EOSC Data Commons Project Launches to Advance Research Data Discovery, Access, and Reuse Across Europe
The EOSC Data Commons project, a Horizon Europe initiative, will officially launch on 1 April 2025 and kick off on 7-9 April in Amsterdam. The project aims to support the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) as a global trusted ecosystem for research and provide innovative services for data discovery, access, sharing, and reuse across disciplines.
Coordinated by the EGI Foundation, the project brings together a pan-European consortium of 21 organisations, including leading technology providers, national and thematic data repositories, and user communities. This collaboration will deliver advanced solutions that support researchers in addressing complex challenges and driving scientific progress.
The project focuses on improving the entire research data lifecycle - supporting discovery, analysis, deposition, preservation, sharing, and reuse - within a European data and compute continuum. Key innovations include:
- AI-based Analytics-Oriented Metadata Warehouse and Discovery Service
- Federation of data repositories enhanced with scientific applications and data analytics tools
- Catalogue of data analytics tools for seamless integration
- Execution Service enabling the deployment and execution of analytical tools
- Metadata specifications to ensure reproducibility and interoperability
- FAIRness assessment and reproducibility tools, along with related policies
Multidisciplinary Impact
The EOSC Data Commons project is guided by use cases from diverse scientific fields, including Social Sciences, Humanities, Physics, Life Sciences, Health, and Environmental Science. These use cases ensure the solutions developed are co-designed and validated by the research communities they aim to serve.
A Collaborative Effort Across Europe
The consortium includes a diverse range of organisations from 14 countries:
- Austria: EODC Earth Observation Data Centre
- Croatia: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Sveučilišni Računski Centar (SRCE)
- Czech Republic: CESNET z. s. p. o.
- Finland: Helsingin Yliopisto / University of Helsinki
- France: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Germany: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Technische Universität Dresden
- Italy: Consorzio Interuniversitario Risonanze Magnetiche di Metallo Proteine (CIRMPP), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)
- Netherlands: DANS Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW), Universiteit Utrecht, Stichting COAR
- Poland: Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza w Krakowie CYFRONET
- Spain: Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universitat Politècnica de València
- Switzerland: Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, SWITCH, Universität Zürich
This wide-ranging partnership underscores the importance of cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaboration in advancing open science practices.
"The EOSC Data Commons project represents a significant step forward in enabling European researchers to collaborate more effectively and access high-quality, interoperable research data," said Diego Scardaci, Project Coordinator. "By developing innovative tools and services, we aim to enhance data discovery and reuse across disciplines."
Enol Fernández, Technical Coordinator of the project, added: "The project’s collaborative approach ensures that our solutions meet the needs of the research community while fostering greater integration within the EOSC Federation."
Driving European Open Science
With contributions from 12 national and institutional data repositories, the EOSC Data Commons project is poised to play a key role in integrating nodes into the EOSC Federation, supporting its mission of fostering open, data-driven science in Europe.
