A major milestone: the EOSC Association is born!

Here we are. EOSC achieved a major milestone on Wednesday, 29 July 2020, at 10:32 local time in Brussels, when the notary gave his green-inked signature to the Deed of Association of the EOSC Association. Before that, the four founding members CESAER (represented by David Bohmert), CSIC (represented by Elena Domínguez), GÉANT (represented by Cathrin Stöver) and ICDI (represented by Angelo Volpi) had carefully listened to the reading, initialed the pages and finally given their signature.

We were informed by the notary that the issuing of the Royal Decree which formally establishes the EOSC Association will take anything between six weeks and three months, the uncertainty being due to the summer period but also COVID19 disruptions. We were told that in the meantime, the founding members could hold a meeting to accept additional members and could prepare a General Assembly which can be held as soon as the Royal Decree is issued. The General Assembly then needs to formally ratify the admission of additional members, can accept more new members (a second batch, so to speak) and can proceed to the formal voting of Board and President. Until then, the founding members can take decisions on matters with a ¾ majority and this has been simplified by nominating temporary Directors of the Association, which are Karel Luyben (CESAER), José Luis de Miguel (CSIC), Cathrin Stöver (GÉANT) and Federico Ruggieri (for GARR representing ICDI).

We will be in touch with all organisations who have registered their interest to be a member of EOSC as soon as we can about the next steps towards admission and as I have said in my blog last week, we will also get in touch about the drafting group for the bylaws.

But for now, I raise my glass, as we did this morning (see the picture) to the EOSC Association – may it live long and prosper!