Sustainability of the EOSC

Chair Name and Organisation

Panellists Names and Organisation

• Patrick Garda (French Ministry MENESR)
• Rachel Bruce (Jisc)
• Dimitris Koureas (DISSCO)

Description of the session

• Realising the sustainability of the European science cloud as a sustainable ecosystem, requires the careful disentanglement of a complex web that is built over the past thirty years from cultural practices, technology requirements and funding opportunities
• From the perspectives of research infrastructures, private sector, European infrastructures, local service provider and Member States, the panel will first address the sustainability in a discussion revolving three main topics:
  1. Coordinating sustainability of national infrastructures
     • The foundation of pan-European research and facilities is built on a heterogeneous landscape of investments in Member States and subsidiary governance layers
     • Between the Member States, there is a varying level to which these infrastructures are sustainable
     • The level of sustainability required for a successful realisation of EOSC is yet to be defined
     • This includes opportunities to maximise the use of existing funding streams
  2. Funding of the central components of the EOSC
  3. Cost-recovery of international and interdisciplinary usage at the service provider level
     • Providing resources for international and/or interdisciplinary use, often stretches the boundaries of organisational remit and available funding schemes
     • HPC and networking have established practices to make available resources at the international level
     • A sustainable model for the long term storage of research data has only been realised for specific disciplines (e.g. WLGC) based on Member State-backed pledges, while a truly generic and scalable model for long term preservation in the international context is yet to be established
     • A liberalised single-market for services supporting European research would completely open up scope for supply and demand to an extent where the supply oriented funding models would not suffice and new demand oriented funding flows will be necessary
     • Mixing supply and demand from private sector with publicly funded research and facilities issue new challenges accountability requirements to overcome state support issues
• To conclude, panellists will discuss existing gaps, opportunities and potential next steps to overcome