Sustainable strategy for European Open Science Cloud requires commitment from the Members States
Trust and commitment between different actors in the European research ecosystem are needed and must be achieved in order to make European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) a reality and a success. A formal governance structure for EOSC is required to sustain and strengthen related policies and programs over the long term.
These are the key messages provided by Managing Director Kimmo Koski at European Open Science Cloud summit.
EOSC will provide all EU researchers a trusted virtual environment with free, open and seamless services for data storage, management, analysis, sharing, and re-use, across disciplines. It will integrate and consolidate horizontal e-infrastructures. The EOSC will federate existing and emerging thematic data infrastructures and scientific clouds, effectively bridging today's fragmentation and ad-hoc solutions.
EOSC a reality by 2020
On 12 June, the European Commission organized the European Open Science Cloud Summit in Brussels. The Commission described the summit as "Europe's moment of commitment to the EOSC, and it will generate a number of concrete EOSC Statements for implementation. By reviewing key areas of EOSC implementation and endorsing the EOSC statements, participants will take upon themselves to make the EOSC a reality by 2020."
As an outcome of the summit the European Commission proposed a way forward aiming to have the interim governance board for EOSC operational by the end of this year. European Commission is at the moment engaging with member states and different stakeholders to make a plan and roadmap for the implementation of EOSC. The summit was part of this engagement activity.
– Europe must build on the skills, experience and decades of public investment in scientific infrastructures. By engaging and using the strength of all relevant stakeholders who support today's research – funding agencies, policy makers, research infrastructures, e-Infrastructures, libraries, data and service providers – the European Open Science Cloud will significantly impact the way research is done in Europe. It will put European research to the forefront of Open Science even globally, says Koski, who gave a speech in the session Sustainable funding and Governance of the summit.
European services for researchers that work together, are easy to use – and on-demand
– The first thing to achieve is trust. Without trust there cannot be any European Open Science Cloud, continues Koski.
– Trust between the e-Infrastructures becomes first. We need to foster cooperation rather than competition with each infrastructure focusing on its core business instead of trying to address all the needs.
The integration level between the infrastructures vary and this can be confusing for the researchers. Researchers want services that work – preferably together – and are easy to use. These services should be provided on demand.
– This is what is needed for the European Open Science Cloud to succeed.
The summit was recorded and Koski's speech can be viewed starting on 16:42:30. Watch the video on https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/european-open-science-cloud-summit.