Finland launches its national Forum for the European Open Science Cloud

– The EOSC-FF will be the platform that will allow the Finnish stakeholders to
discuss and exchange information on the latest EOSC developments and assess how the EOSC will impact the Finnish RDI actors and other national initiatives, says Sara Garavelli, EOSC Program Manager at CSC–IT Center for Science and EOSC-FF Coordinator.

– The Forum will be also an excellent instrument to represent the collective interests of Finland into the EOSC and to discuss potential future EOSC-related collaborations and opportunities at national level.

Working in close collaboration with OKM, AKA and the National Steering Group on Open Science and Research, the EOSC-FF welcomes all the Finnish individuals interested in the EOSC and committed to support the mission and vision of the Declaration for Open Science and Research recently released by the National Steering Group on Open Science and Research.

Why a national EOSC Forum?

– EOSC is one of the new partnerships supported by the European Commission and Member States. It aims to realise a “web of fair data and related services” and provides a virtual environment with access to various services supporting open science and the management of the research data lifecycle, from sharing to processing and preserving data, remarks Karel Luyben, President of the EOSC Association, in the launching webinar of the EOSC-FF EOSC in Finland in the European context.

A high number of Finnish stakeholders, including research performing organisations, research funding organisations, service providers but also industry players, are heavily involved in the development of the EOSC at different levels: by participating to the EOSC European Partnership, by providing services, by being active in EOSC-related projects (e.g. EOSC Nordic, EOSC-Hub, EOSCsecretariat.eu, EOSC-Life, EOSC Future, etc) or simply by using the EOSC services.

With the recent establishment of the EOSC Association (July 2020) and the upcoming signature of the EOSC European Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (early 2021), it is of paramount importance for the Finnish stakeholders to understand the full EOSC picture and have the opportunity to influence the research priorities in the area by bringing back into the country the most suitable opportunities and services coming out from the EOSC to foster innovation and boost the societal impact of Finnish high-quality research.

The launch event on the 25th of January

Opened by Juha Haataja, Senior Ministerial Adviser at OKM, who highlighted the key role of the Forum in enabling access to different types of expertise in the country to boost the EOSC benefits at national level, and by Karel Luyben, EOSC Association President, who explained the roots of the EOSC and the future plans within the EOSC Partnership Programme, the webinar gathered together over 100 Finnish individuals from more than 40 Finnish research and business organisations.

With presentations from the Finnish representatives of the EOSC Working Groups 2018-2020 (Pirjo-Leena Forsström, CSC – IT Center for Science; Juuso Marttila, University of Jyväskylä; Henriikka Mustajoki, TSV; Susanna Nykyri, Tampere University Library; Anne Sunikka, Aalto University; Ville Tenhunen, University of Helsinki) focusing on the results achieved by the WGs and on how these results can affect in the future the national Open Science landscape, the webinar stimulated discussions around the value of EOSC for the country and on what it is expected to happen next.

Watch the recording of the webinar and the presentations. (The contents of the webinar and presentations do not conform WCAG 2.1, because they are not contents that are under CSC’s control.)

A network for EOSC newcomers, beginners and experts

The EOSC-FF is not a decision-making body but a network for discussion, information sharing and provision of coordinated feedback to the EOSC governance, therefore it is open to all the individuals interested in the EOSC independently from their level of knowledge about the EOSC. Different activities will be organized at different levels:

• Regular updates on the latest developments of the EOSC at EU & national level & on EOSC-related funding opportunities (regular communications via blogs/newsletters, etc.).
• Support in understanding the impact and benefits of EOSC for organisations and activities and initiatives going on at national level (ad-hoc webinars, meet the experts sessions, etc.).
• Active participation to EOSC co-design opportunities (EOSC consultations, more direct access to the EOSC Governance, etc.).
• Exploration new potential collaborations at national level.

The EOSC-FF and the EOSC Association

The individual participation to the EOSC-FF Forum does not substitute the participation of the Finnish organisations into the EOSC Association. The EOSC-FF is an additional platform that supports and complements the work of the EOSC Association and that does not require any participatory fee.

A Forum open to business players

To realise its full potential, the EOSC will be widened beyond the European research community to the broader public sector and to the private sector as per EOSC Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda. This is why individuals from the business sector are very welcome to join the EOSC-FF to closely follow the EOSC developments from the early stage.

Ready to join?

Join the EOSC Finnish Forum!

For any questions on the EOSC-FF please contact the EOSC-FF Office at eosc-ff-support(at)postit.csc.fi.

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Writers: Sara Garavelli ja Anu Märkälä