Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EPOS SP (European Plate Observing System Sustainability Phase)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-08-01 bis 2023-04-30
EPOS, the European Plate Observing System, is the pan-European research infrastructure aimed at ensuring sustainable and universal use and reuse of solid Earth science data and products fostering state-of-the-art research and innovation. Understanding how the Earth works as an interconnected system is crucial for society in the face of natural hazards and the management of natural resources. EPOS brings together various European and international research organizations under a federated framework, facilitating collaboration among scientists, national research infrastructures, IT experts, and decision-makers. The sustainability of such a complex system was the central concern addressed by the EPOS SP project led by EPOS ERIC. The project aimed to expand the support for EPOS by increasing the number of participating countries and stakeholders contributing to the EPOS Delivery Framework. Specific objectives included increasing the number of countries involved in EPOS ERIC, attracting more scientists and research organisations to contribute to the EPOS portfolio of services, enhancing service robustness and implementations of FAIR principles, and establishing the EPOS added-value for the private sector and society at large. The EPOS SP project has been structured to provide EPOS with the necessary tools for its operational phase starting in 2023, in particular the key elements of a Sustainability Plan to be implemented by EPOS ERIC.
EPOS SP, according to its specific objectives, conducted investigations and activities at multiple levels, with the aim to consolidate and enhance the sustainability of EPOS RI. To expand the EPOS ERIC membership, the National Authorities Consultation Board was established. Composed of prospective countries, it lead to gaining new members (Romania, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland) and observers (Germany), while Spain and Finland started the process to join EPOS ERIC. EPOS SP highlighted the role of national organisations in the sustainability of EPOS, especially in their capacity to ensure in-kind resources. EPOS SP mapped national participation in EPOS by different means (i.e. through EPOS national consortia, TCS Consortium Agreements, national roadmaps, and national funding). Major results of the project were the engagement of the Tsunami community as a candidate TCS and, through an MoU signed between EPOS ERIC and EUCENTRE, the future engagement of a new thematic community on Built Environment Data. In terms of new services, EPOS SP has led to the addition of about 800 GNSS stations to the EPOS catalog of services, and to collaborations for developing and integrating new satellite services to monitor anthropogenic risks. The project also focused on improving technical sustainability and innovation for service provision and fostering EPOS readiness with EOSC and FAIR data principles. The latter resulted in a series of recommendations for adopting and implementing open science practices relevant to EPOS data and services, potentially transferable to other RIs. For instance, an MoU was signed between EPOS ERIC and JERICO supporting the adoption and reuse of EPOS architecture. Also, the collaboration between EPOS and AdriaArray was strengthened, and specific activities for data science and e-science innovation within ENVRI (and ENVRI FAIR) and Research Data Alliance were conducted. Is worth mentioning that EPOS is planned to be included as one of the science demonstrators at ENVRI FAIR Hub. In total, six MoU were signed during EPOS SP, including one with a similar initiative to EPOS in Australia (JERICO, EUCENTRE, ECCSEL ERIC, EUREF, EGS, AUSCOPE). In addition, two more communities expressed interest in starting a collaboration (EUMETNET, EuroGeographics). Dedicated EPOS Focus Groups were established during the project, to actively promote the participation of EPOS in ENVRI, EOSC and GEO. To develop the global dimension of EPOS, networking activities with key initiatives in Africa and Latin America were organised in the framework of two international conferences held in Cape Verde and Brazil. EPOS SP also explored opportunities and mechanisms to interact with the private sector from different perspectives (user, supplier, partner), and issued recommendations to engage it (e.g. ownership rights, know-how, role of EPOS as a brokering institution; role of the Industry Contact Officer for EPOS ERIC). Moreover, to strengthen the EPOS economic and societal value, three case studies were assessed to provide recommendations for conveying up-to-date information to the public and (professional) stakeholders. Open science, ethical, and social reflections and recommendations to improve value for society were delivered. Also, the ethical implications of service provision were examined, involving the EPOS community, the EPOS ERIC Service Coordination Committee and Ethics Advisory Board. As a result, recommendations for the EPOS Ethical Guidelines were delivered. Despite COVID-19, EPOS made efforts to promote its services at international conferences. Training and outreach initiatives were developed and made available on YouTube, providing comprehensive information on EPOS and demonstrating how to effectively search for data using the EPOS Data Portal, which was launched on April 25th, 2023 at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. User interactions also targeted new communities and included testing of the EPOS Data Portal, training at selected conferences/meetings, and training activities organised by the TCS. Two special volumes on EPOS were published in the Annals of Geophysics, including 15 peer-reviewed papers. Finally, EPOS SP established a task force on long-term sustainability to develop a roadmap for the exploitation of project results by EPOS ERIC, which was validated by the EPOS ERIC General Assembly. The roadmap included a detailed analysis of the EPOS landscape and how different elements contribute to the EPOS sustainability, gaps and added values analysis and recommendations for impact and risk assessment. As a result, EPOS SP elaborated a Long-term sustainability report (D8.5 M39), which EPOS ERIC is exploiting to address the sustainable operation of EPOS during the first years of the operational phase.
The driving concept of the EPOS SP project reflects the assumption that “sustainability” is not simply related to funds available. It requires a broader view, including impact on science, sustainable governance, financial viability, technical relevance, global cooperation, active user engagement and added value for society. EPOS SP managed to develop an approach to tackle the question of sustainability for a large distributed research infrastructure in a novel way, where all the above-mentioned aspects are explored. Starting from a landscape analysis that identified the driving force in EPOS (capacity to trigger impact on science) and the key elements for the operation of the infrastructure (included in the architecture), developing an analysis of gaps, added values and associated risks, and addressing the meaning of impact for an infrastructure like EPOS, EPOS SP allowed establishing a methodology to understand and improve the contribution of each element to the overall infrastructure sustainability. The actions performed contributed to open science and knowledge sharing in the ERA, and even in a global context.