EOSC Enhance

EOSC Enhance
Name	EOSC Enhance
Type	Research infrastructure project
Launched	2020
Status	Completed
Region	European Union
Partners	Multiple European research organizations

EOSC Enhance EOSC Enhance was a European research infrastructure project designed to advance the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). It aimed to coordinate technical integration, policy alignment, and stakeholder engagement across multiple European Commission initiatives, national research agencies such as CNRS, and supranational bodies including European Space Agency and European Research Council. The project interacted with research infrastructures like CERN, EMBL, and ESRF while aligning with standards promoted by organizations such as ISO and European Committee for Standardization.

Overview

EOSC Enhance operated as a coordination and support action that sought to accelerate the EOSC ecosystem. It engaged with established infrastructures like ELIXIR, DARIAH, CLARIN, and EUDAT to harmonize service offerings and metadata practices. Stakeholders included pan-European projects funded under successive Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe work programmes, national initiatives such as SURF and INRIA, and sectoral bodies like European Molecular Biology Laboratory and European Southern Observatory. The project emphasised interoperability across platforms linked to GEANT networking and identity federations like eduGAIN.

Objectives and Scope

The core objectives encompassed technical integration, governance coordination, and user uptake. Technical aims referenced interoperability with data services used by European Bioinformatics Institute, EuroHPC facilities, and observatories such as LOFAR and SKAO. Governance goals connected with policy frameworks shaped by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and advisory bodies like Science Europe. Scope included defining service portfolios for research communities represented by organizations such as European University Association, LERU, and disciplinary networks like Copernicus and Human Brain Project.

Consortium and Governance

The consortium brought together universities, research infrastructures, technology providers, and policy institutes from across member states, involving entities such as University of Oxford, Max Planck Society, Karolinska Institutet, University of Cambridge, and ETH Zurich. Governance structures mirrored best practices from consortia like HORIZON 2020 projects, with steering boards, technical committees, and stakeholder advisory groups featuring representatives from European Research Area actor networks and national ministries of research. The project liaised with existing governance models exemplified by EOSC Association and coordination units in organisations like CERN.

Services and Infrastructure

Service integration covered catalogue services, metadata registries, and authentication/authorisation infrastructures interoperable with systems used at PRACE and Jülich Research Centre. Infrastructure strands included data storage harmonisation aligning with repositories such as Zenodo, disciplinary platforms like PANGAEA, and computational resources like EuroHPC JU machines. The project advanced semantic interoperability referencing vocabularies endorsed by FAIRsharing and practices advocated by Research Data Alliance. It worked to integrate persistent identifier services similar to ORCID and DataCite and to align quality assurance frameworks used by European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education.

Implementation and Timeline

Implementation followed a multi-phase schedule with scoping, pilot integration, and consolidation phases. Initial mapping activities engaged networks such as Science Europe, GÉANT, and national e-infrastructure providers; pilot phases tested federated access across platforms exemplified by EMBL-EBI and CERN OpenData Portal; consolidation addressed policy alignment with recommendations from European Commission work streams. Milestones mirrored practices from large-scale projects like Human Brain Project and Square Kilometre Array coordination, with iterative deliverables for technical specifications, stakeholder engagement workshops, and interoperability demonstrations.

Impact and Evaluation

Evaluation metrics targeted increased reuse of data, growth in service registrations, and uptake by research communities including life sciences, astronomy, and geosciences represented by ELIXIR, ESA, and ECMWF. Impact assessments referenced KPIs used by Horizon 2020 evaluators and third-party reviews similar to assessments conducted for European Research Council projects. The project measured improvements in cross-border collaboration comparable to gains observed in initiatives like Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and tracked adoption of FAIR principles advocated by FAIRsharing and Research Data Alliance.

Funding and Partnerships

Funding was provided through instruments under the Horizon 2020 programme and involved co-funding or alignment with national investments from agencies such as Science Foundation Ireland, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Strategic partnerships included collaborations with technology vendors, research infrastructures like CERN and EMBL, and policy bodies such as European Commission departments. The funding and partnership model followed precedents set by multi-institutional projects such as OpenAIRE and EOSCpilot.

Category:European research infrastructure projects