Background

The EOSC Winter School 2025, held from January 20 to 23 in Seville, Spain, brought together 150 participants, including representatives from Horizon Europe EOSC-related projects, EOSC Opportunity Area Expert Groups, EOSC-A Task Forces, the European Commission, and the EOSC-A Board and Secretariat. Organized by the EOSC Association, the event aimed to align work plans, leverage project results, and explore strategies to support the build-up phase of the EOSC Federation. OSTrailers were there to communicate project findings and collaborate in aligning with other projects and initiatives on the EOSC strategic pillars:

• Sustaining and enhancing the EOSC Federation.

• Contributing to the web of FAIR data and the uptake of AI.

• Ensuring research security and sovereignty.

• Linking with other Common European Data Spaces and beyond.

Highlights from our contributions.

The OSTrails Interoperability Framework was recognised in several sessions as a cornerstone in the standardisation of FAIRness, and machine-actionability of Data Management Plans (DMPs). The FAIRness Reference Model was equally acknowledged as necessary in harmonising assessment results and ensuring the FAIRness of scholarly data, facilitating its integration into knowledge graphs, and enabling AI-driven research. 

Overall, OSTrails’ contributions were showcased across multiple sessions. Mark Wilkinson and Elli Papadopoulou, co-chairs of the EOSC-A FAIR Metrics and Digital Objects TF, along with Daniel Garijo actively contributed on FAIR metrics, digital objects, and scholarly communication. They led sessions and engaged in discussions around the integration of FAIR data and AI or the opportunities of SKGs going beyond publications. More OSTrailers were present in Seville contributing to other joint sessions presented at the event (check the photo for some hints!).

Looking ahead.

As we celebrate one year since our project’s launch, we are stepping forward with greater maturity and common understanding of the diversity of national and domain specific research ecosystems. Our experience over the past months has deepened our knowledge of how the Plan-Track-Assess (PTA) framework can integrate in such settings while also enhancing the emerging EOSC Nodes and contributing to EOSC's evolving interoperability framework. In fact, we attend to seeing our efforts adopted by EOSC Nodes in the form of blueprints for Planning, Tracking, and Assessing research.

Tune in!

Explore our latest deliverables and developments available at our Zenodo community. Find key outputs fresh-off-the-oven, like D1.2 FAIRness Reference Model for Digital Objects V1, D1.4 OSTrails Interoperability Reference Architecture V1, D2.5 OSTrails Commons Specifications, and D3.1 DMP Evaluation Rubric and Service Specifications, D5.3 Training Roadmap, Framework and Delivery of Training Library and Competence Centre V1. Subscribe to our Newsletter for more!