The regional initiative EOCS-Nordic is coming to an end after a three-year collaboration between e-infrastructures and researching organizations in the Nordic and Baltic countries. On 4 to 5 October, there will be a concluding member conference in Tallinn with the title “The end or a new beginning”.
EOSC-Nordic initiated in September 2019 as part of the creation of the European research infrastructure EOSC (European Open Science Cloud). The purpose of this collaboration has been to strengthen the regional connections between so-called e-infrastructures and researching organizations in the Nordic and Baltic countries in order to achieve a higher degree of harmonization of services, tools, and policies for research data.
The project has 24 member organizations from ten countries and is chaired by NeIC and NordForsk. SND is one of the Swedish members, together with Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre (GGBC), Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC), and Swedish University Computer Network (Sunet).
Six working groups with different foci
Six main working groups, or work packages (WPs), have collaborated on questions regarding policies, legal issues and sustainability, support to the EOSC-Nordic service providers, FAIR data, and communication and knowledge exchange. SND’s main contribution has been in the work packages that concern FAIR data and data management plans.
An important part of the work has been to investigate how well the FAIR principles are complied with, and during the project some 100 digital repositories have been evaluated. Several of these repositories initially received low scores, but after recommendations and support there has been a distinct improvement in their compliance with FAIR. It has been a particular challenge to find a robust, automated tool to use for evaluating the FAIR principles.
“This has been a bit of a development process that has required some adjustments during the project. We are happy to report that several depositories have improved their compliance with the FAIR principles,” says Birger Jerlehag, Senior Adviser at SND.
A platform for knowledge exchange that will remain
EOSC-Nordic has also resulted in a digital platform for knowledge exchange, a Knowledge Hub. This platform has been a centralized resource for support, communication, and training, where extensive knowledge materials have been made accessible. An example of this material is Use cases that highlight how the connection of, for instance, e-infrastructures can contribute to lower barriers and strengthened collaborations in various research fields. Hopefully, the platform will remain a valuable resource even after the project itself has ended.
“The digital platform on the EOSC-Nordics website is a concrete result of the work from these past years. Our vision is that this material will serve as an inspiration and guide to future collaborations and knowledge exchange in and outside of the region”, says Iris Alfredsson, Senior Adviser at SND.