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On the road to sustainability: paving the way for OPERAS as an efficient open Social Sciences and Humanities scholarly communication Research Infrastructure

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OPERAS-PLUS (On the road to sustainability: paving the way for OPERAS as an efficient open Social Sciences and Humanities scholarly communication Research Infrastructure)

Période du rapport: 2022-09-01 au 2023-08-31

The OPERAS-PLUS project aims at supporting the distributed OPERAS Research Infrastructure in its preparatory phase on its way towards the implementation as an ERIC.

OPERAS is the Research Infrastructure dedicated to support open scholarly communication for the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH) in the European Research Area (ERA). Its mission is to coordinate and federate resources in Europe to efficiently address the scholarly communication needs of European researchers in the field of SSH. OPERAS’ aim is to make Open Science a reality for research in the SSH and achieve a scholarly communication system where knowledge produced in the SSH benefits researchers, academics, students and more generally the whole society across Europe and worldwide, without barriers.
OPERAS was selected in 2021 as a new infrastructure on the ESFRI Roadmap for the excellence of its scientific case and for its strategic importance for the European Research Area and the structuring of the European research infrastructure ecosystem. OPERAS is now on its path to becoming operational as an ERIC in 2028.

The project aims at supporting this process and the development of the infrastructure in its preparatory phase and on its way towards implementation as an ERIC. It empowers OPERAS to further

● Strengthen its governance structure in regard to financial, legal and human resources
● Support the network of national nodes and their national activities
● Develop the services portfolio providing both required technology and a monitoring system for services development
● Maximise OPERAS’ impact in the ERA and at the international level by extending it beyond its current scope and onboarding new members and countries in the infrastructure.

The project stands in the continuity of work already realised through former projects (OPERAS-D, OPERAS-P, HIRMEOS, TRIPLE) and its impact can be strengthened by collaboration with running projects(COESO, DIAMAS, and others).
The OPERAS services were structured in a services catalogue and the Metrics, Pathfinder, PRISM and the Translations services were further developed over the course of the project. At the end of the first reporting period, there are 7 external services (PRISM, Pathfinder, Metrics, Hypotheses, GoTriple, VERA Hub, Translation) and 3 internal services (FitSM training, Messaging/Mattmost, OPERAS ID).

By the third quarter 2023: 5 services are now in production, 4 in Beta and only 1 still under design.

The status of each of the services by quarter 3 2023 is summarized below:
1. GoTriple: Beta->Production
2. Metrics: Beta->Beta (Production version delayed by 2 months as reported)
3. VERA: Design->Beta
4. Pathfinder: Design->Beta
5. Hypotheses: Production->Production (support for continual service improvement)
6. PRISM: Beta->Production
7. Translation: Design->Design (early prototype included as part of design study)
8. FitSM Training: N/A->Production
9. Messaging: N/A->Production
10. OPERAS ID: N/A->Beta
OPERAS-PLUS provides OPERAS the means it needs to contribute to:

● strengthening the scientific excellence, performance and efficiency of the European Research Area
● providing disruptive research, and breakthrough science and innovation through cutting-edge, interconnected and sustainable Research Infrastructures
● and establishing a coordinated Research Infrastructure capacity among countries and regions.

To obtain this result, OPERAS-PLUS defines two paths toward impact through the establishment of the infrastructure itself and the development of the infrastructure services.

Furthermore, OPERAS-PLUS uniquely contributes to expected outcomes and destination impacts:

● Outcome 1: structuring effect on ERA
● Outcome 2: the scientific excellence of the European landscape of sustainable Research Infrastructure enhances problem solving capacities to address challenges in science, industry and society
● Outcome 3: solid ground for the decision making on new research infrastructures is available to Member States and Associated Countries, their funding bodies and other relevant stakeholders
● Outcome 4: long-term perspective for Research Infrastructure investments
● Outcome 5: a consistent and well-functioning European research infrastructures ecosystem through the development of synergies and complementarities between new and existing research infrastructures, including technology infrastructures and infrastructures financed by ERDF
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