Euro-BioImaging joins EOSC Association!

The European Open Science Cloud is a multi-disciplinary federated cloud environment where researchers can publish, find and re-use data, tools and services. Since March 2019, “Euro-BioImaging is a strong partner in the EOSC-Life project, where we work together with the imaging communities and 13 other ESFRI research infrastructures to ensure that life sciences have their space in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)“, says Antje Keppler, Director of Euro-BioImaging Bio-Hub at EMBL. As of April 2021, Euro-BioImaging also participates in EOSC Future, demonstrating concrete examples of implementation of the EOSC in life science research via one of their Science Projects.

Publishing data from facilities and linking FAIR databases to open and reusable tools and workflows to make imaging data accessible and reusable is part of Euro-BioImaging’s mission. To support this mission, EMBL hosts the Euro-BioImaging image data services and the open image data repository, BioImage Archive (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/bioimage-archive/). In order to better contribute to the future of EOSC, Euro-BioImaging has decided to join the EOSC Association as a full member, joining forces with 200 other members and observers, including EMBL and other partner ESFRI research infrastructures.

Joining the EOSC Association is a logical step for our data-heavy infrastructure, coordinating investment and shaping the future of Open Science on a European level. “Euro-BioImaging ERIC embraces and endorses the vision of the EOSC Association, and wants to help guide the strategy for the EOSC implementation phase,” says John Eriksson, Euro-BioImaging Director General. “We are prepared to engage in policy dialogues and network with like-minded people to ensure that the valuable data produced by our infrastructure is integrated into this multidisciplinary research environment.”

The EOSC Association plays an important role in helping to coordinate investments in the Open Science Cloud via its Task Forces and other governance structures.

To further steer the future of data science, Euro-BioImaging representatives are involved in two of the EOSC Association Task Forces, addressing key areas of implementation. These Task Forces are:

●      Researcher Engagement & Adoption

●      Technical Interoperability

“We are glad to be selected to represent interests of the imaging community in future EOSC endeavors. We aim to bring our users’ needs to the EOSC, while priming them towards ownership and adoption of EOSC services. Technical interoperability opens doors towards potential cross-domain interactions.,” says Aastha Mathur, Image Data Coordinator at Euro-BioImaging.

About the EOSC Association

The EOSC Association brings together key stakeholders in the European research environment to agree on strategies for the advancement of Open Science and to optimise the conditions for research outcomes, and ultimately, to make the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) a reality. EOSC will offer researchers open and seamless services for storing, managing, analysing and re-using research data, and thus accelerate the creation of new knowledge and spur innovation. Euro-BioImaging is pleased to join the EOSC Association as a full member.