EOSC is a pan-European initiative to create a unified European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) data infrastructure accessible to academia, industry and public service providers. The aim of building EOSC is to accelerate and support the current transition towards open science and open innovation in the Digital Single Market and to boost the economy by using research results – technology transfer. The EOSC will enable the interconnection of existing (and future) data infrastructures for scientific data, which are today fragmented across disciplines and Member States. The ambition is to create a “Web of FAIR Data and Services” based on the principle of making research data accessible in line with the FAIR Principles policy.
The strategy for the implementation of EOSC in the Czech Republic is based on the framework material “Architecture for the implementation of the EOSC-CZ initiative”(CZ) and is further supported by the outputs of the EOSC-CZ Working Groups.
OSC EU Node
At the pan-European level, this idea is implemented through the EOSC EU Node platform, to which other services are, or will be in the future, loosely linked at national or sectoral level. These Nodes should form an interconnected network of autonomous units, operating on the basis of a shared framework of standards, policies and best practices.
EOSC in the Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, EOSC is implemented through 3 main complementary projects – EOSC-CZ IPs CARDS IPs and the NRP project.
The NRP project
The research community in the Czech Republic still suffers from high fragmentation of research data and the absence of a research data management concept. The EOSC initiative, in line with FAIR principles, aims to deliver a modern infrastructure to support efficient data storage, management and sharing, including their use in international scientific projects through the National Repository Platform for Research Data (NRP) project.
The project is a non-competitive project of a nationally mandated organisation – CESNET, funded by the P JAC, through the Open Science Call I, 02_23_014.). CESNET then mediates the official position of the Czech Republic in the EOSC Association at the European level on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science. The NRP project, together with the EOSC-CZ and CARDS partner projects, forms a solid basis for the development of the National Data Infrastructure (NDI) and for moving the Czech Republic into a new phase of EOSC implementation.
- The EOSC-CZ project provides the basic infrastructure, including the National Metadata Directory (NDM). The NMA is a central directory linked to a search engine and authentication and authorization support that will maintain metadata on research data from various sources in the Czech Republic and abroad, thus enabling metadata searches. The Metadata Directory Working Group is involved in its development.
The duration of the NRP project is from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028, which will be followed in the near future by a discipline-specific project coordinated by Charles University. This follow-up project is funded by Call No. 02_24_030 Open Science II also under the OP JAK programme. The aim of this follow-up call is to support discipline-specific and interdisciplinary activities within the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative in the Czech Republic. For more information about the new call, please visit this news item.
NRP Services
The NRP project provides access to the national computing infrastructure e-INFRA CZ, to the local environment of user institutions and supercomputing centres.
The NRP will include the CESNET Invenio, CLARIN DSpace repositories and an extension of the already fully functional ASEP/ARL repository.
The pilot operation of the National Data Repository has been launched. It is supported by Open Data and operated by CESNET. More information can be found in its documentation.
The NRP project supports work with licenses, for example with the persistent identifier allocation tool . Managing licences will give scientists full control over the release of their research data.
The NRP project provides Cybersecurity and other support services through CESNET and Masaryk University.
In terms of training and support, the NRP project offers programs focused on data management and collection, Data Management Plan (DMP) development, and user support for specific problems. In addition, the staff involved are contributing to the creation of new methodological materials for NRP software or services, supporting and building the Data Stewards community, or offering consulting and training services. For an overview of training opportunities, past and upcoming events, visit the EOSC Training Center website . The Academy of Sciences Library also offers consulting, or training in Open Science and you can find an overview of this on our website under “Support”.
For a more detailed list of activities according to each key activity of the NRP project, please visit the EOSC CZ website.
