During the first reporting period, WP3 investigated national initiatives in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy, and its results laid the foundation for the activities of the other WPs.
Coordination efforts materialized during the first period after signing the Collaboration Agreement with INFRAEOSC-05 projects, and continued in the form of input to the Interest Groups setup by EOSCsecretariat.eu and, later, to the EOSC Association Task Forces.
Since the start, the project performed technical and non-technical/organisational activities to ensure the overarching goal of creating an inclusive EOSC. From the technical side, the project built on the concept of federation of data repositories and services. WP5 developed the proof-of-concept for the Federated FAIR Data Space while WP7 identified gaps in providing services and documented guidelines and procedures for the integration of services into the EOSC Portal. These were performed in connection to the nine WP6 use cases. During the second reporting period, procedures and implementations were refined while the use cases were being finalised, and this practical/real-life experience was applied to the new use cases identified via the open call launched by WP6 at the beginning of the second period.
Technical evolutions per se don’t guarantee impact on the type and quality of research, unless they are properly communicated to researchers, supported by training and, sometimes, by a mindset-change. WP2 designed and deployed a complete dissemination and outreach strategy, while WP5 focused on the training needs of researchers on FAIR matters and creating awareness and supporting the deployment of a data stewardship programme. These activities were conducted in collaboration with WP3 which during the second period focused on deepening the understanding of researchers' needs and difficulties. The Ambassadors Programme developed within WP2 built upon this precious knowledge and aims to make EOSC concepts very concrete and tangible to researchers and implementers at research performing organisations.
To complement these "horizontal" actions, WP4 dealt with "vertical" actions aimed at consolidating, coordinating and harmonising the National Initiatives. D4.1 presents the policy and legal framework specifically aimed at supporting National Initiatives in providing services in the EOSC federated environment. This work was later revised as D4.6 in order to increase the impact and accessibility of the deliverable using a more simplified layout: guidelines and recommendations contained therein were converted to checklists, available both as online and printable formats. Moreover, WP4 developed the proof-of-concept of a national catalogue interoperable with the EOSC catalogue, which was finalised during the first months of the second period and is currently serving the Italian community: it is maintained within the Italian National Initiative (ICDI). The catalogue can be a powerful tool to build an inclusive EOSC by ensuring new or currently non-production research services can seamlessly transition to the European scale.
Finally, WP4 completed deliverable D4.5 presenting the study of possible business models suitable to ensure the long-term sustainability of the National Initiatives in EOSC.
