  by  international 
organisations. Examples here include the Zenodo446 platform (CERN and OpenAIRE) and 
the  Environmental  Data  Explorer  (United  Nations  Environment  Programme447).  These 
efforts  also  reflect  the  cross-disciplinary  interests  and/or  mandates  of  the  service 
providers. 

A first step to provide access to the diverse range of data repositories are registries, which 
provide  catalogues  of  repositories  including  basic  information  about  them  (e.g.  access 

439 (n.d.). IRIS - Institutional Research Information System | Cineca. Retrieved from https://www.cineca.com/it/content/IRIS 

440 (n.d.). Europeana Collections. Retrieved from https://www.europeana.eu/portal/ 

441 (n.d.). CERN Open Data Portal. Retrieved from http://opendata.cern.ch/ 

442 (n.d.). CDS, Strasbourg. Retrieved from http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/ 

443 (n.d.). IA2 - Inaf. Retrieved from https://www.ia2.inaf.it/ 

444 (n.d.). SSDC - ASI Science Data Center Home Page. Retrieved from https://www.asdc.asi.it/ 

445 (n.d.). 1000 Genomes. Retrieved from http://www.internationalgenome.org/ 

446 (n.d.). Zenodo. Retrieved from https://zenodo.org/ 

447 (n.d.). UN Environment Programme. Retrieved from https://www.unenvironment.org/ 

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point,  domain,  origin,  etc.).  Examples  include  the  re3data448  registry  of  research  data 
repositories, and the (commercial) Web of Science Master Data Repository List449. 

The challenge for the EOSC will be to act as an interface to a large variety of platforms, 
first on the subdomain level, then on the domain and interdisciplinary level. Solutions to 
this challenge are provided e.g. through the cluster projects.  

The  German  Federal  Government  has  issued  a  set  of  national  strategies  that  outlines  a 
roadmap for digital transformation450. Likewise, in addition to universities, many science 
organisations  in  Germany  (e.g.  Helmholtz,  Max  Planck,  Fraunhofer  Society,  Leibniz 
Association),  have  also  defined  digitalisation  strategies  that  address  big  data,  research 
data  management,  AI/ML,  supercomputing,  knowledge  management  and  research 
software engineering (RSE). 

There are nearly 40 repositories in Hungary registered in OpenDOAR. These repositories 
are  run  by  23  universities  and  research  institutions.  There  is  a  specialised  initiative  in 
Hungary  for  the  collection  of  references  to  all  scientific  publications  of  Hungarian 
researchers called MTMT451. Five data repositories are registered in the re3data database 
in Hungary. Two of them are run by research centres and mostly host data in the fields of 
SSH. The others include HunCLARIN, which is a member of the European project CLARIN 
and has a large collection of data in the fields of SSH; however, generally, it hosts cross-
disciplinary data. Hungary is a member of GEOMIND, a centralised, cross-border gateway 
for geophysical data search and acquisition, and a partner in KADoNiS. A further specialised 
repository  is  developed  and  operated  by  KIFÜ  for  knowledge  sharing  and  multimedia 
content452  .The  Directory  of  Open  Access  Journals  now  lists  35  Hungarian  scientific 
journals, and more are in progress. 

3.3.  Data processing and data preservation 

Data  preservation  not  only  refers  to  the  long-term  storage  of  data,  but  also  includes 
ensuring  the  preservation  and  maintenance  of  data,  as  well  as 
its  context, 
understandability, interpretability, authenticity and integrity. Preservation of scientific data 
requires data curation by IT experts as well as the active involvement of documentalists 
and scientists to guarantee long term usability of research data. 

As  a  result,  large-scale  data  preservation  is  often  organised  by  long-term  international 
projects  and  organisations.  As  an  example,  the  CERN  Advanced  STORage  system 
(CASTOR453) reached the milestone of 350 petabytes of data and more than 600 million 
individual files stored  on tape  at the  end of 2019, with 12-13 petabytes written to tape 
every month.  

Another  example  is  the  SIMBAD  astronomical  database  at  the  Strasbourg  astronomical 
Data  Centre  (CDS454).  Alongside  data  curation  and  service  maintenance  responsibilities, 
the CDS undertakes R&D activities that are fundamental to ensure long-term sustainability 

448 (n.d.). Re3data. Retrieved from http://re3data.org/ 

449  (n.d.).  Master  Data  Repository  List  -  Web  of  Science  Group.  Retrieved  from  https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/master-data-

repository-list/ 

450 (n.d.). National Strategies | German Digital Technologies. Retrieved from https://germandigitaltechnologies.de/national-strategies/ 

451 (n.d.). Magyar Tudományos Művek Tára (MTMT). Retrieved from https://www.mtmt.hu/ 

452 (n.d.). Videotorium.hu. Retrieved from https://videotorium.hu/ 

453 (n.d.). Home | castor.web.cern.ch. Retrieved from http://castor.web.cern.ch/ 

454 (n.d.). Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). Retrieved from http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/about 

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in a domain in which technology evolves very quickly. R&D areas include informatics, big 
data, and development of the astronomical Virtual Observatory (VO).  

On  the  European  level,  the  ARCHIVER  (Archiving  and  Preservation  for  Research 
Environments)  project  aims  to  improve  archiving  and  digital  preservation  services, 
supporting the IT requirements of European scientists and providing end-to-end archival 
and  preservation  services  which  are  cost-effective  for  data  generated  in  the  context  of 
scientific research projects (see Annex I).  

In addition, some countries provide national solutions to the data preservation challenge. 
In Estonia, for example, data preservation services are provided through NATARC/PlutoF 
and EKRK. 

In Finland, data preservation is one of the main tasks in the UNIFIs 2018 Open Science 
and Data Action Programme for the Finnish Scholarly Community455. 

One  of  the  French  national  computing  centres,  CINES456,  provides  data  preservation 
services  for  data  and  digital  documents  produced  by  the  French  community  of  Higher 
Education and Research.  

Clearly,  data  preservation  is  not  only  a  technical  (and  financial)  challenge.  FAIR  data 
policies  and  carefully  set-up  data  management  plans  are  a  prerequisite  for  data 
preservation. As such, data preservation relies on having good levels of knowledge of these 
areas within the communities that want to preserve their research data. Several centres 
and initiatives aim at building capability and skills for research data management, such as 
the Digital Curation Centre (DCC457) in the UK, or the CINES training program458 in France. 

Another  approach  was  chosen  in  Austria,  through  a  combined  and  systematic  project, 
which  gathered  as  part  of  one  huge,  national initiative,  all  Austrian  Universities  (except 
one),  two  huge  extramural  RIs,  and  the  Austrian  National  Library.  The  project  e-
Infrastructures Austria (2014-2016/2017-2019) was co-financed by the Ministry of Science 
and the Universities. This project systematically covered the following areas: data storage, 
data repositories, data preservation, and permanent access.  The project was initiated in 
2014 by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and the Economy (German: BMWFW) to 
promote the coordinated expansion and further development of repository infrastructures 
throughout Austria. The project involved all Austrian Universities except one (26 partners). 
The  project  aimed  to  ensure  secure  archival  and  provision  of  electronic  publications, 
multimedia objects and other digital data produced from research and teaching. The second 
phase of the project ended in December 2019. The project was structured into twelve fields 
of action, including an extensive survey addressing all active researchers in Austria (36,000 
individuals). The survey covered identification of the status quo for handling research data 
in  Austrian  universities  and  extramural  research  activities.  The  project  also  explored 
existing  initiatives,  determined  the  requirements  for  future  research  data  services  in 
Austrian universities, libraries, and research service providers, and also identified needs of 
the  scientists  according  to  the  different  subject-specific  work  and  publication  processes. 
The analysis of the survey is described in the report Researchers and their Data: Results 
of an Austrian Survey459. 

455  (2018,  May  28).  Open  Science  and  Data.  Action  Programme  for  the  Finnish  Scholarly  Community  -  Doria.  Retrieved  from 

https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/164174 

456 (2019, May 6). Preservation | CINES. Retrieved from https://www.cines.fr/en/long-term-preservation/ 

457 (n.d.). Digital Curation Centre. Retrieved from http://www.dcc.ac.uk/ 

458 (2017, November 6). Training | CINES. Retrieved from https://www.cines.fr/en/services-2/training/ 

459 (n.d.). o:409318 - University of Vienna Phaidra - Universität Wien. Retrieved from https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail_object/o:409318 

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Following the Austrian example, in early 2017, the Bibliosan for Open Science (BISA) inter-
institutional Working Group, including scientific information experts, mainly from Istituto 
Superiore di Sanità (ISS, Italian National Institute of Health), carried out a survey on the 
practical handling of research data produced by Bibliosan-affiliated institutions - the Italian 
Biomedical  Research  Libraries  Network  promoted  by  the  Italian  Ministry  of  Health.  The 
Italian  colleagues  asked  the  Austrian  colleagues  for  support,  and  the  project  e-
Infrastructures Austria offered its questionnaire and findings resulting from their activities. 
The BISA online questionnaire collected over 2,400 responses obtained from 58 Bibliosan 
institutions.  Among  the  various  aspects  of  data  management  covered  by  the  BISA 
questionnaire,  one  referred  to  the  need  for  research  data  policy  and  guidelines  to  be 
adopted by Bibliosan research was carefully explored. The report is available online and it 
also contains a chapter offering a comparison of Italian and Austrian results460. 

Data access across data repositories is currently an area which many member states have 
not adequately addressed and is an area of current and future development. 

3.4. 

Persistent identifiers 

3.4.1.  Managed DOI-assignments in Italy 

The assignment of digital object identifiers (DOIs) in Italy is managed at national level by 
the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI, in Italian), which is the Italian member 
of DataCite, through the CRUI DOI project461 . 

Italian organisations (universities, research organisations, libraries, etc.) can join the CRUI 
DOI  project  and  get  a  DOI-prefix,  just  filling  and  signing  some  preparatory  documents. 
The annual cost of a DOI prefix has recently increased from the initial 200 Euros to around 
300-400. 

Out  of  a  prefix,  one  can  create  an  unlimited  number  of  sub-prefixes  and,  for  each  sub-
prefix, an unlimited number of DOIs. When an organisation joins the CRUI DOI project, 
the  responsible  person  gets  the  credentials  to  access  the  DataCite  Fabrica  portal  (both 
through the web and the APIs) and manage the prefix autonomously. 

In January 2017, in the context of the EU-funded Sci-GaIA project462, an agreement was 
established  between  the  University  of  Catania  and  the  CRUI  to  extend  the  possibility  to 
provide DOI-prefixes to all African organisations wishing to deploy an  institutional Open 
Access Repository. So far, 5 DOI prefixes have been released to: 

  The Sci-GaIA project (Intl.); 

  The African Population and Health Research Centre (KE and Intl.); 

  The Eko-Konnect Research and Education Initiative (NG); 

  The Ministry of Education of Ethiopia, managed by EthERNet, the Ethiopian NREN; 

   The UbuntuNet Alliance (MW and Intl.). 

460 

(2017,  December  7). 

PDF 

-  2269.63 

kbytes 

- 

Istituto  Superiore  di  Sanità 

- 

ISS.  Retrieved 

from 

http://old.iss.it/binary/publ/cont/17_32_web.pdf 

461  (n.d.).  Progetto  DOI  -  CRUI  -  Conferenza  dei  Rettori  delle  Università  ....  Retrieved  from  https://www.crui.it/nuove-commissioni-

crui/progetto-doi.html 

462 (2019, June 24). Sci-GaIA Project - Cordis - Europa EU. Retrieved from https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/654237 

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Through these projects, the University of Catania took a leading role in the development 
of Open Access and Open Data management services in Ethiopia463 464 465. 

3.4.2.  UK National Persistent Identifier Project 

In the UK, Jisc is leading a project to establish equitable, consistent access to persistent 
identifier  (PID)  services  for  the  UK  research  sector,  and  to  build  robust  governance 
mechanisms to ensure that these systems remain open and sustainable for the long term. 
This project is evaluating current PID services, their adoption, and the interactions between 
them. It will assess the business case for building a UK national PID community structure, 
to provide access to and oversight of PID services. It will tackle the practical barriers to 
PID integrations in the tools and platforms that researchers rely on to conduct and share 
their  work.  The  initial  phase  of  the  project  will  run  through  2020,  and  will  focus  on 
stakeholder engagement and research. 

3.4.3.  Persistent identifiers in Belgium 

In Belgium, the Department Economy, Science and Innovation of the Flemish Government 
is hosting the FRIS portal, which collects metadata on research information objects using 
common  PIDs.  In  order  to  unambiguously  collect,  merge  and  exchange  information, 
several  rules  are  agreed  upon  by  the  information  providers.  These  PIDs  include  funder 
agreements, organisation IDs, ORCIDs, DOIs, etc. 

3.4.4.  The ORCID Austrian Consortium 

Since  January  2019,  the  TU  Wien  Bibliothek  has  coordinated,  in  cooperation  with  the 
university  library  of  the  University  of  Vienna,  the  Austrian  ORCID  consortium  -  ORCID 
Austria. The consortium is currently composed of eleven institutions (ten universities and 
one  funder).  Among  the  main  goals  are  to  establish  ORCID  iD  as  the  main  identifier  of 
researchers  in  Austria  and  link  the  ORCID  iDs  to  the  last  ten  years  of  research 
contributions, preferably via automatic updates and integrations. 

The  TU  Wien  Bibliothek,  as  Lead  of  the  consortium,  administratively  manages  the 
consortium,  acts  as  the  contact  point  between  the  ORCID  and  the  members,  and  is  in 
charge  of  keeping  the  members  informed  of  ORCID  news,  as  well  as  the  onboarding 
processes  of  new  members.  It  maintains  a  website  that  serves  as  the  first  platform  for 
information exchange466. 

Austrian  non-for-profit  organisations  (universities,  research  organisations,  funders,  etc.) 
can join ORCID Austria and integrate ORCID in up to five institutional information systems 
using the ORCID Member API. The annual cost of the membership depends on the number 
of members according to ORCID official tiers. 

Several outreach activities were organised, some internal to members and others open to 
the Austrian community, such as the launch workshop held in June 2019 at the TU Wien 
and an open webinar held in February 2020. 

463 (n.d.). NADRE. Retrieved from https://nadreweb.ethernet.edu.et/ 

464 (n.d.). National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia - Research .... Retrieved from https://nadre.ethernet.edu.et/ 

465 (2020, October 24). Roberto Barbera (0000-0001-5971-6415) - ORCID .... Retrieved from https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5971-6415 

466 (n.d.). ORCID Austria - Webseite des österreichischen ... - TU Wien. Retrieved from https://www.tuwien.at/kooperationen/orcid/ 

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The next outreach activity, a workshop focused on ORCID Technical implementations, will 
take place in April 2020 and counts with the support of EOSC Secretariat via Co-Creation 
Budget. 

In addition, the consortium reached further regions through the participation in the ORCID 
Spain Workshop in Málaga in 2019. 

 As part of the support activities, two documents have been published: 

  Joint statement of principles (ORCID Austria) (in German)467. 

  ORCID: Member API or Public API? (in German) 468 

A Zenodo community with workshop and training materials is also maintained469. 

3.5.  Regional surveys 

The  INFRAEOSC-05-2018-2019(B)  projects  (so-called  5B  projects)  are  intended  to 
coordinate  EOSC-relevant  national  initiatives  across  Europe  and  to  support  prospective 
EOSC  service  providers  (see  chapter  2  for  a  brief  description  of  these  projects).  In  this 
context,  the  5B  projects  are  conducting  surveys  in  their  regions  to  evaluate  EOSC 
awareness and readiness and EOSC participation possibilities.  

The survey results are not yet available, but an update will be included in the next version 
of this report. This chapter presents two examples for these surveys, Synergy Survey and 
Pillar Survey to highlight the type information they will provide.  

3.5.1.  EOSC-Synergy Survey 

3.5.1.1.Overall approach and methodology 

The EOSC-Synergy470 project extends the EOSC coordination to nine participating countries 
by  harmonising  policies  and  federating  relevant  national  research  e-infrastructures, 
scientific  data  and  thematic  services,  bridging  the  gap  between  national  initiatives  and 
EOSC. In February 2020, the project issued a report presenting the results of the initial 
policy  landscape  analysis,  which  was  then  used  as  a  foundation  of  the  project’s  policy 
engagement strategy and its implementation. 

In general, policy engagement serves several different roles, from being part of the overall 
sustainability of the service provision to being one of the enablers of disruptive innovation. 
Within a project, policy engagement is a service function: it needs to support requirement 
gathering and compliance activities of the technical work packages, as well as being part 
of the “organisational memory” when it comes to identifying solutions and workarounds 
that  make  federated  service  provision  that  complies  with  the  relevant  regulatory 
frameworks more efficient. 

The  initial  landscaping  work  confirmed  the  a  priori  assumptions  behind  the  policy 
engagement  strategy  of  the  EOSC-Synergy  project.  At  the  European  level,  the  EOSC-
related policy and funding structures are evolving rapidly, whereas the structures within 

467 (n.d.). Informationen über - University of Vienna Phaidra - Universität .... Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.25365/phaidra.104 

468 (2019) Marin Arraiza, P. ORCID: Member API or Public API? Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.25651/1.2019.0011 

469  (2019,  December  9).  Outreach  materials  ORCID  Austria  |  Zenodo.  Retrieved  from  https://zenodo.org/communities/orcidaustria-

materials/ 

470 (n.d.). EOSC synergy – Building capacity, developing capability. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-synergy.eu/ 

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individual  countries  tend  to  have  longer  evolutionary  histories  and  more  stable 
organisational and governance structures. However, national approaches to EOSC-related 
policy work are very diverse. 

Thus, the engagement strategy needed to be adaptive and process-oriented. It was based 
on  systematic,  continuous  surveying  of  the  policy  landscape,  coupled  with  an  efficient 
division of labour in the monitoring and engagement tasks. Rather than defining in advance 
which organisations and initiatives the project should engage (and how), the focus was on 
ensuring that new policy issues were logged and managed in a consistent manner. 

From the point of view of external stakeholders, a big part of the consistency of the policy 
engagement  is  based  on  assigning  “liaison  persons”  for  each  of  the  organisations  the 
project engages with. In most cases, they will act as the primary contact points for initiating 
communications and will be responsible for maintaining an accurate picture of the project’s 
relationship with the organisations they are responsible for. 

Within the project, the policy engagement is closely aligned with all the project’s activities, 
with  a  specific  emphasis  on  the  dissemination  and  exploitation  activities.  However,  its 
scope as a service function is not limited to these specific tasks. 

3.5.1.2.Initial policy landscape analysis 

At the time of writing, the policy landscape on which the EOSC-Synergy project operates 
presents  a  number  of  challenges.  The  most  obvious  ones  are  related  to  the  number  of 
ambitious, large-scale projects involved in realising the EOSC vision. On the other hand, 
this also represents an opportunity, since reaching the critical mass of activity, awareness 
and political commitment is much more likely with the high-level policy commitments in 
place. However, these commitments are still somewhat abstract in nature, and the EOSC 
activities  are  bringing  together  several  pan-European  and  regional  thematic  and 
technological clusters that have developed slightly different ways of structuring, steering 
and documenting the collaborations. 

For this reason, the high-level landscape is characterised by a number of open questions 
related  to  the  details  of  the  governance,  funding  and  processes  of  the  EOSC  activities. 
Thus, especially when focusing on the issue of transnational access it is difficult to assess 
the relative impact of the current and emerging policy-related groups. 

When designing the engagement strategy, it is assumed that the majority of the experts 
and  policy  makers  on  a  pan-European  level  are  already  involved  in  the  EOSC-related 
governance work, typically simultaneously participating in several expert groups or task 
forces. As a consequence, when considering the information gathering and supporting the 
eventual  uptake  of  the  policy-related  project  results,  EOSC-Synergy  can  focus  on 
maintaining contacts between the project and the experts/representatives involved in the 
EOSC governance and sustainability work. 

The landscape is slightly different on the national level: the key experts and policymakers 
tend to be focused on national issues, with EOSC-related topics representing only a small 
fraction of the topics covered by their formal responsibilities. There is also a wide range of 
organisational approaches to cover all the thematic, sectoral and infrastructure, as noted 
in the e-IRG survey of national nodes. For both of these reasons, the project cannot rely 
on existing contacts between policymakers and their counterparts in other countries. 

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3.5.2.  EOSC-Pillar Survey 

The H2020 project EOSC-Pillar471 is one of the INFRAEOSC regional projects which aims to 
coordinate national open science initiatives in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy 
with  regard  to  open  research  data.  The  project’s  aim  is  to  assess  and  harmonise  these 
initiatives  in  order  to  help  facilitate  the  federation  of  services  to  EOSC  and  the 
implementation  of  EOSC.  EOSC-Pillar  also  aims  at  proposing  new  services  and  tools, 
establishing  sustainable  business  models,  promoting  the  FAIR  principles  and  their 
implementation,  as  well  as  ensuring  the  engagement  of  stakeholders  from  the 
infrastructure and research communities. 

In Work Package 3 of the project, information on existing national and thematic initiatives 
and research data infrastructures is collected and analysed as a first step. The aim is to 
build  upon  these  findings  with  related  project  activities  as  well  as  inform  all  EOSC 
stakeholders  on  the  status  quo  of  national  and  thematic  initiatives,  the  existence  and 
operation of services, national funding structures, policies on open data aspects and other 
developments within the research infrastructure landscape. 

The  survey  to  assess  these  national  and  thematic  initiatives  was  conducted  among 
universities, funding bodies, research infrastructures and e-infrastructures. The aim of this 
endeavour  is  to  create  a  comprehensive  picture  with  state-of-the-art  data  on 
organisational, technical and legal aspects of open research data to foster discussions and 
support the implementation of EOSC. 

The  questionnaire  that  was  developed  was  tailored  to  the  different  target  groups  and 
included  questions  on  topics  such  as  business  models  and  Service  Level  Agreements 
(SLAs),  legal  aspects,  such  as  access  restrictions  and  policies,  and  further  technical 
aspects, such as Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure (AAI). Data management 
practices and compliance to the FAIR principles were assessed, as well as user communities 
and user support. 

The survey was conducted in October and November 2019. A total of 2,204 organisations 
were contacted, and 688 responses gathered (response rate of 31%). 

The full report on the results of the survey will be available in Q3 of 2020, and will include 
all relevant results of the survey. This report aims to provide a state of the art picture of 
the research infrastructure landscape in the EOSC-Pillar countries, give an insight into the 
existence  of  different  services  (including  operational  details),  funding  schemes  and 
business  models,  the  knowledge  and  implementation  of  the  FAIR  principles,  etc.  – 
ultimately to understand existing challenges and gaps, but also to assess the maturity level 
of service providers. 

In addition to the full report, the data set will be curated and published for reuse via the 
repository AUSSDA under the following link and DOI472. The questionnaire as well as the 
list of targets are already available under the same DOI. 

471 (n.d.). EOSC-Pillar. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-pillar.eu/ 

472 Bodlos, Anita; Hönegger, Lisa; Kaczmirek, Lars; Beckmann, Volker; Breton, Vincent; Romier, Geneviève; Van Wezel, Jos; Streit, Achim; 

Stevanovic,  Uros;  Galeazzi,  Fulvio;  Tanlongo,  Federica;  Van  Nieuwerburgh,  Inge,  2019,  "EOSC  Pillar  "National  Initiatives"  Survey  (SUF 

edition)", https://doi.org/10.11587/VOSVGK, AUSSDA, V2, UNF:6:YRwI+UyYa4K996Eh2cnN7A== [fileUNF]  

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

LIST OF LANDSCAPE WORKING GROUP MEMBERS 

Expert 
Kessy Abarenkov 

Affiliation 
University of Tartu Natural History Museum and Botanical 
Gardens 

Nomination 
Estonia 

Jean-François Abramatic  WG Architecture Coordinator 
Volker Beckmann 

The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) 

EOSC EB 
France 

Juan Bicarregui 
Artur Binczewski 
Isabel Bolliger 
Paolo Budroni 
Isabel Campos Plasencia 
Christos Chatzimichail 
Matthew Dovey 

WG RoP Coordinator 
Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center  
Swiss National Science Foundation 
TU Wien (also staff member of Vienna University) 
Spanish National Research Council  
European Commission 
Jisc 

Odd Ivar Eriksen  
Alizée Francey 
Christian Kirchsteiger 
Biljana Kosanovic 
Vasiliki (Sylvia) V. 
Koukounidou 

Sanja Halling 
Jan Hrušák  
Sarah Jones 
Rupert Lueck 

Research Council of Norway 
WG Rapporteur  
European Commission 
University of Belgrade 
University of Cyprus 

Swedish Research Council 
J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry  
WG FAIR Coordinator 
WG Sustainability Coordinator  

Thomas Midtgaard 

Ministry of Science and Higher Education 

Thomas Neidenmark 
Susanna Nykyri  
Žibutė Petrauskienė 
Gianluca Polenta  
Eloy Rodrigues 
Petros Sampatakos 

Ronald Stolk 

Achim Streit 

European Commission 
Tampere University, Library, Open Science Services  
Vilnius University 
Space Science Data Center, Italian Space Agency 
Minho University 
General Secretariat of Research and Technology 

Center for Information Technology / CIO University of 
Groningen 
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology  

Robert Sultana 
Imre Szeberényi 

University of Malta 
Budapest University of Technology and Economics 

Sadia Vancauwenbergh 

Hasselt University / ECOOM / euroCRIS 

John Womersley 

European Spallation Source 

EOSC EB 
Poland 
Switzerland 
Austria 
Spain 
EC 
UK 

Norway 
EC 
EC 
Serbia  
Cyprus 

Sweden 
EOSC EB 
EOSC EB 
EOSC EB 

Denmark 

EC 
Finland 
Lithuania 
Italy 
Portugal 
Greece 

The 
Netherlands 
Germany 

Malta 
Hungary 

Belgium 

EOSC EB 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 

AAI 

AC 

ACTRIS 
AE-RA 

Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure 

Associated Countries to Horizon 2020 

Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases Research Infrastructure 
State Archives of Belgium  

AEGIS 

Academic and Educational Grid Initiative of Serbia  

AENEAS  

Advanced  European  Network  of  E-infrastructures  for  Astronomy  with  the 
Square Kilometre Array 

AgID 

AI 

AISBL 

AnaEE 

API 

Italian Agency for Digitisation of Public Administration  

Artificial Intelligence 

International Not-For-Profit Association 

Infrastructure for Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems 

Application Programming Interface 

APPEC 

Astroparticle Physics European Consortium 

ARCHIVER  

Archiving and Preservation for Research Environments 

ARIS 

ASI 

BBMRI 

BDVA 

BE 

Advanced Research Information System 

Agenzia Spaziale Italiana 

Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research Infrastructure 

Big Data Value Association 

Belgium 

BELSPO 

Belgian Federal Science Policy Office  

BG 

Bulgaria 

BIRA-IASB 

Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy 

BMBF 

BMS 

BrAPI 

BSC 

C3S 

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research 

Biology and Medical Science  

Breeding API 

Barcelona Supercomputing Centre 

Copernicus Climate Change Service  

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

CAMS 

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service  

CASTOR 

CERN Advanced STORage system  

CatRIS 

CCSD 

CDI 

CEA 

CÉCI 

CEMS 

CERIF 

CERN 

Catalogue of Research Infrastructure Services 

Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe 

Collaborative Data Infrastructure 

Le Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives 

Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif 

Copernicus Emergency management service  

Common European Research Information Format  

Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire 

CINECA 

Common Infrastructure for National Cohorts in Europe, Canada, and Africa 

CLARIN 

Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure 

CNAF 

CNRS 

COAR 

CoE 

CRIS 

CSC 

CTA 

DANS 

DCI 

DEIC 

DEMO 

DFG 

DFN 

national centre of INFN (Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics) 

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 

Confederation of Open Access Repositories 

Centre of Excellence 

Current research information systems 

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd 

Cherenkov Telescope Array 

Data Archiving & Networked Services  

Data Centre Interconnection 

Danish e-Infrastructure cooperation 
Center for Demographic Research  

German Research Foundation 

German National Research and Education Network 

DG CONNECT 

Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology 

DG RTD 

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 

DIH 

Digital Innovation Hub 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

DIPG 

Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma  

DiSSCo 

DK 

DL2021 

DMP 

DOI 

DORA 

DPHEP 

DRIS 

e-IRG 

Distributed System of Scientific Collections 

Denmark 

A  national  development  programme  for  data  management  and  scientific 
computing in Finland 

Data Management Plan 

Digital Object Identifier 

Declaration on Research Assessment 

Data Preservation in High Energy Physics  

Directory of Research Information Systems  

e-Infrastructure Reflection Group 

EARTO 

European Association of RTOs 

EATRIS 

European infrastructure for translational medicine 

ECCSEL 

European Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure 

ECBD 

ECBL 

European Chemical Biology Database 

European Chemical Biology Library 

ECMWF 

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 

ECRIN 

EDI 

European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network 

Electronic Data Interchange  

EDISON 

Education for Data Intensive Science to Open New Science Frontiers 

EDP 

EFTA 

EGA 

EGI 

EIFL 

EIROs 

eLABa 

ELI 

European Data Portal 

European Free Trade Association 

European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) 

European GRID Initiative 

Electronic Information for Libraries 

European Intergovernmental Research Organisations 

Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library  

Extreme Light Infrastructure 

ELIXIR 

European life-science infrastructure for biological information 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

eLTER 

ELT 

EMBL 

Long-Term Ecosystem Research in Europe 

Extremely Large Telescope 

European Molecular Biology Laboratory 

EMBRC 

European Marine Biological Resource Centre 

EMPHASIS 

European Infrastructure for Multi-scale Plant Phenomics and Simulation 

EMSO 

ENEA 

ENVRI 

EO 

EOSC 

European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory 

Italian  National  Agency  for  New  Technologies,  Energy  and  Sustainable 
Economic Development 

Environmental Research Infrastructures  

Earth Observation 

European Open  Science  Cloud (the  system  resulting  from  the activities and 
initiatives  promoted  by  the  European  Commission  to  support its  policies  on 
Open Science and Open Innovation 2.0) 

EPOS  

European Plate Observing System 

ERA 

ERAC 

ERIC 

European Research Area 

European Research Area and Innovation Committee 

European Research and Innovation Committee 

ERINHA 

European Research Infrastructure on Highly Pathogenic Agents 

ESA 

European Space Agency 

ESCAPE 

European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle Physics ESFRI 

ESDC 

European Science Data Centre  

ESFR EBS 

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility Extremely Brilliant Source 

ESFRI 

ESO 

ESRF 

ESS 

EST 

EUA 

European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures 

European Center Southern Observatory 

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility 

European Spallation Source 

European Solar Telescope 

European Universities Association 

EUDAT 

European Data Infrastructure 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

EU-OPENSCREEN 

European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology 

EURO- ARGO 

European contribution to the international Argo Programme 

EURO-VO 

European Virtual Observatory  

ExPaNDS 

European Open Science Cloud Photon and Neutron Data Service 

FAIR 

Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable 

FAIRsFAIR 

Fostering Fair Data Practices in Europe  

FCCN 

FCT 

FNS 

FREYA 

Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional 

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia 

Food Nutrition and Security   

Connected  Open  Identifiers  for  Discovery,  Access  and  Use  of  Research 
Resources 

FRIS 

Flanders Research Information Space 

F.R.S.–FNRS 

Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - Fund for Scientific Research 

Funet 

FWO 

GA 

GB 

Gbps 

GCS 

GDPR 

Finnish University and Research Network 

Research Foundation - Flanders 

General Assembly 

Governing Board 

Gigabits per second 

Gauss Center for Supercomputing 

General Data Protection Regulation  

GENCI 

Grand équipement national de calcul intensif 

GMT 

GPU 

GRNET 

H2020 

HEP 

Giant Magellan Telescope 

Graphics Processing Unit 

National Infrastructures for Research and Technology 

Horizon 2020 - eighth EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 

Belgian High Energy Physics Community 

HL-LHC 

High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider 

HPC 

High-Performance Computing  

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

HTC 

IAGOS 

IARC 

ICDI 

ICHEC 

ICOS 

ICT 

ICUIL 

IDR 

IG 

ILL 

ILT 

IMI 

IN 

INAF 

INFN 

INGV 

High Throughput Computing  

In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System 

International Agency for Research on Cancer 

Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure 

Irish Centre for High-End Computing 

Integrated Carbon Observation System 

Information Communication Technologies 

International Committee on Ultra-High intensity lasers 

Image Data Resource 

Interest Group 

Institut Laue-Langevin 

International LOFAR Telescope  

Innovative Medicine Initiative  

Implementation Network 

Istituto Nazionale di Austrofisica 

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare 

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologica 

INSTRUCT 

European Research Infrastructure for Integrated Structural Biology 

IPB 

IPR 

IRIS 

IRU 

Institute of Physics Belgrade 

Intellectual Property Rights 

Institutional Research Information System 

Indefeasible Rights of Use 

IS-ENES  

Infrastructure for the European Network of Earth System Modelling 

ISBE 

ITR 

IVOA 

JHR 

KIT 

Infrastructure for Systems Biology Europe 

Image Tool Resource 

International Virtual Observatory Alliance 

Jules Horowitz Reactor 

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

KPI 

LEAPS 

LENS 

LHC 

LiDA 

LRF 

MAN 

MERIL  

MESRI 

Key Performance Indicator 

League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources 

League of advanced European Neutron Sources 

Large Hadron Collider 

Lithuanian Data Archive for Humanities and Social Sciences 

Large-scale Research Facilities 

Metropolitan Area Network 

Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape 

Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation 

MIAPPE 

Minimum Information About a Plant Phenotyping Experiment 

MIAS 

MIDAS 

MIRRI 

MITA 

MIUR 

ML 

National Open Access Research Data Archive 

National Open Access Research Data Archive  

Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure 

Malta Information Technology Agency 

Ministry of Education, University, and Research  

Machine Learning 

MOOCs 

Massive Open Online Courses 

MoU 

MPG 

MS 

Memorandum of Understanding 

Max Planck Gesellschaft zur Foerderung Der Wissenschaften  

Member States 

MYRRHA 

Multi-purpose hybrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications 

NCC 

NDD 

NDI 

NeIC 

NFDI 

NGR 

National Competence Centre 

Neurodegenerative diseases  

National Data Infrastructure 

Nordic eInfrastructure Collaboration  

National Research Data Infrastructure 

Next Generation Repositories 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

NI4OS Europe 

National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe 

NIRD 

National e-Infrastructure for Research Data  

NL 

NLI 

Netherlands 

National Library of Ireland 

NOADs 

National Open Access Desks 

NORDi 

NREN 

NSD 

OA 

OAC 

OCRE 

OGS 

OJS 

ORCID 

OSPP 

PAs 

PaN 

Norwegian Open Research Data Infrastructure 

National Research and Education Network  

Norwegian Centre for Research Data 

Open Access 

Open Access Centre 

Open Clouds for Research Environments project 

Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale 

Open Journal Systems 

Open Researcher and Contributor ID 

Open Science Policy Platform 

Public Administrations 

Photon and Neutron 

PaNOSC 

Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud  

PATC 

PID 

PNR 

PNRI 

PRACE Advanced Training Centre 

Persistent IDentifier 

National Research Programme  

National Program for Research Infrastructures  

PRACE 

Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe  

PTC 

R&D 

R&I 

PRACE Training Centres 

Research and Development 

Research and Innovation 

RCAAP 

Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal 

RCP 

Wigner Research Centre for Physics  

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

RDA 

RDM 

Research Data Alliance  

Research Data Management 

REDIRIS 

Spanish Academic & Research Network 

RENATER 

Réseau National de télécommunications pour la Technologie, l'Enseignement 
et la Recherche 

RES 

RI 

RIMS 

Spanish Supercomputing Network 

Research Infrastructure 

Research Information Management Systems  

RISCAPE 

European Research Infrastructures in the International Landscape 

RO 

ROB 

RoP 

RPO 

RTO 

SE 

SIOS 
SIP 

SISSA 

SKA 

SME 

SND 

SNIC 

Romania 

Royal Observatory of Belgium 

Rules of Participation  

Research Performing Organisation 

Research and Technology Organisation 

Sweden 

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System 
Strategic Implementation Plan 

Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati 

Square Kilometre Array 

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises  

Swedish National Data Service 

Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing  

SODHA 

Social Sciences and (Digital) Humanities Archive 

SSH 

Social Sciences and Humanities  

SSHOC 

Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud 

STRATOS 

PRACE advisory group for Strategic Technologies 

Sunet 

Swedish University Computer Network  

SWG OSI 

Standing Working Group on Open Science and Innovation 

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Tbps 

TC 

THOR 

TRL 

Terabits per second 

Technical Centre 

Technical and Human Infrastructure for Open Research 

Technology Readiness Level 

TRUST-IT 

Trust-IT Services Limited 

UEDIN 

UGOE 

UiT 

UK 

University of Edinburgh 

Georg-August-Universität Gottingenstiftung offentlichen Rechts 

Arctic University of Norway 

United Kingdom 

VEPS 

Virtual Electronic Heritage System  

VI-SEEM 

Virtual  Research  Environment  (VRE)  in  Southeast  Europe  and  the  Eastern 
Mediterranean (SEEM) 

VO 

VUB 

VSC 

VW 

WG 

WHO 

WIG 

WLCG 

XDC 

XFEL 

Virtual Observatory 

Vrije Universiteit Brussel  

Vlaams Supercomputer Centrum 

Validation Workshop 

Working Group 

World Health Organisation 

Working and Interest Groups 

Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid  

eXtreme DataCloud  

X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility 

99 

 
 
 
 
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ANNEXES 

ANNEX I EOSC-RELEVANT EU PROJECTS 

AENEAS  –  Grant  agreement  No  731016  – 
01.01.2017 to 31.12.2019 

AGINFRA+  -  Grant  agreement  No  731001  – 
01.01.2017 to 31.12.2019 

The AENEAS (Advanced European Network of 
E-infrastructures for Astronomy with the SKA) 
aims  to  develop  a  science-driven,  functional 
design  for  a  distributed,  federated  European 
Science Data Centre (ESDC). The ESDC will be 
part of a network of science data centres that 
will  help  the  astronomical  community  make 
fundamental new discoveries with the largest 
radio  telescope  in  the  world  -  the  Square 
Kilometre  Array  (SKA)473  in  Australia  and 
South Africa. The European share of the global 
centre  network  will  be 
SKA 
considerable  in  terms  of  volume  of  open 
scientific 
and 
data 
networking.  Integration  or  alignment  with 
EOSC is therefore foreseen. 

processing 

regional 

data, 

open 

AGINFRA+  supported  agriculture  and  food 
scientists  by  enhancing  more 
than  60 
innovative  data-  and  computing-intensive 
applications  with 
e-infrastructure 
resources  and  services  from  D4Science  and 
EGI.  It  continued  and  evolved  the  data 
infrastructure of agINFRA474. It also continued 
the user engagement of CIP PSP VOA3R475, FP7 
SemaGrow476,  H2020  OpenMinTeD477,  H2020 
e-ROSA478  and  projects  that  facilitated  the 
wider open science engagement and alignment 
of  stakeholders  in  the  food  and  agriculture 
sector479. With almost 350 people participating 
in its user trials, the pilot demonstration work 
of  AGINFRA+  has  been  pivotal  in  showcasing 
the potential of EOSC for this domain. Its SME-
oriented 
science 
companies480  in  the  agtech  and  foodtech 
sectors have also been unique481. 

activities 

data 

for 

473 (n.d.). Square Kilometre Array. Retrieved from https://www.skatelescope.org/ 

474 (n.d.). agINFRA Project | FP7 - Cordis - Europa EU. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/283770 

475 

(n.d.).  Virtual  Open  Access  Agriculture  &  Aquaculture 

... 

-  CORDIS.  Retrieved  October  28,  2020, 

from 

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/250525 

476 (n.d.). Semagrow: Home. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from http://www.semagrow.eu/ 

477 (n.d.). OpenMinTeD: Home. Retrieved from http://openminted.eu/ 

478 (n.d.). eROSA: Homepage. Retrieved from http://erosa.aginfra.eu/ 

479 (2016, May 24). Open Harvest 2016 : Release of the Chania declaration - AIMS. Retrieved from http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/open-

harvest-2016-release-chania-declaration 

480 https://medium.com/@AgroKnow/call-to-european-data-science-startups-who-is-going-to-win-the-10-000-prize-c90be1899f4b 

481 AGINFRA+ AgTech Innovators Meetup (https://youtu.be/bN0MBnV3KNk 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

ARCHIVER  –  Grant agreement  No 824516  – 
01.01.2019 to 31.12.2021 

BE  OPEN  –  Grant  agreement  No  824323  – 
01.01.2019 to 30.06.2021 

BE  OPEN  has  brought  on  board  key  transport 
and  open-science-related  communities  in  an 
attempt  to  promote,  regulate  and  standardise 
open science in transport research483. The main 
goals  are  to  develop  a  framework  of  common 
understanding 
for  realising  open  science 
services,  create  the  TOPOS484  forum  and 
for  stakeholders,  provide  a 
observatory 
roadmap 
for 
concrete 
operationalising  open  science  services,  and 
design the European code of conduct on open 
science 
in  transport  to  support  research 
organisations485. 

guidelines 

and 

research 

combine  multiple 

The  ARCHIVER  project  -  Archiving  and 
Preservation for Research Environments - aims 
to  introduce  significant  improvements  in  the 
area  of  archiving  and  digital  preservation 
services for publicly funded research outputs in 
order  to  close  critical  gaps  between  what  is 
currently available versus what is increasingly 
funding  agencies, 
required  by 
requested by data creators and eventual users. 
ARCHIVER  will 
ICT 
technologies,  including  extreme  data  scaling, 
network  connectivity,  service  interoperability 
and  business  models,  in  a  hybrid  cloud 
environment  to  deliver  end-to-end  archival 
and  preservation  services  that  cover  the  full 
research lifecycle. It will create an eco-system 
in 
for  specialist 
archiving and digital preservation,  that would 
like  to  introduce  new  services  capable  of 
supporting  the  expanding  needs  of  research 
communities but are currently prevented from 
is  no  common 
doing  so  because  there 
procurement  activity 
the  advanced 
for 
stewardship of publicly funded research data in 
Europe.  ARCHIVER’s  final  goal  is  to  allow 
research  groups  to  retain  responsibility  and 
stewardship  of  their  data  whilst  leveraging 
best  practices,  standards  and  economies  of 
scale482. 

ICT  companies,  active 

482 (n.d.). About | Archiver-project. Retrieved 6 November 2019 https://www.archiver-project.eu/about 

483  (2017,  October  27).  Funding  &  tenders  -  European  Commission.  Retrieved  6  November  2019  https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-

tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/mg-4-2-2018 

484 (n.d.). TOPOS – BE OPEN project Open Science in transport. Retrieved 6 November https://beopen-project.eu/topos 

485 (n.d.). The project – BE OPEN project Open Science in transport. Retrieved 6 November 2019 https://beopen-project.eu/the-project 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Blue-Cloud – Grant agreement No 862409 – 
01.10.2019 – 31.09.2022 

CatRIS  –  Grant  agreement  No  824173  – 
01.01.2019 – 31.06.2021 

of 

ocean 

Blue-Cloud,  piloting  innovative  services  for 
marine research and the blue economy, aims 
to: 
i) build and demonstrate a pilot blue cloud by 
combining  distributed  marine  data  resources, 
computing  platforms,  and  analytical  services 
ii) develop services for supporting research to 
better  understand  and  manage  the  many 
sustainability 
aspects 
iii)  develop  and  validate  a  number  of 
demonstrators of relevance for marine societal 
challenges 
iv) formulate a roadmap for the expansion and 
sustainability  of  the  blue  cloud  infrastructure 
and services. The project will federate leading 
European  marine 
data  management 
infrastructures  (SeaDataNet,  EurOBIS,  Euro-
Argo,  Argo  GDAC,  EMODnet,  ELIXIR-ENA, 
EuroBioImaging,  CMEMS,  C3S,  and  ICOS-
Marine),  and  horizontal  e-infrastructures 
(EUDAT,  DIAS,  D4Science)  to  capitalise  on 
what exists already, and to develop and deploy 
the  blue  cloud.  The  federation  will  be  at  the 
levels of data resources, computing resources 
and analytical service resources.  

of 

CatRIS 

The 
Research 
(Catalogue 
Infrastructure  Services)  project  is  building  an 
open,  trusted  and  user-friendly  portal  to  a 
harmonised  and  aggregated  catalogue  of 
services  and  resources  provided  by  Research 
Infrastructures  (RI),  CoreFacilities  (CF)  and 
Shared  Scientific  Resources  (SSR)  across 
Europe,  focusing  on  services  provided  by 
physical  infrastructures  and  facilities.  It  is  a 
bottom-up initiative that is populated and run 
by  RI,  CFand  SSR  service  providers  at 
European,  national,  regional  and  institutional 
levels.  CatRIS  will  be  complementary  to  and 
interoperable with the EOSC catalogue. 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

CINECA  –  Grant  agreement  No  825775  – 
01.01.2019 to 31.12.2022 

COS4CLOUD  –  Grant  agreement  863463  – 
01.11.2019 – 28.02.2023 

funders, 

To  maximise  the  impact  of  data  for  large 
cohorts:  researchers,  healthcare,  industry, 
patients  and 
the  project  has 
assembled a set of expert partners in resource 
the 
in 
are 
delivery  who 
communities  which 
analyse, 
standardise  and  share  genomic  data.  The 
project  also  received 
the 
Canadian  Institute  of  Health  Research  under 
CIHR grant No 404896486. 

embedded 
generate, 

funding 

from 

environmental 

Cos4Cloud (Co-designed Citizen Observatories 
Services for the EOS-Cloud), aims to facilitate 
citizen  science  initiatives  by  designing  and 
implementing services for citizen observatories 
in the EOSC framework. The innovative digital 
services  will  be  based  on  deep  machine 
learning,  automatic  video  recognition,  and 
other cutting-edge technologies. Cos4Cloud will 
like 
the  experiences  of  platforms 
use 
Artportalen,  Natusfera,  and  iSpot,  as  well  as 
other 
quality-monitoring 
platforms  like  FreshWater  Watch,  KdUINO, 
OdourCollect,  iSpex,  and  CanAir.io.  The  final 
goal  is  to  improve  the  implementation  of 
existing  and 
future  citizen  observatories, 
addressing the technological critical challenges 
facing them, and to contribute to ensuring their 
sustainability.  Regarding  EOSC  landscape  WG 
activities, Cos4Cloud’s main value may serve as 
an  example  of  how  EOSC  can  interact  with 
other  types  of  knowledge infrastructures  such 
as  those  being  currently  developed  by  citizen 
science observatories. 

CS3MESH4EOSC  –  Grant  agreement  No 
863353 – 01.01.2020 – 31.12.2022 

DARE  –  Grant  agreement  No  777413  – 
01.01.2018 to 31.12.2020 

of 

The  objective  of  CS3-MESH-4-EOSC  is  to 
create an interoperable federation of data and 
higher-level  services  to  enable  friction-free 
collaboration  between  European  researchers. 
This  will  be  achieved  by  capturing  the 
momentum 
service 
recent 
provisioning  and  adoption  by  National 
Research  &  Education  Networks  (NRENs)  and 
research  sector  providers  across 
public 
Europe.  CS3MESH4EOSC  wants  to  integrate 
these  local  existing  sites  and  services  into  a 
seamless 
fully 
infrastructure  which 
interconnected with EOSC-hub, as proposed in 
the  European  Commission’s  implementation 
roadmap for EOSC. 

cloud 

is 

DARE  aims 
to  deliver  a  new  working 
environment for researchers wrestling with the 
challenge  of  extreme  data,  computing  and 
complexity.  The  project  aims  to  present  a 
platform and a set of tools that clearly visualise 
scientific workflows without excessive amounts 
of  technical  detail.  DARE  works  with  two  RIs: 
EPOS  (European  Plate  Observing  System)487 
and  IS-ENES  (Infrastructure  for  the  European 
Network  of  Earth  System  Modelling)488, 
engaging in the co-design and production  use 
of  extreme  methods  that  address  these 
challenges489.  DARE  accelerates  innovation  in 
e-science  while  providing 
technical 
framework  to  virtualise  existing  research 
infrastructures. 

the 

486 (n.d.). History — CINECA - Common Infrastructure for National .... Retrieved 6 November, 2019 https://www.cineca-project.eu/history 

487 (n.d.). European Plate Observing System. Retrieved 6 November, 2019 https://www.epos-ip.org/ 

488 (2019, April 1). Welcome to the ENES Portal — vERC. Retrieved 6 November 2019 https://portal.enes.org/ 

489 (n.d.). Da.Re. project. Retrieved  6 November 2019 http://dare-project.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

DEEP-Hybrid-DataCloud – Grant agreement 
No 777435 – 01.11.2017 to 30.04.2020 

DigitalHealthEurope  –  Grant agreement No. 
826353 – 01.01.2019 -31.12.2020 

DEEP  aims  to  support  machine  learning, 
artificial  intelligence,  and  deep  learning  over 
distributed  e-infrastructures  in  the  European 
Open  Science  Cloud  (EOSC),  satisfying  the 
needs of research, education communities and 
citizen science490. The project seeks to evolve 
existing 
at 
and 
technology readiness level (TRL) 6+ to TRL 8, 
including relevant contributions to the EOSC by 
the  INDIGO-DataCloud491,  which  the  project 
will  enrich  with  new  functionalities  already 
available as prototypes492. 

technologies 

services 

DigitalHealthEurope (DHE) supports the Digital 
Transformation  of  Health  and  Care  (DTHC)  in 
the  Digital  Single  Market493.  In  addition  to 
providing direct funding and support for digital 
solutions  for  health  and  care,  DHE  facilitates 
the creation of multi-stakeholder communities, 
one for each of three priorities of the DTHC. Key 
outputs generated are recommendations for EU 
coordination  and  support  for  DTHC  beyond 
2020. The activities on Priority 2 rating: ’Better 
data  to  advance  research,  disease  prevention 
and personalised health and care’ crucially align 
with the EOSC,  particularly when  dealing with 
of 
health 
Therefore, 
information  between  DHE  and  EOSC 
is 
fundamental and mutually profitable. 

exchange 

data. 

490 (n.d.). DEEP – Hybrid DataCloud. Retrieved  6 November 2019 https://deep-hybrid-datacloud.eu/ 

491 (n.d.). INDIGO DataCloud: Home. Retrieved 6 November 2019 https://www.indigo-datacloud.eu/ 

492 (n.d.). The project – DEEP – Hybrid DataCloud. Retrieved 6 November 2019 https://deep-hybrid-datacloud.eu/the-project/ 

493 COM/2018/233 on enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market; empowering citizens and 

building a healthier society https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2018:233:FIN 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

e-InfraCentral  –  Grant  agreement  No 
731049 – 01.01.2017 to 30.06.2019 

e-IRGSP6  –  Grant  agreement  No  823761  – 
01.01.2019 to 30.06.2021 

eInfraCentral  aimed  to  address  the  challenge 
faced by researchers navigating a fragmented 
e-infrastructure  landscape.  The  goal  was  to 
develop  a  portal  as  the  main  entry  point  to 
to 
European 
enhance  accessibility,  discoverability,  and 
comparability  of  services/  resources.  Key 
results of the project include: 

e-infrastructures 

services 

  The  Scientific  Resources  Description 

Template (SDT) for EOSC494. 

  An 

all-inclusive 

e-
services/resources - the first catalogue for 
EOSC495. 

catalogue 

of 

producing 

high-level 

e-IRGSP6 aims to support e-IRG in its activities 
by 
policy 
recommendations  for  the  implementation  of 
EOSC, Electronic Data Interchange  (EDI), and 
the e-Infrastructure Commons overall. Through 
these supporting activities by e-IRGSP6, e-IRG 
will contribute  to the implementation of  EOSC 
and promote the cultural change towards open 
science  principles496.  The  most 
recently 
published  policy  document  National  Nodes  - 
Getting organised; how far are we? provides a 
representative  picture  of  the  European  e-
infrastructure landscape in its current state497. 
e-IRGSP6  also  constructed  a  knowledge  base 
for e-infrastructures in Europe498. 

  APIs for enabling EOSC interoperability. 

  Online services and assets representations. 

  A set of portal cataloguing functionality. 

  Registration  services  for  onboarding  to 
EOSC, and analytics and visualisations. 

  A platform for providers to build their own 

EOSC-compliant catalogue. 

494 Search for “eInfraCentral+github” or https://github.com/eInfraCentral 

495 (n.d.). eInfraCentral Platform. Retrieved 6 November 2019 https://www.einfracentral.eu/ 

496 (n.d.). Introduction - e-Infrastructures Reflection Group - e-IRGSP6. Retrieved 7 November 2019 http://e-irgsp6.e-irg.eu/introduction 

497 (2019, June 14). eirg-1006 - e-Infrastructures Reflection Group. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from http://e-irg.eu/catalogue/eirg-1006 

498 (n.d.). e-IRG Knowledge Base. Retrieved from http://knowledgebase.e-irg.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

ENVRI-FAIR – Grant agreement No 824068 – 
01.01.2019 to 31.12.2022 

EOSC Enhance – Grant agreement No 871160 
– 01.12.2019 – 30.11.2021 

ENVRI-FAIR is the connection of the cluster of 
Environmental 
Infrastructures 
Research 
(ENVRI)  to  the  EOSC.  It  develops  tools  and 
resources  for  easy  and  seamless  access  to 
environmental  data  and  research  services 
provided  by  ENVRI  research  infrastructures, 
according  to  the  FAIR  principles.  The  highest 
priority  is  the  provision  of  high-quality  data 
using open licences, standard mechanisms and 
protocols.  Its  high-impact  ambition  is  to 
prepare  the  foundations  for  a  federated 
machine-to-machine  interface  –  the  ENVRI-
hub. The hub forms the interface to the EOSC 
and  will  be  realised  as  the  services  across 
ENVRIs  and  even  between  environmental 
subdomains  become  progressively  more 
integrated. 499 

EOSC Enhance will consolidate the EOSC Portal 
as the universal access point for researchers by 
facilitating  and  improving  the  findability  and 
discoverability of EOSC services and resources. 
It will enrich the EOSC offering for services and 
data  by  connecting  the  thematic  clusters  and 
clouds  currently 
in  development.  EOSC 
Enhance pursues four objectives: 
●  Enhance  the service  provider  interface  and 
incorporate new services and resources into 
the EOSC catalogue. 

●  Accelerate  the  deployment  and  uptake  of 

EOSC services and resources. 

●  Increase  user  demand  for  EOSC  services 
and resources via portal improvements and 
development 

●  Enable  easier  access  to  thematic  cloud 

services and data500. 

499 (n.d.). ENVRI-FAIR homepage. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://envri.eu/home-envri-fair/ 

500 (n.d.). EOSC Portal. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-portal.eu/ 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

EOSC-hub  –  Grant  agreement  No  777536  – 
01.01.2018 to 31.12.2020 

EOSC-Life  –  Grant  agreement  No  824087  – 
01.03.2019 to 28.02.2023 

In  EOSC-Life  the 13 European  life science  RIs 
(ELIXIR502;  BBMRI-ERIC503;  EATRIS-ERIC504; 
EMPHASIS507; 
ECRIN-ERIC505; 
EMBRC506; 
ERINHA508; 
EU-OPENSCREEN509; 
INFRAFRONTIER511; 
EuroBioImaging510; 
Instruct-ERIC512;  ISBE513;  MIRRI514)  publish 
their  FAIR  data  in  EOSC  and  establish  the 
policies (e.g. for GDPR) needed for researchers 
to access and combine resources from multiple 
RIs in new projects. The project works with the 
developer  community  to  create  an  ecosystem 
of life-science tools in EOSC compatible clouds, 
and  connect  these  to  users  via  a  shared  life 
science  login  (compatible  with  EOSC  AAI). 
Through open calls for projects researchers will 
be  able  to  get  support  for  novel  data  driven 
research in EOSC515. 

The EOSC-hub501 brings together 100 partners 
including  major  e-infrastructures  and  ESFRI 
research infrastructures, to create the hub: a 
single contact point for  European researchers 
and  innovators  to  discover,  access,  use  and 
reuse  a  broad  spectrum  of  EOSC  resources. 
This  will  favour  broader  access  to  services 
supporting discovery and collaboration across 
disciplinary and geographical boundaries. The 
list of  project  key-exploitable  results  includes 
components 
the 
contributing 
implementation  of  the  EOSC  roadmap:  the 
EOSC  Marketplace  and  the  EOSC  Portal  AAI, 
services  for  the  realisation  of  EOSC  as 
federated  system  (the  “Hub  Portfolio”),  the 
first  prototype  of 
the  EOSC  Service 
Management  System  for  the  delivery  of 
services of the EOSC federating core, the EOSC 
Digital 
industrial 
collaborations,  business  and  sustainability 
the  EOSC  Rules  of 
models, 
Participation 
and 
training 
Interoperability  guidelines,  and 
resources  and  events  complemented  by  the 
EOSC Early Adopter Programme. 

Innovation  Hub 

Integration 

to 
and 

input 

for 

to 

501 (n.d.). EOSC Hub. Retrieved from https://www.eosc-hub.eu/ 

502 (n.d.). ELIXIR Europe. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://elixir-europe.org/ 

503 (n.d.). BBMRI-ERIC. Retrieved 7 November, 2019 http://www.bbmri-eric.eu/ 

504 (n.d.). EATRIS. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://eatris.eu/ 

505 (n.d.). ECRIN: Facilitating European Clinical Research. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.ecrin.org/ 

506 (n.d.). EMBRC. Retrieved 7 November 2019 http://www.embrc.eu/ 

507 (n.d.). Emphasis. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://emphasis.plant-phenotyping.eu/ 

508 (n.d.). ERINHA. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.erinha.eu/ 

509 (n.d.). EU OPENSCREEN - European high-capacity screening .... Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/ 

510 (n.d.). Euro Bioimaging. Retrieved 7 November, 2019 https://www.eurobioimaging.eu/ 

511 (n.d.). INFRAFRONTIER - The European infrastructure for .... Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.infrafrontier.eu/ 

512 (n.d.). Instruct-ERIC. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://instruct-eric.eu/ 

513 (n.d.). ISBE Project Website. Retrieved 7 November, 2019  http://project.isbe.eu/ 

514 (n.d.). Home | MIRRI - Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure .... Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.mirri.org/ 

515 (n.d.). EOSC Life: Home. Retrieved 7 November 2019 http://www.eosc-life.eu/ 

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EOSC-Nordic – Grant agreement No 857652 
– 01.09.2019 to 31.08.2022 

EOSC-Pillar – Grant agreement No 857650  – 
01.07.2019 to 30.06.2022 

Iceland, 

EOSC-Nordic  aims  to  foster  and  advance  the 
take-up  of  the  EOSC  at  the  Nordic  level  by 
coordinating  the  EOSC-relevant 
initiatives 
taking  place  in  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland, 
Germany, 
Lithuania 
Netherlands,  Norway,  and  Sweden.  ,  It  also 
achieve  greater 
exploits 
service 
harmonisation 
provisioning  across 
in 
compliance  with  EOSC-agreed  standards  and 
practices516. 

to 
policy 
these  countries, 

synergies 
of 

Latvia, 

and 

EOSC-Pillar is one of the projects funded in the 
INFRAEOSC-05 call, dedicated to thematic and 
regional initiatives. The project aims to support 
the coordination and harmonisation of national 
initiatives relevant to EOSC in Austria, Belgium, 
France, Germany and Italy. The project intends 
to integrate a bottom-up approach (by voicing 
the requirements and needs expressed by the 
different scientific communities operating at the 
national  level)  and  a  top-down  one  (by 
harmonising 
the  national  strategies  and 
translating them into a viable work plan)517. 

EOSCpilot  –  Grant  agreement  No  739563  – 
01.01.2017 to 31.05.2019 

EOSC-Secretariat.eu  –  Grant  agreement  No 
831644 – 01.01.2019 to 30.06.2021 

policies, 

EOSCpilot  supported  the  first  phase  of  the 
EOSC’s  development.  The  project  delivered 
contributions  to  the  EOSC  in  the  areas  of 
governance, 
interoperability, 
architecture,  and  services,  and  provided  the 
first "EOSC in practice" science demonstrators. 
these,  EOSCpilot  has 
Having  delivered 
established its legacy and its outputs are used 
by  several  other  projects  funded  to  establish 
the  EOSC518.  A  mapping  of  which  EOSCpilot 
deliverables  are  most  relevant  to  each  EOSC 
Working Group has been provided519. 

EOSCsecretariat.eu addresses the need for the 
set-up of an operational framework supporting 
the overall governance of the EOSC. It supports 
EOSC governance by channelling messages to 
the  stakeholders  and 
following  up  on 
implementation,  and  maintains  a  practical 
approach  to  addressing  the  specific  needs  of 
the  coordinated  structure  expected  by  the 
EOSC520. 

516(n.d.). EOSC-Nordic. Retrieved 7 November 2019  www.eosc-nordic.eu and  https://neic.no/eosc-nordic/ 

517 (n.d.). EOSC-Pillar. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.eosc-pillar.eu/ 

518 (n.d.). eoscpilot.eu. Retrieved 7 January 2020 https://eoscpilot.eu/news/eoscpilot-rounds-key-contributions-eosc 

519 (2019, July 5). EOSCpilot maps key deliverables for use by EOSC Executive .... Retrieved from https://eoscpilot.eu/news/eoscpilot-

maps-key-deliverables-use-eosc-executive-board-working-groups 

520 (n.d.). About Us | EOSCSecretariat. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.eoscsecretariat.eu/about-us 

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EOSC-synergy – Grant agreement No 857647 
– 01.09.2019 to 28.02.2022 

ESCAPE  –  Grant  agreement  No  824064  – 
01.02.2019 to 31.07.2022 

to 

EOSC-synergy  delivers  services  and  supports 
selected scientific use cases that span several 
countries  by  pushing  the  state-of-the-art  in 
software  and  services  life-cycle  through  a 
quality-driven 
services 
approach 
integration.. It focuses on the identification of 
obstacles  and  barriers  preventing  close 
international  collaboration,  and  minimises 
them  by harmonising policies and  federating-
relevant  national  research  e-infrastructures, 
scientific  data  and  thematic  services.  All  this 
bridges  the  gap  between  national  initiatives 
and  the  EOSC,  and  expands  service  adoption 
by developing new capabilities and by opening 
national thematic services to European access, 
based  on  a  robust  human  network  and 
advanced training tools. 

ESCAPE  is  a  single  collaborative  cluster  of 
seven ESFRI and Landmark projects (CTA, SKA, 
KM3NeT,  ELT,  EST,  FAIR,  HL-LHC),  and  two 
pan-European  organisations  (ESO,  CERN)  in 
the area  of astronomy-  and accelerator-based 
particle  physics  in  order  to  implement  a 
functional  link  between  the  concerned  ESFRI 
projects and EOSC. These ESFRI projects have 
aligned  challenges  of  data-driven  research, 
with  demonstrated  capabilities  in  addressing 
various stages of data workflow and concerned 
through 
with 
complementary  approaches.  The  networks  of 
ASTRONET,  APPEC  and  HEP  (CERN),  NuPECC 
are  involved  in  ESCAPE.  ESCAPE  participants 
are  involved  in  EOSC  WGs  -  Architecture  and 
FAIR521.  

fundamental 

research 

ExPaNDS  –  Grant  agreement  No  857641  – 
01.09.2019 to 31.08.2022 

FAIRsFAIR  –  Grant  agreement  No  831558  – 
01.03.2019 to 28.02.2022 

ExPaNDS  (EOSC  Photon  and  Neutron  Data 
to  deliver  standardised, 
Services)  aims 
interoperable and integrated data sources and 
data analysis services for national photon and 
neutron facilities to the EOSC. It complements 
the  PaNOSC  project  which  has  similar 
objectives for the ESFRI PaN RIs. For the EOSC 
Landscape  WG,  ExPaNDS  established  a 
baseline  of  the  current  state  of  FAIR  data 
policies  and  data  management  practices 
the  e-
the  project’s  RIs  and 
among 
infrastructure EGI. 

FAIRsFAIR  (Fostering  Fair  Data  Practices  in 
Europe)  aims  to  supply  practical  solutions  for 
the use of the FAIR data principles throughout 
the  research  data  life  cycle  with  an  emphasis 
on fostering FAIR data culture and the uptake 
of  good  practices  in  making  data  FAIR,  in 
particular in the context of the European Open 
Science  Cloud  (EOSC).  FAIRsFAIR  will  deliver 
and  support  recommendations  on  data  policy 
and practice, provide solutions and support for 
semantic  interoperability,  support  certification 
of  trustworthy  data  repositories  and  data 
assessment,  as  well  as  develop  a  FAIR 
competence  centre  and  framework  for  higher 
education522. 

FAIRsFAIR’s  three  landscaping  activities  on 
Semantics  and  Interoperability,  FAIR  Data 
Policies and Practices, and Research Data and 
FAIR Data  Principles (in higher  education)  are 
relevant  inputs  for  the  information  gathering 
exercise  of 
the  EOSC  Landscaping  WG 
regarding  national  data  policies,  available 
infrastructure, and training and skills523. 

521 (n.d.). About Us | ESCAPE. Retrieved from https://projectescape.eu/about-us 

522 (n.d.). The Project | FAIRsFAIR. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.fairsfair.eu/the-project 

523 FAIRsFAIR deliverables: https://www.fairsfair.eu/reports-deliverables 

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Fair4Fusion – Grant agreement No 847612 – 
01.09.2019 to 31.08.2021 

FAIR4Health – Grant agreement No 824666 – 
01.12.2018 to 30.11.2021 

other 

fusion 

community, 

The overall objective of Fair4Fusion is to make 
European funded data more widely available to 
the 
science 
communities, funding bodies, and the public at 
large  in  order  to  maximise  the  impact  of  the 
data  and  demonstrate  the  importance  of  the 
work done at relevant sites. Fair4Fusion aims 
to provide a reference architecture for an open 
data platform. Where possible, Fair4Fusion will 
use existing services and tools, adapting them 
where  necessary  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
fusion community524. 

The  overall  objective  of  FAIR4Health  is  to 
facilitate and encourage the EU health research 
community  to  FAIRify,  share  and  reuse  their 
datasets derived from publicly funded research 
initiatives, and from real-world data (Electronic 
Health  Records)525.  FAIR4Health  will  apply 
privacy-preserving  distributed  data  mining 
techniques to the shared and FAIRify datasets 
to  develop  two  pathfinder  case  studies: 
supporting  the  discovery  of  disease  onset 
triggers  and  disease  association  patterns  in 
comorbid patients, and a prediction service for 
30-days  re-admission  risk  in  complex  chronic 
patients.  FAIR4Health  develops  activities  of 
interest to the EOSC strategy, especially in the 
field of FAIR data and specific infrastructures. 

FAIRplus  –  Grant  agreement  No  802750  – 
01.01.2019 to 30.06.2022 

FNS-Cloud  –  Grant  agreement  No  863059  – 
01.10.2019 – 30.09.2021 

The FAIRplus project aims to develop tools and 
guidelines  for  making  life  science  data  FAIR. 
The  project  has  22  partners  from  academia 
and  industry.  FAIRplus  aims  to  increase  the 
discovery, accessibility and reusability of data 
from  selected  projects  funded  by  the  EU 
Innovative  Medicine  Initiative  (IMI),  and 
internal  data  from  pharmaceutical  industry 
partners. The increased FAIRness of data will 
lead to a wider sharing of knowledge, greater 
opportunities for innovation, and more insights 
that benefit society526. 

Health-related  RIs  focus  on  clinical,  molecular 
and  biological  sciences  whilst  existing  food, 
nutrition  and  security  (FNS)  resources  (data, 
knowledge  rules)  are  fragmented,  lack  critical 
mass,  and  access  by  user  communities  is 
unevenly  distributed.  FNS-Cloud  aims 
to 
develop  an  on-demand,  federated  network 
(cloud infrastructure), supporting access to and 
exploitation  of  FNS  resources,  integrated  with 
the  European  Open  Science  Cloud  (EOSC). 
Also, because FNS domains lack tools for data 
management  and  predictive  modelling,  FNS-
Cloud  will  develop  advanced  methods  and 
services  for  user  communities,  making  FNS 
data FAIRer (findable, accessible, interoperable 
and  reusable)  and  adding-value  to  publicly 
funded research for citizens. 

524 (n.d.). CORDIS. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://cordis.europa.eu/ 

525 (n.d.). Project - FAIR4Health. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.fair4health.eu/en/project 

526 (n.d.). About the FAIRplus project| FAIRplus. Retrieved 7 November, 2019 https://fairplus-project.eu/about/ 

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FREYA  –  Grant  agreement  No  777523  – 
01.12.2019 to 30.11.2020 

GN4-3  and  GN4-3N  (GEANT)  –  Grant 
agreement  No  856726  and  856728  – 
01.01.2019 to 31.12.2022 

identifiers  (PIDs) 

FREYA  is  extending  a  robust  environment  for 
persistent 
into  a  core 
component of European and global research e-
infrastructures,  motivated  by  the  vision  of  a 
rich “PID graph” of interconnected entities. The 
resulting  FREYA  services  will  cover  a  wide 
range  of  resources  in  the  research  and 
innovation  landscape  and  enhance  the  links 
between  them,  so  that  they  can  be  exploited 
in  many  disciplines  and  research  processes. 
This will provide an essential building block of 
the  European  Open  Science  Cloud  (EOSC). 
Moreover, the FREYA project will establish an 
open, sustainable, and trusted  framework  for 
collaborative  self-governance  of  PIDs  and 
services built on them—the “PID Commons”. 

growth 

Europe's 

The projects are proposed to last 48 months to 
implement,  diminishing 
the  digital  divide 
through  the  GÉANT  partnership.  GÉANT  is 
Europe’s leading collaboration on network and 
related  infrastructure  and  services  for  the 
benefit of research and education, contributing 
and 
economic 
to 
competitiveness.  The  organisation  develops, 
delivers  and  promotes  advanced  network  and 
associated  e-infrastructure 
services,  and 
supports  innovation  and  knowledge-sharing 
amongst its members, partners and the wider 
research and education networking community. 
It currently reaches over 50 million users at 10 
000 institutions across Europe, and more than 
100 countries worldwide. The EU-funded GN4-
3 is the third specific grant agreement under a 
framework  partnership  agreement 
(FPA) 
between  the  GÉANT  Consortium  and  the 
European  Commission.  It  aims  to  help  take 
European research to the next level, promoting 
scientific  excellence,  access  and  re-use  of 
research data.  

GN4-3N entails a very ambitious restructuring 
of the backbone network operated by GÉANT in 
order  to  provide  equal  access  to  clouds  and 
other e-infrastructure services in the European 
research area and beyond. It  will improve the 
overall  resilience  and  reliability  of  the  GÉANT 
network  significantly,  and  offer  a  base  for 
future  improvements  in  access,  transmission 
speeds and capacity wherever needed527. 

527 (2019, October 31). GN4-3N Project | H2020 - Cordis. Retrieved 14 February2020 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/856728 

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ICEDIG  –  Grant  agreement  No  777483  – 
01.01.2018 – 31.03.2020 

INODE  –  Grant  agreement  No  863410  – 
01.11.2019 – 31.10.2022 

ICEDIG (Innovation and consolidation for large 
scale digitisation of natural heritage) is an EU-
funded  project  that  aims  to  support  the 
implementation  phase  of  the  new  Research 
Infrastructure Distributed System of Scientific 
Collections  (DiSSCo) 
  by  designing  and 
addressing the technical, financial, policy and 
governance aspects necessary to operate such 
a 
for  natural 
sciences collections across Europe528. 

large  distributed 

initiative 

INODE  –  Intelligent  Open  Data  Exploration  – 
aims  to  advance  open  data  exploration  and 
democratisation  in  the  EOSC  ecosystem  by 
fit-for-purpose  and 
providing  a  suite  of 
sustainable services for the intuitive linking and 
exploration  of  open  data.  These  services  will 
allow  users  to  search  data  using  natural 
language and examples, and optimise answers 
and  queries  through  a  combination  of  service 
recommendations, 
that  provide 
functions 
interactive 
explanations, 
analytics, 
visualisations.  INODE’s  service  offering 
is 
shaped  by  the  needs  of  three  communities  in 
the areas of biomedical research, astrophysics, 
and research and innovation policy making 529. 

and 

NEANIAS  –  Grant  agreement  No  863448  – 
01.11.2019 -31.10.2022 

InRoad  –  Grant  agreement  No  730928  – 
01.01.2017 to 31.12.2018 

InRoad looked at ways to foster a higher degree 
of  coordination  of  priority  setting,  evaluation 
and  funding  mechanisms,  and  to  ensure 
sustainable  planning  for  RIs  in  Europe.  The 
analysis of the extensive data collected during 
the  project  activities  allowed  the  project 
partners  to  identify  common  trends  and  good 
practices  that  are  summed  up  in  the  InRoad 
final report.531 

NEANIAS –(Novel EOSC Services for Emerging 
Atmosphere, Underwater & Space Challenges) 
aim  to  promote  Open  Science  practices  and 
actively contribute to the materialisation of the 
EOSC  ecosystem  by  engaging  large  scientific 
and  professional  communities,  extending  its 
offerings  and  supporting  its  technological, 
regulatory, procedural, strategic and business 
development.  NEANIAS  will  drive  the  co-
design  and  delivery  of  innovative  thematic 
services, 
state-of-the-art 
research  assets  and  practices  in  three  major 
sectors – underwater, atmospheric and space 
research  –  and  will  seek  business  innovation 
cases by exemplifying reuse in energy, smart 
engaging 
cities 
multitudinous 
and 
business actors530. 

academic, 

domains, 

research 

derived 

other 

from 

and 

528 (n.d.). icedig: Front. Retrieved 14 February2020 https://www.icedig.eu/ 

529  (n.d.). The INODE project — INODE. Retrieved 7 January2020 http://www.inode-project.eu/  

530 (n.d.). NEANIAS Project. Retrieved from https://www.neanias.eu/ 

531 (n.d.). InRoad Project. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.inroad.eu/ 

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MERIL  –  Grant  agreement  No  262159  – 
01.10.2010  to  31.12.2012  and  MERIL-2  – 
Grant agreement No 262159 – 01.03.2016 to 
31.08.2019 

The MERIL (Mapping of the European Research 
Infrastructure  Landscape)  portal  provides 
access  to  a  database  that  stores  information 
about openly accessible RIs in Europe, across 
all scientific domains, including Social Sciences 
and Humanities (SSH). The MERIL database is 
a  dynamic  resource  that  was  continuously 
updated.  MERIL  database 
consists  of 
identified,  eligible  RIs,  and  a  set  of  data  for 
each individual RI, collected and displayed in a 
standardised format. The MERIL-2 project built 
on the previous phases of MERIL, and provided 
the  means  for  making  informed  assessments 
and  decisions  about  the  RI  landscape  in 
Europe,  and  encouraged  accessibility,  new 
partnerships  and  collaborations  within  the 
scientific  community.  The  MERIL-2  project 
further expanded the coverage of RIs included 
in the database, and improved the depth and 
accuracy of the information held on them532. 

NI4OS-Europe – Grant agreement No 857645 
– 01.09.2019 to 31.08.2022 

NI4OS  aims  to  be  a  core  contributor  to  the 
European  open  science  cloud  initiatives  in  15 
EU  MS  and AC  in the overall scheme of  EOSC 
governance.  The  overall  approach  is  that  the 
national open science landscape in all countries 
will be systematically mapped and analysed to 
facilitate  both  the  creation  of  national  open 
science  cloud  initiatives to  support the  overall 
to  engage  all 
EOSC  governance,  and 
stakeholders533.  NI4OS  will 
the 
existing  EOSC-relevant  services  in  the  target 
countries  by  making 
them  visible  and 
compatible  with  the  core  building  blocks  of 
EOSC.  NI4OS  will  collaborate  with  the  other 
EOSC-related  initiatives  to  contribute  to  the 
common  EOSC  platform,  including  a  set  of 
policies,  rules  and  principles  for  managing 
services  and  research  data  across  EOSC 
ecosystem.  

federate 

532 (n.d.). MERIL portal. Retrieved 7 November, 2019 https://portal.meril.eu/meril/ 

533 (n.d.). NI4OS-Europe Project - CORDIS. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/224431/en?WT.mc_id=RSS-

Feed&WT.rss_f=project&WT.rss_a=224431&WT.rss_ev=a  https://ni4os.eu/ ,  

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Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

OCRE  –  Grant  agreement  No  824079  – 
01.01.2019 to 31.12.2021 

OpenAIRE-Advance  –  Grant  agreement  No 
777541 – 01.01.2018 to 31.12.2020 

The  OCRE  (Open  Clouds 
for  Research 
Environments) project aims to accelerate cloud 
adoption in the European research community, 
by  bringing  together  cloud  providers,  Earth 
Observation  organisations  and  the  research 
and  education  community,  through  ready-to-
use  service  agreements  with  cloud  service 
providers that meet the specific requirements 
of the research community, saving institutions 
the  time-consuming  and  complex  process  of 
doing this themselves534. 

OpenAIRE-Advance  continues  the  mission  of 
OpenAIRE535  to  establish  a  European/global 
scholarly communication commons by: 

i) providing services to:  

● 

● 

researchers  for  making  their  research 
open (Zenodo, Amnesia, Argos); 
content  providers  for  linking  their 
content to the European infrastructure 
(Metadata  Guidelines  for  literature, 
data, 
repositories, 
ScholExplorer); 

software 

●  policy  makers  for  monitoring  research 
outcomes  and  impact,  and  research 
communities 
for  managing  open 
research. 

ii)  establishing  national  nodes,  National  Open 
Access Desks (NOADs), as a pivotal part within 
national infrastructure environments. 

role, 
consolidating  Europe’s  global 
iii) 
extending  collaborations  with  Latin  America, 
US, Japan, Canada, and Africa536. 

OpenRIskNet – Grant agreement No 731075 
– 01.12.2016 to 30.11.2019 

PaNOSC  –  Grant  agreement  No  823852  – 
01.12.2018 to 30.11.2022 

agents 

chemicals, 

OpenRiskNet  aims  to  develop  an  open  e-
infrastructure providing resources and services 
to  a  variety  of  communities  that  require  risk 
cosmetic 
of 
assessments 
ingredients, 
or 
therapeutic 
nanomaterials.  Virtual  environments  are 
provided, which can run  on different  types of 
computer  hardware  ranging 
from  single 
computers to cloud infrastructure, on which a 
multitude  of  data,  modelling  and  simulation 
services  can  be  deployed  and  combined  to 
answer  complex  risk  assessment  questions. 
Case  studies  demonstrate  the  applicability  of 
the 
in  productive  settings 
supporting research and innovation537. 

infrastructure 

PaNOSC  (Photon  and  Neutron  Open  Science 
Cloud) aims to make FAIR data a reality in six 
European  RIs  (CERIC-ERIC,  ELI,  ESRF,  ESS, 
EU-XFEL,  ILL),  developing  and  providing 
services for scientific data and connecting these 
to the EOSC538.Together these facilities produce 
petabytes  of  data.  PaNOSC  (and  its  sister 
project, ExPaNDS) will make the data produced 
easily accessible to the users and the public by 
providing scientific data management and data 
analysis services for enabling Open Science.  

534 (n.d.). About | OCRE. Retrieved 7 November 2019  https://www.ocre-project.eu/about 

535 (n.d.). OpenAIRE. Retrieved 7 November 2019  https://www.openaire.eu/ 

536 (2019, May 2). OpenAIRE Advance project | Projects. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.openaire.eu/openaire-advance-project 

537 (n.d.). About • OpenRiskNet. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://openrisknet.org/about/ 

538 (n.d.). The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud (PaNOSC .... Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.panosc.eu/ 

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PRIMAGE  –  Grant  agreement  No  826494  – 
01.12.2018 to 30.11.2022 

PROCESS  –  Grant  agreement  No  777533  – 
01.11.2017 to 31.10.2020 

industry 

settings. 

PROCESS aims to deliver a comprehensive set 
of mature service prototypes and tools specially 
developed  to  enable  extreme  scale  data 
processing  in  both  scientific  research  and 
advanced 
PROCESS 
demonstrators  seek  to  pave  the  way  towards 
data services that aim to accelerate innovation 
and  maximise  the  benefits  of  the  emerging 
“very large data” solutions. PROCESS provides 
an ecosystem of distributed services based on 
virtualisation  principles,  which  necessitates 
containerisation  of  applications,  refactoring 
stacks  using  a  micro-service 
software 
approach, and supporting orchestration on the 
infrastructures539. 

in 

to  a  new  era 

PRIMAGE  proposes  an  open-cloud-based 
platform  to  support  decision-making  in  the 
clinical management of two paediatric cancers. 
PRIMAGE is based on the use of computational 
imaging,  which  allows  the  extraction  of 
multiparametric  data,  multiscale  models, 
visual  analytics  and  artificial  intelligence, 
radiomics, 
leading 
characterised  by  high-throughput  extraction, 
storage,  and  analysis  of  a  large  number  of 
quantitative imaging features and parameters 
(imaging  biomarkers).  Imaging  biomarkers 
linked to clinical, molecular and genetic data, 
will  be  part  of  a  high-quality  repository  with 
anonymised  data,  which  will  be  used  as  an 
observational  in  silico  study  to  finally  have  a 
Clinical  Decision  Support  (CDS)  tool.  As  a 
result,  the  PRIMAGE  platform  will  be  able  to 
provide  quantitative 
information 
(virtual  biopsies) 
the  early  disease 
for 
diagnosis,  disease  phenotyping,  disease 
grading, targeting therapies and evaluation of 
disease response to treatment in children with 
neuroblastoma  and  Diffuse  Intrinsic  Pontine 
Glioma (DIPG). 

relevant 

RDA  Europe  4.0  –  Grant  agreement  No 
777388 – 01.03.2018 to 31.05.2020 

RISCAPE  –  Grant  agreement  No  730974  – 
01.01.2017 to 31.12.2019 

focused, 

systematic, 

The goal for the RISCAPE project is to provide 
a 
high-quality, 
comprehensive,  consistent  and  peer-reviewed 
international  landscape  analysis  report  on  the 
position  and  complementarities  of  the  major 
European  research 
the 
in 
international 
infrastructure 
landscape541. 

infrastructures 

research 

and 

The Research Data Alliance (rd-alliance.org) is 
an  international  community  driven  initiative 
building social and technical bridges to enable 
the open sharing and re-use of research data. 
The  RDA  Europe  4.0  project  is  mandated  to 
ensure  that  European  political,  research, 
industrial 
infrastructure 
stakeholders are aware of, engaged with, and 
actively  involved  in  the  global  RDA  activities. 
RDA  provides  an  international  neutral  forum 
for discussing and agreeing relevant technical 
standards for the implementation of the EOSC. 
In addition, RDA supports the communication 
and  dissemination  of  EOSC  developments 
across the globe540. 

digital 

539 (n.d.). Project Objectives – PROCESS. Retrieved 7 November 2019 https://www.process-project.eu/project-objectives/ 

540 (n.d.). About RDA EU 4.0 - RDA Europe - Research Data Alliance. Retrieved 7 November 2019  https://www.rd-alliance.org/rda-europe 

541 (n.d.). RISCAPE in a nutshell - RISCAPE. Retrieved 12 November 2019  https://riscape.eu/riscape-project/ 

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SSHOC  –  Grant  agreement  No  823782  – 
01.01.2019 to 30.04.2022 

TRIPLE  –  Grant  agreement  No  863420  – 
01.10.2019 – 31.03.2023 

SSHOC (Social Sciences and Humanities Open 
Cloud) aims to realise the social sciences and 
humanities’ part of the European Open Science 
Cloud (EOSC) where data, tools,  and  training 
are  available  and  accessible  for  users  of  SSH 
data. All aspects of the full research data cycle 
and  human-centric  approach  are  engaged  in 
creating  links  between  people,  data,  services 
and  training.  SSHOC  will  advance  secure 
environments  for  sharing  and  using  sensitive 
and  confidential  data,  and  will  contribute  to 
innovations  stemming  from  the  coupling  of 
heterogeneous data types, as well as work on 
the  Interoperability  principle  of  FAIR.  The 
consortium  aims  to  align  with  necessary 
technical  and  other  EOSC  requirements  for 
the  SSHOC  services  sustainable 
making 
beyond the duration of the project542. 

and  multicultural 

TRIPLE 
through 
(Transforming  Research 
Innovative Practices for Linked interdisciplinary 
Exploration)  aims  to  develop  an  innovative 
discovery 
multilingual 
solution  for  Social  Science  and  Humanities. 
Based on the Isidore search engine, the TRIPLE 
platform  will  provide  a  single  access  point  for 
users to discover and reuse open scholarly SSH 
resources, i.e. research data and publications, 
which  are  currently  scattered  across  local 
repositories 
to: 
i) find and connect with other researchers and 
language 
projects  across  disciplinary  and 
boundaries. 
ii)  use  innovative  tools  to  support  research. 
iii) discover new ways of funding research. The 
project’s final goal is to integrate the discovery 
solution into the EOSC marketplace543. 

VirtualBrainCloud  –  Grant  agreement  No 
826421 – 01.12.2018 to 30.11.2022 

XDC  –  Grant  agreement  No  777367  – 
01.01.2017 to 31.01.2020 

and 

diagnosis 

treatment 

The  central  goal  of  this  project  is  the 
development  of  a  cloud-based  platform  for 
biomedical  research  and  clinical  decision-
making  that  helps  to  improve  early  patient-
specific 
of 
neurodegenerative  diseases  (NDD),  such  as  
Alzheimer’s disease  and Parkinson’s   and has 
substantial  potential  for  significant  positive 
socioeconomic  impact.  The  objective  is  to 
develop  and  validate  VirtualBrainCloud,  a 
dedicated  cloud-based  environment 
that 
leverages  the  potential  of  big  data  and  high-
performance computing (HPC) for personalised 
prevention and treatment of NDD544. 

data 

XDC  (eXtreme  DataCloud)  aims  to  develop 
scalable  technologies  for  federating  storage 
in  highly 
resources  and  managing  data 
distributed  computing  environments.  The 
services  provided  aim  to  operate  at  the 
unprecedented  scale  required  by  the  most 
research 
demanding, 
experiments  in  Europe  and  worldwide.  XDC  is 
based  on  existing  tools,  whose  technical 
maturity is proved, and the project seeks to be 
enriched  with  new  functionalities  and  plugins 
already  available  as  prototypes  (TRL6+)  that 
will be brought at the production level (TRL8+) 
at  end  of  XDC.  The  XDC  software  will  be 
released as open source platforms available for 
general exploitation545. 

intensive, 

542 (n.d.). About SSHOC | SSHOPENCLOUD. Retrieved from https://www.sshopencloud.eu/about-sshoc 

543   (n.d.). About TRIPLE |GOTRIPLE. Retrieved 8 January 2020  https://www.gotriple.eu/about/ 

544 (n.d.). VBC Project - VirtualBrainCloud. Retrieved 7 November 2019  https://virtualbraincloud-2020.eu/vbc-project.html 

545 (n.d.). The project | XDC - eXtreme DataCloud. Retrieved 7 November  2019  http://www.extreme-datacloud.eu/the-project/ 

116 

 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

ANNEX II COUNTRY SHEET TEMPLATE  

Country Sheet 

[Please insert country’s name, e.g. Austria] 

Current policy546 on open science and FAIR data 

1. Is there a current policy on open science and FAIR data in place? [Please answer by adding 
an (x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

Responsibility regarding policy-making (strategic level): [Please detail the current policy in the 
country  concerned.  Please  add  the  responsibility  at  national  level.  Please  also  add  the  ongoing 
preparation (plan) if no current policy is in place or if updates are expected. Max. ≈ 150 words] 

Responsibility regarding funding (supporting open science and FAIR data in practice): [Please 
detail the current funding mechanisms in the country concerned. Please add the responsibility at 
national level. Please also add the ongoing preparation (plan) if no current funding policy is in place 
or if updates are expected. Max. ≈ 150 words] 

Further observations / information: [Please include here any further observations or precisions, 
which  are  part  of  open  science  and  FAIR  data  but  don’t  fit  the  previous  boxes.  E.g.  there  is  no 
national policy, but X and Y university have their own policies Max. ≈ 150 words] 

1.1. Is there a current policy regarding publications547 in place? [Please answer by adding an 
(x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

1.1.1. If yes, does it include open access to publications? [Please answer by adding an (x) in 
the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

Responsibility regarding policy-making (strategic level): [Please complete this part ONLY IF 
the  current  policy  and  responsibility  regarding  publications  are  different  from  open 
science policy. If this is the case, please detail the current policy regarding publications and add 
the responsibility. Max. ≈ 150 words.] 

Responsibility regarding funding: [Please  complete  this part ONLY IF the  current funding 
mechanisms regarding publications are different from open science funding mechanisms. 

546  Please  understand  policy  as  ‘anything’  from  guideline  to  mandate  to  code  of  conduct  or  actual  law.  Please  aim  for  very  high-level 

descriptive statements. 

Please add a footnote if you think the way you understood a certain term should be specified as the Glossary Task Force will work on the 

terminology at a later date. 

547 Please consider national funders and policy encouraging open access to publications. 

117 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

If this is the case, please detail the current funding mechanisms regarding publications and add the 
responsibility. Max. ≈ 150 words.] 

1.2. Is there a current policy regarding data / services in place? [Please answer by adding an 
(x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

1.2.1. If yes, does it include open data? [Please answer by adding a (x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

Responsibility regarding policy-making (strategic level): [Please complete this part ONLY IF 
the current policy and responsibility are different from open science policy. If this is the 
case, please detail the current policy regarding data / services and add the responsibility.  Max. ≈ 
150 words.] 

Responsibility regarding funding:  [Please  complete  this part ONLY IF the  current funding 
mechanisms  regarding  data  /  services  are  different  from  open  science  funding 
mechanisms. If this is the case, please detail the current funding mechanisms regarding data / 
services and add the responsibility. Max. ≈ 150 words.] 

1.3. Is there a current policy regarding research evaluation in place? [Please answer by adding 
an (x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

Responsibility regarding policy making (strategic level): [Please complete this part ONLY IF 
the current policy and responsibility are different from open science policy. If this is the 
case, please detail the current policy regarding research evaluation and add the responsibility. Max. 
≈ 150 words.] 

Responsibility regarding funding:  [Please  complete  this part ONLY IF the  current funding 
mechanisms  regarding  research  evaluation  are  different  from  open  science  funding 
mechanisms. If this is the case, please detail the current funding mechanisms regarding research 
evaluation and add the responsibility. Max. ≈ 150 words.] 

1.4. Is there a current policy regarding open learning in place? [Please answer by adding an 
(x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

Responsibility regarding policy-making (strategic level): [Please complete this part ONLY IF 
the current policy and responsibility are different from open science policy. If this is the 
case, please  detail the current policy regarding  open  learning and add the responsibility.  Max. ≈ 
150 words.] 

118 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

Responsibility regarding funding:  [Please  complete  this part  ONLY IF the current funding 
mechanisms  regarding  open 
learning  are  different  from  open  science  funding 
mechanisms.  If  this  is  the  case,  please  detail  the  current  funding  mechanisms  regarding  open 
learning and add the responsibility. Max. ≈ 150 words.] 

2. Are there references to EOSC in the current policies? [Please answer by adding an (x) in the 
appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

References to EOSC: [Please detail the current references to EOSC in the country concerned. Max. 
≈ 150 words] 

2.1.  Is  funding or  criteria  for  funding  mentioned  (with  regards  to  EOSC)?  [Please  answer  by 
adding an (x) in the appropriate cell.] 

Yes 

No 

In planning 

Funding: [Please detail the current funding or criteria for funding mentioned (with regards to EOSC) 
in the country concerned. Max. ≈ 150 words] 

2.2. Is there a national contact point for open science? [Please answer by adding an (x) in the 
appropriate cell.] 
Yes 

In planning 

No 

National contact point for open science: [Please detail information regarding national contact point 
for open science in the country concerned. Max. ≈ 150 words] 
2.3. Is there a national contact point for EOSC? [Please answer by adding an (x) in the appropriate 
cell.] 
Yes 

In planning 

No 

National  contact  point  for  EOSC:  [Please detail information regarding national contact point for 
EOSC in the country concerned. Max. ≈ 150 words] 

Current e-infrastructure landscape 

3. Current e-infrastructure that is to be federated / accessible to the EOSC548 

[Please detail the current e-infrastructure landscape that is to be federated / accessible to the EOSC. 
Max. ≈ 300 words in total (including 3.1-3.3.)]  

3.1. Data infrastructures 

[Please add the responsibilities considering financing (€).] 

[Please add the responsibilities considering operating.] 

add 
[Please 
plans/future.] 

information 

/ 

responsibilities 

regarding 

548 Please count only the resources that could, in principle, be federated into or accessible from the EOSC. If it is not possible to estimate 

the costs, please state an estimation, e.g " over 100M EUR" or "over 1 billion over the past ten years." 

Please add an asterix to the infrastructures that have already committed. 

119 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

[Please add information regarding the number of researchers.] 

[Please add information / responsibilities regarding the funding 
of  researchers  (estimated  salary  +  amount  of  research  project 
as well as the responsible institution.] 

3.2. HPC infrastructures 

[Please add the responsibilities considering financing (€).] 

[Please add the responsibilities considering operating.] 

[Please 
add 
plans/future.] 

information 

/ 

responsibilities 

regarding 

[Please add information regarding the number of researchers.] 

[Please add information / responsibilities  regarding the funding 
of  researchers  (estimated  salary  +  amount  of  research  project 
as well as the responsible institution.] 

3.3. Repositories 

[Please add the responsibilities considering financing (€).] 

[Please add the responsibilities considering operating.] 

[Please 
add 
plans/future.] 

information 

/ 

responsibilities 

regarding 

[Please add information regarding the number of researchers.] 

[Please add information / responsibilities regarding the funding 
of  researchers  (estimated  salary  +  amount  of  research  project 
as well as the responsible institution.] 

120 

 
 
 
 
Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

ANNEX III CHANGELOG FROM THE REPORT VERSION 1 TO 
VERSION 2 

CHANGE LOG 

Landscape of EOSC-Related Infrastructures and Initiatives 

August 2020: https://op.europa.eu/es/publication-detail/-/publication/cbb40bf3-f6fb-
11ea-991b-01aa75ed71a1/language-es  

Version 20201103 wrt August 2020  

Chapter 

How to read this 
document 
1.4. Policy makers 
2.1 eInfrastructures 
2.2.2. National 
networking 
infrastructures 
2.3. Data 
infrastructures 

2.5. Thematic 
infrastructures 
2.5.1. ESFRI 
clusters and other 
consortia 

2.5.2. 
Environmental 
research 
infrastructures 
2.5.3. Health and 
food research 
infrastructures 
2.7.2. Belgium 

2.7.3 Finland 
2.7.5. Germany 

2.7.12. Spain 
2.8. Other EOSC-
relevant initiatives 
and projects 
Annex I / ESCAPE 
List of abbreviations 

Page in 
Aug 2020  
8 

14 
23 
27,30 

32 

37 

38 

41 

41 

52 

52 
53 

55 
56 

98 
85 

Change 

The section was totally wrong with respect to the structure of the 
document, so a major rewriting was needed.  
Footnote 44 
Footnote 113 
Subchapter for Denmark and Spain added, reordering all the 
subchapters alphabetically. 

Added references to “Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific 
Publications and Data” and “Norway's National strategy on access to 
and sharing of research data”. 
MERIL renamed by CatRIS 

Renamed chapter from “2.5.1. ESFRI clusters”. 
Description of clusters revised and improved, and clusters sorted in 
alphabetical order. 
Split the list at the point of initiatives that are not ESFRI Clusters. 
Add the the ESFRI Landmark from EMSO ERIC, EURO-ARGO ERIC 
and EMBRC-ERIC. 

Major rewriting including information from all the ESFRIs in the 
field. 

Correct names and add references for e-infrastructures services in 
Belgium. 
Description of Finland extended. 
Description of Germany extended. 

Chapter added 
Comment on CRIS and RIMS added 

Footnotes corrected and updated. 
Additions to the list 
Some further examples of practises added into the report 

121 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Getting in touch with the EU 

IN PERSON 
All over the European Union there are hundreds of Europe Direct information centres. 
You can find the address of the centre nearest you at: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en 

ON THE PHONE OR BY EMAIL 
Europe Direct is a service that answers your questions about the European Union. 
You can contact this service: 
– by freephone: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (certain operators may charge for these calls), 
– at the following standard number: +32 22999696, or 
– by email via: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en 

Finding information about the EU 

ONLINE 
Information about the European Union in all the official languages of the EU is available on the Europa 
website at: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en 

EU PUBLICATIONS 
You can download or order free and priced EU publications from:  
https://op.europa.eu/en/publications. Multiple copies of free publications may be obtained by 
contacting Europe Direct or your local information centre (see https://europa.eu/european-
union/contact_en) 

EU LAW AND RELATED DOCUMENTS 
For access to legal information from the EU, including all EU law since 1952 in all the official language 
versions, go to EUR-Lex at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu 

OPEN DATA FROM THE EU 
The EU Open Data Portal (http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en) provides access to datasets from the EU. 
Data can be downloaded and reused for free, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Landscape Working Group (WG) of the EOSC Executive Board has 
surveyed and documented the landscape of infrastructures, initiatives 
and policies across Europe relating to the development of the 
European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). 

This report describes activities in the Member States (MS) and 
Associated Countries (AC) related to EOSC, summarising existing 
policies and investments based on input from the MS and AC, the 
expert knowledge of the WG members and delegates to the EOSC 
Governing Board, as well as information from Horizon 2020 research 
projects and from open sources. 

The work builds on existing surveys and information provided by 
national authorities, stakeholder communities and the relevant H2020 
projects in close collaboration with MS and AC. A Validation Workshop 
was held online in April 2020, to validate the provided contributions. 

Research and Innovation policy