The EOSC-hub project creates the integration and management system of the future European Open Science Cloud that delivers a catalogue of services, software and data from the EGI Federation, EUDAT CDI, INDIGO-DataCloud and major research e-infrastructures. This integration and management system (the Hub) builds on mature processes, policies and tools from the leading European federated e-Infrastructures to cover the whole life-cycle of services, from planning to delivery. The Hub aggregates services from local, regional and national e-Infrastructures in Europe, Africa, Asia, Canada and South America. The Hub acts as a single contact point for researchers and innovators to discover, access, use and reuse a broad spectrum of resources for advanced data-driven research. Through the virtual access mechanism, more scientific communities and users have access to services supporting their scientific discovery and collaboration across disciplinary and geographical boundaries. The project also improves skills and knowledge among researchers and service operators by delivering specialised trainings and by establishing competence centres to co-create solutions with the users. In the area of engagement with the private sector, the project creates a Joint Digital Innovation Hub that stimulates an ecosystem of industry/SMEs, service providers and researchers to support business pilots, market take-up and commercial boost strategies. EOSC-hub builds on existing technology already at TRL 8 and addresses the need for interoperability by promoting the adoption of open standards and protocols. By mobilizing e-Infrastructures comprising more than 300 data centres worldwide and 18 pan-European infrastructures, this project is a ground-breaking milestone for the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud.

Under the new 72-month GN5 Framework Partnership Agreement in Horizon Europe (GN5-FPA), this proposal responds to Horizon Europe Call HORIZON-INFRA-2021-NET-01-SGA-2 (Work Programme ’21-22 Other Actions: 2. SGA for investments on International connectivity and collaboration), received 1 February 2022. GN5-IC1 sets out a new plan and implementation for the first phase of a new intercontinental connectivity investment programme, meeting the huge growth in network capacity demands and leading the network through a paradigm shift in the digital science and computational infrastructures in the next 10 to 15 years. It builds on the successful and relevant experience in planning and procuring and introducing into operation direct intercontinental links, such as BELLA S1, as well as a number of other existing bilateral and reciprocal arrangements for operational links negotiated with other intercontinental partners. This project will help ensure sufficient capacity is put in place through procurements and implementations of links during the project term or through setting a roadmap for future investments beyond this timeframe. The GÉANT Consortium has a long established and successful track record in securing long-term intercontinental network connectivity, interconnecting with an increasing number of gateways in the network, in co-ordination with global peers. Applying proven skills and expertise, GÉANT is well placed to maximise the value of the links to be procured, with innovative contracts and to secure reciprocal global peering contributions to increase the impact of the resources available in GN5-IC1.

OpenAIRE-Advance continues the mission of OpenAIRE to support the Open Access/Open Data mandatesinEurope. By sustaining the current successful infrastructure, comprised of a human network and robust technical services, it consolidates its achievements while working to shift the momentum among its communities to Open Science, aiming to be a trusted e-Infrastructurewithin the realms of the European Open Science Cloud.In this next phase, OpenAIRE-Advance strives to empower its National Open Access Desks (NOADs) so they become a pivotal part within their own national data infrastructures, positioningOA and open science onto national agendas. The capacity building activities bring together experts ontopical task groups in thematic areas(open policies, RDM, legal issues, TDM), promoting a train the trainer approach, strengthening and expanding the pan-European Helpdesk with support and training toolkits, training resources and workshops.It examines key elements of scholarly communication, i.e., co-operative OA publishing and next generation repositories, to develop essential building blocks of the scholarly commons.On the technical level OpenAIRE-Advance focuses on the operation and maintenance of the OpenAIRE technical TRL8/9 services,and radically improvesthe OpenAIRE services on offer by: a) optimizing their performance and scalability, b) refining their functionality based on end-user feedback, c) repackagingthem into products, taking a professional marketing approach with well-defined KPIs, d)consolidating the range of services/products into a common e-Infra catalogue to enable a wider uptake.OpenAIRE-Advancesteps up its outreach activities with concrete pilots with three major RIs,citizen science initiatives, and innovators via a rigorous Open Innovation programme. Finally, viaits partnership with COAR, OpenAIRE-Advance consolidatesOpenAIRE’s global roleextending its collaborations with Latin America, US, Japan, Canada, and Africa.