INFRAEOSC-03-2020 - Integration and consolidation of the existing pan-European access mechanism to public research infrastructures and commercial services through the EOSC Portal

Forthcoming
Opening date: 
19 November 2019
Deadline: 
Thursday, June 18, 2020 - 17

Type of action: 
RIA Research and Innovation action

Specific Challenge:

The phase of integration and consolidation of e-infrastructure platforms initiated under the Research Infrastructures Work Programme 2016-2017 (in particular, through the EOSC-hub) as well as the work carried out by other EU funded projects and initiatives, has set the ground for the development of the EOSC Portal. Through its main components, the EOSC website, catalogue of services and marketplace, researchers and other users can find and use research-enabling services and resources, get technical support, integrated solutions from the EOSC providers, participate in co-design, and be informed about and engaged with, the EOSC vision and policy initiatives.

Building on this work, the challenge is now to consolidate and scale up the EOSC Portal and its underlying service platform in order to: 1) strengthen the EOSC Portal so that it continues to provide an increasing portfolio of high quality standard compliant and interoperable services of proven user interest and scientific relevance from a wide range of national, regional and institutional public research infrastructures in Europe as well as from commercial service providers in its catalogue; 2) reinforce the role of the marketplace as the access channel to integrated, composable and reliable services; 3) attract more users, within the research community and beyond, by enhancing the user experience and seamlessly accommodating their needs; and 4) ensure its long-term sustainability taking into account all the relevant governance and business frameworks.

Scope:

Building on the outcomes of the projects awarded under topics EINFRA-12-2017, INFRAEOSC-06-2019 (a), INFRAEOSC-05-2018 (a), INFRAEOSC-04-2018 and other relevant EU funded projects and initiatives (including the thematic clouds), proposals should address the following activities all together:

a. Operation, maintenance and enhancement of the EOSC Portal (the website, the catalogue of services and the marketplace)

b. Fostering and enabling secure service composability

c. User enhanced experience using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques

d. Widening the EOSC user base

e. Widening the service offer with commercial services

f. Support activities

Proposals shall also cover all the following activities aiming at boosting the impact and outreach of the EOSC Portal:

i. Outreach and skills

ii. Support to the Research Data Alliance’s contribution to the EOSC

Grants awarded under this topic will be complementary to the actions awarded under topic INFRAEOSC-07-2020. The main purpose of the collaboration agreements referred to in Article 41.4 of the Model Grant Agreement is to describe the terms and conditions for the provision of services through the EOSC Portal.

Grants awarded under this topic will be complementary to the action awarded under topic INFRAEOSC-06-2019 (a) and should conclude a collaboration agreement.

For grants awarded under this topic, beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional obligations aiming at ensuring exploitation of its results: proposals must necessary state the participants’ commitment to: a) use open source software, b) make tools, standards, specifications and all other relevant outputs generated in the action available, through a well-defined mechanism, to the EOSC governance and any other institution responsible for the continuity of the EOSC Portal beyond the lifespan of the Grant Agreement.

Grants awarded under this topic are expected to carry out an analysis regarding energy consumption and environmental impact of technologies used in the context of the project. The analysis should include an action plan in order to limit the carbon and energy footprint with a specific reference to the standard EN 50600-4 together with a timeline for implementation of the defined milestones and KPIs.

As the scope of this activity is to consolidate a single EOSC Portal, at most one single proposal covering all the described activities (a. to f. included) is expected to be funded.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 40.9 million and a 30 months duration would allow this challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts and durations.

Expected Impact:

  • Provide pan-European access to state-of-the-art secure, interoperable and scalable EOSC services and resources enabling the emergence of genuine Open Science, enhancing data skills and boosting data intensive research in Europe.
  • Enable researchers and other users to compose secure and scalable services that respond to actual and evolving needs, in a secure, flexible and scalable environment.
  • Build an agile EOSC and increase the uptake of its services by public and private sectors stakeholders, across Europe, exploiting solutions and technologies for the benefit of all areas of economy and society.
  • Reduce the burden for research organisations and other service users to engage in complex procurement processes, support cross-analysis of data from heterogeneous sources and create market opportunities for innovative research data services.
  • Increase the overall value of open research data and ensure that EOSC contributes to the global playing field of open FAIR data.

Cross-cutting Priorities:

Gender
Open Innovation
Open Science

More information here