The road to Oz involved the famous yellow brick road. The road to an open and interoperable Europe involves the build-up of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Federation with the first thirteen EOSC candidate nodes, expected to come online towards the end of 2025. The aim of the EOSC Federation is to create a system of systems enabling the web of FAIR data and services. The formation of this ambitious ecosystem is led by many research infrastructures, including NRENs. For GÉANT community members, their involvement highlights not only the technical savviness and leadership needed, but also the importance of collaboration and shared expertise to drive Europe’s digital research infrastructure forward.
Besides the EUDAT Collaborative Data Infrastructure (EUDAT CDI) itself, two longstanding EUDAT providers, CSC – IT Centre for Science in Finland, and SURF in the Netherlands, are among the NRENs involved in establishing the EOSC Federation both as National nodes and as EUDAT’s members. EUDAT’s mission has always been to enable FAIR data through a distributed, community-driven infrastructure, and has been a part of the EOSC Federation. With over a decade of experience scaling a federated and interoperable environment, EUDAT serves as a practical model for building a sustainable EOSC Federation. EUDAT would not be a success without essential collaborations, in particular with the other e-Infrastructures such as GÉANT, EGI and OpenAIRE. Beyond CSC and SURF, other NRENs such as GRNET in Greece, DeiC in Denmark, and Jisc in the UK, also play active roles in the EUDAT ecosystem and service offer. These organisations contribute with national infrastructure integration, and community outreach to enrich the CDI.
As one of the key contributors to the development of the EOSC Federation, CSC brings long-standing expertise in data publication, and metadata frameworks, while SURF operates EUDAT’s B2HANDLE service supported by experts in Persistent Identifiers (PID). These components are essential to create a web of FAIR data. Moreover, EUDAT, through its member FZJ provide the B2ACCESS service, a federated AAI Gateway that exemplifies inclusive and accessible data management. Driven by the extensive collaboration between the EUDAT CDI and GÉANT, the B2ACCESS service enables login via institutional credentials and connects with eduGAIN, GÉANT’s global interfederation service. This gateway is a critical federating capability of the upcoming EOSC Federation.
The direct participation of NRENs within EUDAT CDI enables them to effectively bridge national infrastructures and pan-European efforts. This role is especially important because many national nodes, such as CSC and SURF, are already deeply embedded in their respective countries’ research ecosystems and contribute directly to European-wide efforts through their roles in EUDAT. EUDAT, through its collaborative architecture and shared services, amplifies these national contributions and aligns them into a unified infrastructure that supports the broader EOSC Federation.
This alignment is no coincidence – it reflects the shared EUDAT vision of research data being seamlessly shared across borders and disciplines. Getting involved in EUDAT is not just about infrastructure or services; it’s a strategic move toward being part of this future of collaborative, borderless science.
Importantly, EUDAT also serves as a valuable vehicle for helping other NRENs provide comprehensive data management solutions to their national research communities. This includes services such as file synchronisation and sharing, active data collaboration, long-term preservation, and interoperability for FAIR data principles. By offering ready-to-integrate solutions and standards-compliant frameworks, EUDAT enables NRENs to support researchers in contributing to the wider web of FAIR data and position themselves for effective participation in the EOSC Federation.
With EOSC set to become one of the most ambitious infrastructures to date, NRENs are laying bricks of the road toward FAIR principles, sustainability, and openness. Through EUDAT, and all NRENs involved, the build-up of the EOSC node also demonstrates how NRENs can support cross-disciplinary collaboration and long-term data stewardship while evolving from national infrastructure providers to vital federation partners.
Find out more about EUDAT’s service catalogue: https://eudat.eu/catalogue
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