Towards the realization of national Open Science Cloud ecosystems in the Southeastern Europe (SEE)

A National Open Science Cloud Initiative (NOSCI) is envisaged as a coalition of national organizations that have a prominent role and interest in the Europe Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The main aim of NOSCI will be the promotion of synergies at national level, and the optimization/articulation of their participation to European and global challenges in this field of Open Science, including the EOSC. National initiatives are envisaged to play a prominent role in Member States and Associated Countries and facilitate EOSC governance.

NI4OS-Europe with a commitment to support EOSC governance and a vision to ensure inclusiveness on the European level, has taken the first steps towards the establishment of 15 National Open Science Cloud Initiatives in South East Europe.

NI4OS-Europe recent efforts are focused on the definition of an establishment plan and the kickoff of the NOSCIs. All NI4OS-Europe partners are working intensively towards forming NOSCIs in the area within 2021, aiming at making 2021 a milestone for Open Science in SEE. Activities unfold in two directions: First, NI4OS-Europe produced diverse material to support actively the establishment of the NOSCIs in the SEE. Specifically, Deliverable 2.2 includes a comprehensive guide, the “Blueprint”, which can be further customized by any Member State and Associate Country and can be used as a valuable tool to advance national OSC, support the establishment of different types of national initiatives at different levels of maturity, monitor their progress and facilitate the governance of EOSC. Moreover, two supportive documents of the Blueprint have been produced to facilitate the procedure: “Workflows for setting up a NOSCI – Checklist” and “Indicators for the NOSCIs establishment – Checklist”.

In parallel, NI4OS-Europe is working on building and mobilising OS actors and networks in the region, The main activities include meetings with local stakeholders and national policymakers, information exchange about Open Science Cloud initiatives, policies and Open Science governance in each partner’s country and production of easy-to-ese tools to facilitate the process. Training and support material were also produced to accompany a NOSCIs dedicated webinar for NI4OS-Europe partners.

NOSCIs are living Open Science ecosystems that liaise with the EOSC Governance and are integral parts of the EOSC Association. NOSCIs are especially important because they recognize socio-economic diversity and Open Science maturity of countries, while their modelling can be adjusted per use case scenario. They can be proven exceptionally useful in preparing all national stakeholders for the new phase of the EOSC, where the EOSC Association plays a central role, by spreading awareness and communicating EOSC developments.

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