FAIRCORE4EOSC

Core Components Supporting a FAIR EOSC

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), one of the pillars for the realisation of the European Strategy for Data, is an ecosystem of research data and related services that will enable and enhance seamless access to and reliable re-use of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) research outputs such as data, publications and software. One of the priorities highlighted in the Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SRIA) of EOSC is the establishment of the Web of FAIR data and a Minimum Viable EOSC (MVE), that is the core components and functions to enable EOSC to operate (the EOSC-Core).

FAIRCORE4EOSC focuses on the development and realisation of EOSC-Core components supporting a FAIR EOSC, addressing gaps identified in the SRIA. Leveraging existing technologies and services, the project will develop nine new EOSC-Core components aimed to improve the discoverability and interoperability of an increased amount of research outputs.

1. EOSC Research Discovery Graph (RDGraph) to deliver advanced discovery tools across EOSC resources and communities;
2. EOSC PID Graph (PIDGraph) to improve the way of interlinking research entities across domains and data sources on the basis of persistent identifiers (PIDs);
3. EOSC Metadata Schema and Crosswalk Registry (MSCR) to support publishing, discovery and access of metadata schemas and provide functions to operationalise metadata conversions by combining crosswalks;
4. EOSC Data Type Registry (DTR) to provide user friendly APIs for metadata imports and access to different data types and metadata mappings;
5. EOSC PID Meta Resolver (PIDMR) to offer users a single PID resolving API in which any kind of PID can be resolved through a single, scalable PID resolving infrastructure;
6. EOSC Compliance Assessment Toolkit (CAT) to support the EOSC PID policy compliance and implementation;
7. EOSC Research Activity Identifier Service (RAiD) to mint PIDs for research projects, allowing to manage and track project related activities;
8. EOSC Research Software APIs and Connectors (RSAC) to ensure the long-term preservation of research software in different disciplines;
9. EOSC Software Heritage Mirror (SWHM) to equip EOSC with a mirror of the Software Heritage universal source code archive.

FAIRCORE4EOSC will also contribute to the EOSC Interoperability Framework by establishing guidelines on the new EOSC-Core components. The new components will be crucial to support the FAIR research life cycle. Five user-centric case studies (climate change, social sciences and humanities, mathematics, national research information systems, research data management communities) will drive the development and testing of the new components ensuring they are tailored to the user needs (co-design).

All the selected case studies share similar challenges that are common to many other stakeholder groups: research communities at European and national level have datasets that currently cannot be found in the EOSC; they use Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) but they are lacking PIDs for different levels of aggregation; they use community specific services to manage metadata that make cross-discipline reuse and interoperability complex. The user stories and best practices drawn by the case studies will be used to foster uptake of the new components beyond the project partners.

The 22 partners of the FAIRCORE4EOSC consortium have long-lasting experience in the provision and development of research data services, persistent identifiers, metadata and semantic registries, services and tools to archive and reference research software. The partners have also significantly contributed to the EOSC SRIA and are active members of the EOSC Association Task Forces (TFs) providing the project a unique insight and capacity to boost the development of the Web of FAIR Data and Related Services.

CSC is responsible for the overall management of the FAIRCORE4EOSC project, steering and coordinating the technical activities of the project and coordinating the strategic alignment with the EOSC Partnership and other relevant initiatives, including EOSC Future. CSC is also leading the establishment of the new EOSC registries for research data and metadata interoperability and research activity tracking.