Change is in the air! As the EOSC Future project comes to a close, the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is participating in the handover of services and resources from a Horizon 2020 funded project to develop the web of FAIR data and services to a European Commission-managed expansive resource node providing access to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
Starting this year, the European Commission will develop and manage the EOSC architecture through the EOSC EU Node, building on the results of EOSC Future and earlier projects, such as EOSC Enhance, EOSC-hub, and many others (see December 2023 announcement). The EOSC EU Node will continue to strive to support seamless access across research infrastructures, institutions and among different research communities in different countries.
As EOSC Future ends of 31 March 2024, a handover process is being organised with the Commission to ensure a smooth transition for users and service providers. The Commission and the relevant project partners are following a phased, gradual approach – starting with the pause of onboarding to the EOSC Providers Portal on 15 March and a phasing out of the EOSC Catalogue & Marketplace by mid-April. These services will be replaced by the EOSC EU Node in the second half of 2024.
Read more about the project handover at https://eoscfuture.eu/newsfuture/updates-on-the-transition-to-the-eosc-eu-node/.
What’s happening? The option to onboard new services via the EOSC Providers Portal will be disabled as of 15 March 2024. The current Providers Portal and EOSC Catalogue & Marketplace will be phased out by mid-April 2024. The EOSC EU Node is expected to become available in the second half of 2024. The new node will maintain the discoverability and findability functions in the current EOSC Portal.
A Look Back at the EOSC Future project
A lot of time and significant effort has gone into consolidating and bolstering the EOSC community. At the start, the EOSC Future project aimed to test and develop EOSC Core services. Over the course of the project, the EOSC Future platform has expanded to provide a wealth of resources and services, organised with smart search and personalised filtering tools:
- More than 5 million resources (including data, software, publications, training materials, and more)
- Around 330 service providers
- 475 service offerings
- Over 30 ‘EOSC in practice’ use case testimonials
All in all, the EOSC Providers Portal and EOSC Catalogue & Marketplace have laid the technical foundations for testing and prototyping discovery, interoperability, authentication and cataloguing systems – all according to FAIR principles. EOSC Future expanded these capabilities, supporting thousands of users per month who have come together to discover, exchange and use leading-edge research and digital services on a shared virtual platform.
DRI is pleased to have had the opportunity, through the EOSC Future project, to provide critical feedback on EOSC development and user experience through a survey, interviews, focus groups and webinars aimed at uncovering the specific needs of a wide range of disciplinary research communities, and through the promotion of Research Data Alliance (RDA)/EOSC Future funding calls and interaction with grantees that brought valuable insight into discipline-specific community engagement with EOSC. (Read the final report: Disciplinary Perspectives on Open Science.)
DRI looks forward to further supporting opportunities for the development of FAIR data ambassadors, engaged in European and international outreach and community-building, via the RDA. Read more about Launching a Domain Ambassador’s Interest Group and the upcoming workshop at the RDA Virtual Plenary 22: RDA Ambassadors and Champions: Building an IG with Lessons Learned.
As EOSC moves into a new phase of development, the EOSC Future project would like to encourage all users and providers accessing the current EOSC infrastructure to remember: as long as you, your services or data are FAIR, you will be a part of the next phase of EOSC.
