Italy at the forefront for the 'European Open Science Cloud'

On the 29 July in Brussels the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) Association, an international non-profit association was created for the development and the coordination of the European Open Science Cloud. The EOSC is a European Commission initiative to integrate European research infrastructures and will facilitate access to large amounts of scientific data and advanced services for millions of scholars and professionals in the scientific and technological field.

The founding act of the EOSC Association was signed by the Italian ICDI (Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure) gathering research and digital infrastructures and Italian public research institutions, represented by GARR; the CSIC with a similar national representation role of scientific data activities for Spain; and by two European organisations: CESAER and the GÉANT network.

"This is an important recognition of the work done by Italy for the close connection between research and digital infrastructures for the competitiveness of European research", underlined Giorgio Rossi, professor of physics of matter at the State University of Milan and representative for Italy in the EOSC Governing Board.

One of the objectives of the Association is to bring together the main actors involved in the development of 'open science', connecting research infrastructures, funding bodies, service providers, representatives of research communities and intergovernmental organizations.

"At this stage, the four founding members are committed to setting the criteria and modalities of membership, while already in September the first general assembly is scheduled to accept new members; then, by the end of the year, the board of directors will be formed and the president of the EOSC Association will be appointed", assures Federico Ruggieri, GARR Director, indicating the next steps of the EOSC Association.

"ICDI, through GARR, - explains GARR director, Federico Ruggieri - coordinates the Italian participation, which with its research centres has put in place cutting-edge experiences and infrastructures that, linked to the others, will allow Europe to become a leader in the use of Big Data in the scientific field, in line with its potential in economic and knowledge aspects".

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Comunicato stampa 29/07/2020: "Digitale: Italia in prima fila per 'European Open Science Cloud', oggi a Bruxelles firma per la EOSC Association"