Lecce, Italy – October 3, 2024 – Leading European e-Infrastructure organisations, including EGI, EUDAT, GÉANT, OpenAIRE, and PRACE today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the EGI 2024 conference, establishing the European e-Infrastructures Assembly. This collaboration aims to bolster the position and promote the services of e-Infrastructures, empowering researchers across Europe to drive innovation and advance scientific discovery.
Combined Expertise and Shared Goals for Enhanced Research Support
The European e-Infrastructures provide a critical foundation for research across Europe, offering advanced services, data centres, repositories, connectivity, computing resources, and expert teams. This collaborative effort leverages the expertise of these leading organisations, creating a united front for advocating and promoting the benefits of e-Infrastructures to the research community.
Key Objectives of the Assembly
The Assembly focuses on several key objectives:
- Joint Advocacy: Increasing awareness and visibility of e-Infrastructures with policymakers, funding bodies, and other relevant stakeholders.
- Collaboration and Coordination: Aligning activities in areas of common interest, including seeking joint funding opportunities and avoiding duplication of efforts.
- Innovation and Open Science: Collaborating in R&D to support service innovation and promote Open Science principles and practices.
- Community Engagement: Enhancing connections with research communities and fostering dialogue with them to understand their needs better.
- Policy Influence: Actively contributing to shaping discussions on the digitisation of European research and education.
Looking Forward
The Assembly plans to hold regular meetings, develop joint communication materials, and organise events to achieve its goals.
“We are thrilled to officially launch this collaborative partnership at the EGI Conference,” said Tiziana Ferrari, Director of the EGI Foundation. “By working together, we can create a more vibrant and innovative ecosystem that supports the next generation of researchers.”
“GÉANT is proud to join forces with leading European e-Infrastructures in this collaboration. By defining common strategies, combining our expertise and working together towards common goals, we aim to provide the research community with a more comprehensive and integrated ecosystem of services. This will enable researchers to collaborate more effectively and foster advancements in cutting-edge research and innovation.” said Erik Huizer, GÉANT CEO.
“In the race that is HPC, everyone is dedicated to and focussed on upgrades, development, and innovation, which is exactly the drive that Europe needs to stay ahead. Yet we should not forget the foundations that were laid in the past decades: the legacy of long-standing eInfrastructures and their contribution to the evolving HPC landscape. All this is made possible through the strong collaboration between those developing the infrastructure and those using it. This MoU is an excellent first step to consolidate and valorise that legacy,” said Serge Bogaerts, Managing Director of PRACE aisbl.
“At OpenAIRE, we are passionate about breaking down barriers, and this partnership presents an incredible opportunity for Europe’s leading e-Infrastructures to unite and align their efforts. Together we ensure that every researcher has the tools, data, network and support they need to push the frontiers of innovation and cultivate a more interconnected scientific community”, said Natalia Manola, OpenAIRE CEO.
“Signing this MoU marks a reinforced collaboration between the major European e-Infrastructures. EUDAT is delighted to be an active contributor to this and will invest resources to converge towards a unified strategy and service offer. This convergence will streamline the access to services to accelerate research and innovation and will enable the e-Infrastructures to communicate with a united voice with the various stakeholders involved in the creation of EOSC,” said Yann Le Franc, EUDAT Head of the Secretariat.
About the collaborating organisations
About GÉANT
GÉANT is Europe’s leading collaboration on network and related infrastructure and services for the benefit of research and education, contributing to Europe’s economic growth and competitiveness. The organisation develops, delivers and promotes advanced network and associated e-infrastructure services, and supports innovation and knowledge-sharing amongst its members, partners and the wider research and education networking community. For more information, visit geant.org
About OpenAIRE
OpenAIRE is a non-profit partnership organisation established in 2018 as a legal entity, OpenAIRE A.M.K.E., with the goal of ensuring a sustainable open scholarly communication infrastructure and supporting research in Europe and beyond. OpenAIRE actively promotes Open Science, both collectively and through practical initiatives. Its areas of expertise and activity include providing services, shaping policies, and offering training. Since its inception in 2009, OpenAIRE has been a key player and driving force behind the development of the European Open Science Cloud. For more information, visit www.openaire.eu
About PRACE
Building on two decades of fostering the High-Performance Computing (HPC) ecosystem in Europe, the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) aims to represent the interests and identify the needs of users of HPC and related technologies (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Cloud Computing, Data Science) in Europe. As an Association of users and HPC centres in Europe, we pursue actions to enable high-impact research and innovation across all disciplines and industrial applications, thereby enhancing European scientific, technological and economic competitiveness for the benefit of society. PRACE strives to empower the stakeholders of the European HPC ecosystem, with its Council steering the actions of the Association towards that goal. Through various membership opportunities, PRACE offers representation across two axes: the nature of the actor (an individual, enterprise or institution) and their scope of action (HPC Centres, Science, Industry). prace-ri.eu
About EUDAT
The EUDAT Collaborative Data Infrastructure (or EUDAT CDI) is one of the largest infrastructures of integrated data services and resources supporting research in Europe. It is sustained by a network of more than 20 European research organisations, data and computing centres. It offers services for the complete research data lifecycle from sync and sharing active data (B2DROP), to storing & publishing stable data (B2SHARE), to safekeeping via replication (B2SAFE). Registering data is done via B2HANDLE and any researcher can access the services via their own institutional credentials through B2ACCESS. This infrastructure and its services have been developed in close collaboration with over 50 research communities spanning across many different scientific disciplines and involved at all stages of the design process. eudat.eu
About EGI
The EGI Federation delivers a scalable digital research infrastructure (e-infrastructure), empowering tens of thousands of researchers across diverse scientific disciplines. Through the EGI Federation, researchers gain access to advanced computing and data analytics capabilities, including large-scale data analysis, while benefiting from the collaborative efforts of hundreds of service providers from both public and private sectors, consolidating resources from Europe and beyond. Overall, the EGI Federation offers a range of cutting-edge services, encompassing distributed high throughput and cloud computing, efficient storage and data management capabilities, co-development of new solutions, expert support, and comprehensive training opportunities. This vibrant ecosystem propels collaboration, scientific progress and innovation. www.egi.eu
