Empowering research through CSC’s machine-readable Service Catalog

The brief and commonly understandable service descriptions aim is to ease the comparison of services. Content of service catalog follow a standardized data mode, which has been developed with research organizations in a AVOTT  working group; AVOTT is a Finnish abbreviation of the National Open Science and Research Secretariat. The co-developed data model was accepted in the recent Open Science and Research Summer Conference 2025.

The machine-readability enables almost immediate updates on the fly, when there are new features, updates, service breaks, or new interoperable services. This supports also the research services to have immediate updated information available for their work.

The Essence of Open Science and FAIR Principles

Open Science advocates for making scientific research and data accessible to all levels of society, reinforcing transparency and reproducibility in research. Complementing this, the FAIR principles provide a framework to ensure that data and services are structured in a way that makes them easy to find, access, integrate, and reuse. CSC’s service catalog embodies these principles, aiming to enhance the accessibility and utility of its services for researchers.

Service catalog contains brief and commonly understandable descriptions of service, their capabilities, technical and competence requirements for their use, and also information on the minimum and maximum protection level for data.

Comprehensive and User-Centric Service Catalog

The CSC service catalog is designed to address the common challenges faced by researchers, such as finding suitable services and understanding their application and cost. It offers a detailed view of the services available, data type, and other criteria. Each service is described by standardized data model, including:

• Service ID and Short Name: Unique identifiers for easy reference.
• Bilingual Descriptions: Detailed descriptions in both English and Finnish.
• Access and Usage Information: Clear guidelines on how to obtain and use the service.
• Contact and Support: Direct links to support resources and additional documentation.

This structured approach ensures that researchers have all the necessary information at their fingertips, enabling them to make informed decisions swiftly.

Integration and Interoperability

One of the standout features of the CSC service catalog is its integration capabilities. By offering an API, the service catalog allows seamless integration with research organizations’ own service catalogs and DMP (Data Management Plan) tools. This interoperability ensures that the information is consistently up-to-date and accessible across various platforms, reducing redundancy and confusion.

For instance, researchers can use their organization’s service catalog or a DMP tool to choose CSC services, specifying their data storage or computing needs. The integration ensures that only appropriate services, based on the nature and sensitivity of the data, are presented, aligning with funders’ policies and data protection requirements.

Protection Levels: Nuanced and Comprehensive

Understanding the varying levels of data sensitivity is crucial for compliance and data management. CSC’s service catalog includes detailed protection level tags, which guide users in selecting the appropriate service based on the data’s sensitivity. The levels range from open access to highly controlled use, ensuring that researchers can find services that meet their specific data protection needs.

Benefiting entire research ecosystem in Finland and in EOSC

CSC is commited to support the research community by providing transparent, accessible, and interoperable services. By embedding the principles of Open Science and FAIR by design, CSC not only enhances the research process but also promotes a culture of openness and efficiency. Researchers are empowered with the tools and information they need to advance scientific knowledge, confident in the reliability and integrity of the services they use. Research performing organizations can implement the service catalog into their own intranet, and also describe their services according to the same data model.

As we move forward, the continued development and refinement of the CSC service catalog will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in shaping the future of research infrastructure, ensuring it meets the ever-evolving demands of the scientific community. We are currently building Finnish node for EOSC. This will ensure that in future service catalogs will contain even more broader offering and presenting the purposeful available research services for all researchers in the Finnish academic research community. We are happy to guide and support the implementation of the machine-readable service catalog. The API interphase has been described in: data.csc.fi, and one example of its implementation can be seen via research.csc.fi.

Johanna Laiho-Kauranne, Development Manager, CSC
johanna.laiho-kauranne (at) csc.fi