EGI at EUDAT 2024: Strengthening Collaborations and Showcasing Innovation

The EUDAT Conference 2024 in Karlsruhe welcomed over 100 participants from across Europe, bringing together leading voices in research data management and e-infrastructures. As EGI, we were proud to play a central role in the event, sharing insights from our work and contributing to vital discussions about the future of open science and collaboration.

EGI Software Architect Nicola Fiore represented EGI in the eInfra Assembly Session, a panel discussion aimed at strengthening collaborations across the research data ecosystem. The session brought together e-infrastructures like EGI, GÉANT, OpenAIRE, and EUDAT, alongside research infrastructures and communities such as ENVRI-Hub NEXT (coordinated by EGI), OSCARS, and DARIAH ERIC.

During the panel, Nicola emphasised the importance of open communication between infrastructure providers and research communities to align needs and capabilities. He also highlighted EGI’s key role in the EOSC EU Node procurement, which seeks to deliver more integrated and user-centric solutions for researchers.

“Sustainability is a critical factor when providing services across borders and disciplines,” Nicola noted. “By fostering open dialogue and collaboration, we can ensure that our infrastructure meets the evolving needs of the research community while guaranteeing the quality of services.”

Another key contribution was the presentation of the EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox by Nicola, Technical Coordinator of the EOSC Beyond project, during the session on EOSC advancements supporting FAIR research data lifecycle. This service enables pilot EOSC Nodes, providers, and users to test and validate their solutions in the EOSC environment. It is currently only available to internal partners and relevant pilots in the project, and it is expected to open to external testers in March 2025.

“The EOSC Innovation Sandbox is being designed and developed to foster collaboration and experimentation, enabling us to support the advancement of EOSC in the next phase,” Nicola remarked during his presentation.

EOSC Beyond also organised a co-located joint workshop with the FAIRCORE4EOSC project, focussing on strategies for enhancing interoperability among new EOSC services and testing the capabilities of the EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox.

Throughout the conference, we shared information and insights at the EGI booth, presented side by side with OpenAIRE and GÉANT as part of our collaboration with the other European e-Infrastructures. Our team showcased materials on EGI services for data-intensive research and presented our coordinated projects (interTwin, iMagine, SPECTRUM, ENVRI-Hub NEXT and EOSC Beyond). The booth provided an excellent opportunity to engage with attendees, share our vision for enabling open science, and discuss how EGI’s resources can support diverse research needs.

The EUDAT Conference 2024 was a fantastic platform to connect with peers, share our expertise, and explore synergies with other infrastructures and projects. From presenting innovative tools to participating in high-level discussions, our contributions underscored EGI’s commitment to fostering a collaborative and sustainable research ecosystem.

We look forward to meeting our extended community again at EGI2025, taking place in Santander, Spain on 2-6 June. Learn more and save the date!