The EOSC-hub project creates the integration and management system of the future European Open Science Cloud that delivers a catalogue of services, software and data from the EGI Federation, EUDAT CDI, INDIGO-DataCloud and major research e-infrastructures. This integration and management system (the Hub) builds on mature processes, policies and tools from the leading European federated e-Infrastructures to cover the whole life-cycle of services, from planning to delivery. The Hub aggregates services from local, regional and national e-Infrastructures in Europe, Africa, Asia, Canada and South America. The Hub acts as a single contact point for researchers and innovators to discover, access, use and reuse a broad spectrum of resources for advanced data-driven research. Through the virtual access mechanism, more scientific communities and users have access to services supporting their scientific discovery and collaboration across disciplinary and geographical boundaries. The project also improves skills and knowledge among researchers and service operators by delivering specialised trainings and by establishing competence centres to co-create solutions with the users. In the area of engagement with the private sector, the project creates a Joint Digital Innovation Hub that stimulates an ecosystem of industry/SMEs, service providers and researchers to support business pilots, market take-up and commercial boost strategies. EOSC-hub builds on existing technology already at TRL 8 and addresses the need for interoperability by promoting the adoption of open standards and protocols. By mobilizing e-Infrastructures comprising more than 300 data centres worldwide and 18 pan-European infrastructures, this project is a ground-breaking milestone for the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud.

Now the H2020 EOSC pilot project has taken the first steps towards creating the blueprint for an open European Science Cloud, this proposal aims to supply practical solutions for the use of the FAIR data principles throughout the research data life cycle. Emphasis is on fostering FAIR data culture and the uptake of good practices in making data FAIR. Keeping in mind that there is no ‘one size fits all’, the consortium will focus on all scientific communities for supporting, creating, further developing and implementing a common scheme to ensure data development, wide uptake of and compliance with FAIR data principles and practices by data producers as well as national and European research data providers and repositories contributing to the EOSC. Furthermore, the consortium will closely collaborate with other relevant (global) projects and initiatives already on the way e.g. GO-FAIR, Research Data Alliance (RDA), World Data System (WDS), CODATA. We will provide a platform for using and implementing the FAIR principles in the day to day work of national and European research data providers and repositories. The consortium cooperates with other projects that will be funded under the INFRAEOSC-05-2018 topic (e.g. the EOSC governance (5a) and where appropriate 5b, the projects funded in the INFRAEOSC-04-2018 topic (e.g. the ESFRI clusters SSHOC, PANOSC, ENVRI FAIR, ESCAPE and EOSCLife) and with the EOSC coordination structure developed in the existing EOSC-pilot and EOSC-hub projects. According to the research data life cycle (planning/creating, processing, analysing, preserving and reuse) the consortium partners have defined goals, activities and outputs on - making data FAIR through research workflows - ensuring long-term preservation of data - making data FAIR through data curation - improving accessibility of research data (e.g. legal barriers) - improving findability of data through creation and interconnection of metadata catalogues - curricula/education

EOSC-Pillar gathers representatives of the fast-growing national initiatives for coordinating data infrastructures and services in Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Belgium to establish an agile and efficient federation model for open science services covering the full spectrum of European research communities. Our proposal aims to implement some of the main pieces of the EOSC jigsaw within a science-driven approach which is efficient, scalable and sustainable and that can be rolled out in other countries. National initiatives are the key of our strategy, for their capacity to attract and coordinate many elements of the complex EOSC ecosystem and for their sustainability, which will add resilience to the whole structure. We will combine these initiatives, who represent research communities in each country, with use cases of transnational networks working to implement FAIR data practices. Through the coordination of national initiatives, EOSC-Pillar will be able to support the gradual alignment of policy and practice among countries and compliance to EOSC standards. We are convinced that by federating national initiatives through common policies, FAIR services, shared standards, and technical choices, EOSC-Pillar will be a catalyst for science-driven transnational open data and open science services offered through the EOSC portal. These initiatives will emanate the promotion of FAIR data practices and services across scientific communities, sharing best practice, and igniting opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches in the EOSC. Above all, our vision is that national initiatives are key to involve user communities and research infrastructures both as test-beds for solutions, but also in their very design and sustainable evolution. For this reason, EOSC-Pillar’s workplan is built around selected user-driven pilots from 7 scientific domains, that will show EOSC in action and provide valuable input to guide the roll out of services for other communities.