Brussels, 26 March 2025 — The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) took a decisive step toward becoming a fully operational pan-European federation this month, as 75 representatives from Europe's key research infrastructures, scientific service providers, national initiatives, and the EOSC EU Node consortia convened in Brussels on 17–18 March to initiate the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation.
The meeting, announced by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation on 26 March, marked a critical milestone in the development of EOSC as a "system of systems" designed to provide researchers across Europe with seamless access to shared data, digital resources, and computing services.
A Federation Takes Shape
The build-up phase kick-off workshop brought together the European Commission, the EOSC Association, and representatives from initial candidate nodes to align the EOSC EU Node's reference architecture with the needs of emerging nodes. The EOSC EU Node, launched in October 2024, serves as the foundational European-level reference node, providing core services including authentication, resource catalogues, and file sharing.
During the two-day workshop, participating organisations presented use cases they plan to implement within the EOSC Federation. According to the Commission, the breadth of proposals — spanning disciplines from marine science to high-energy physics — signalled the many ways the federation can deliver tangible benefits to nodes and, ultimately, to researchers across the continent.
The EOSC Federation Handbook
A central deliverable of the build-up phase is the first edition of the EOSC Federation Handbook, finalised by over 40 community volunteers and published in the days following the workshop. The handbook provides practical guidance on the key components of the federation:
| Component | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Architecture | Technical specifications for node integration, interoperability standards, and reference architecture alignment with the EOSC EU Node |
| Governance | Decision-making structures, roles and responsibilities of nodes, and tripartite governance arrangements |
| Operations | Service-level agreements, monitoring frameworks, and operational policies for production-grade services |
| Policies | Data access policies, authentication protocols, and compliance requirements for federation membership |
The handbook is designed to serve as a comprehensive resource for organisations interested in joining the federation, lowering the barrier to entry for national, thematic, and e-infrastructure nodes.
The Fifth Freedom: EOSC as a Competitiveness Pillar
On 25 March, the EOSC Tripartite Governance convened in Krakow to discuss the broader strategic positioning of EOSC within European research and innovation policy. The EOSC Steering Board — an expert group composed of representatives from EU Member States and countries associated to the Horizon Europe programme — published an opinion paper framing EOSC as a key pillar of a "fifth freedom" for research and innovation in the EU single market.
The Steering Board underlined EOSC's role in driving innovation, economic growth, and competitiveness across Europe, and provided recommendations for the future development of the federation. A complementary policy narrative for EOSC, published on Zenodo, highlighted the central role of EOSC in Europe's research and innovation strategy, contributing to priorities including:
- Enhancing capacity for innovation, research productivity, and scientific and technological leadership
- Digital and data sovereignty
- Research security in an era of increasing geopolitical competition
From Prototype to Production
A dedicated Build-up Group was established at the March workshop to steer the transition from prototype to a production-grade federation. The group, which includes representatives from the EOSC Tripartite Governance and the various nodes, is working on an in-kind basis. The next progress checkpoint is scheduled for June 2025.
The build-up phase is designed as an interim period to bridge the gap between the initial prototype and a fully operational, production-grade network. According to the EOSC Association's roadmap, the goal is to achieve this transition by the end of 2026, with the federation expanding through multiple waves of new candidate nodes.
Context: A Decade in the Making
The EOSC initiative was first proposed in 2015 as part of the European Commission's strategy to create a European Open Science Cloud by 2020. After years of planning, stakeholder consultation, and pilot projects, the EOSC Association was formally established in 2021, bringing together the Commission, Member States, and research stakeholders under a tripartite governance model.
The launch of the EOSC EU Node in October 2024 provided the first concrete operational foundation for the federation. The March 2025 build-up phase represents the next critical step: scaling from a single central node to a distributed network of interoperable nodes across Europe.
Implications for the Research Community
For researchers, the EOSC Federation promises to reduce the friction of cross-border data sharing, provide access to standardised computing and storage services, and enable new forms of collaborative research across institutions and disciplines. For research-performing organisations — particularly universities and research institutes in countries with less developed digital infrastructure — the federation offers a pathway to access shared resources without building standalone systems.
For policymakers, the federation represents a test case for whether Europe can translate its commitment to open science into a functional, sustainable infrastructure. The build-up phase will need to address persistent challenges: sustainable funding models for nodes, harmonisation of national data policies, and the technical complexity of achieving genuine interoperability across heterogeneous systems.
The June 2025 progress checkpoint will provide the first concrete indication of whether the build-up phase is on track to deliver a production-grade federation by the end of 2026.
Sources:
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, "EOSC takes next steps to establish a federation for sharing of research data and digital resources across Europe," 26 March 2025
- EOSC Association, "Building the EOSC Federation," eosc.eu
- EOSC Steering Board, "Opinion on EOSC as a cornerstone of the fifth freedom for research and innovation," 2025
- EOSC Policy Narrative, Zenodo Records, 2025
- EOSC Federation Handbook, First Edition, 2025
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
