At the recent EGI2025 conference, held from June 2nd to June 6th at the stunning Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander (Spain), OSTrails made a strong impression by showcasing practical approaches to enabling FAIR, open, and reproducible science within data-intensive research environments — a participation that held a pleasant surprise for the project!
Key takeaways from the event
- There is strong demand for tools that reduce complexity, not add to it.
- Researchers need help with reproducibility, and OSTrails offers a clear path forward.
- Interoperability is top of mind, and OSTrails is well-positioned to contribute with its cross-domain, composable approach.
- Also: People do read posters—and sometimes even give you awards for them.
What was the main message of the OSTrails contribution?
OSTrails puts researchers at the centre by supporting every stage of the data lifecycle -from planning and metadata creation to FAIRness assessment, publication, and reuse. The OSTrails poster at EGI2025 illustrates how OSTrails' modular tools, including machine-actionable DMPs, FAIR assessment pipelines, and Scientific Knowledge Graphs, can be seamlessly integrated into existing workflows. Rather than adding more burden, OSTrails aims to make researchers’ lives easier, their data more reusable, and their science more reproducible. The research community embraced the contribution, awarding it the Best Poster Award at EGI2025 — a clear endorsement of OSTrails’ commitment to delivering concrete, impactful solutions for the scientific community.
"And the best poster award goes to.. Anca Hienola"
Why was the event important for OSTrails?
Presenting at EGI2025 gave OSTrails visibility in one of the communities that build and run the infrastructure behind European science. It was a key moment to showcase how OSTrails is bridging the gap between high-level FAIR/Open Science policy and the realities of researchers’ daily work, and how our tools complement existing infrastructural services.
Why was the event important for Open Science in general?
Open Science isn't just about openness - it's about making science reproducible, reusable, and efficient. OSTrails helps move the conversation from ideals to implementation by offering tools that embed FAIRness and automation directly into research workflows. This contributes to a more mature and usable Open Science ecosystem.
Impressions
The EGI2025 atmosphere was genuinely collaborative, and OSTrails stood out as a project that's not just “another project,” but a set of researcher-facing solutions. Attendees were particularly pleased by how OSTrails brings together technical components (like metadata enrichment and assessment pipelines) in a way that’s actually usable.
Discussions aroung OSTrails poster presentation.
Conclusions from attending the event.
OSTrails is clearly aligned with the current needs of both researchers and infrastructure providers. The event confirmed that our emphasis on automation, modularity, and usability is not only relevant but urgently needed. It also opened doors for future collaborations—particularly in integrating OSTrails tools into the broader EOSC ecosystem and other e-infrastructures frameworks.
"Open Science isn't something you just comply with—it should make your life as a researcher easier. OSTrails is building the tools to make that actually happen."
-Anca Hienola, OSTrails project partner and Best Poster Award winner at EGI2025
