European Science Cloud is online: Secure virtual environment for research data

Vienna Declaration adopted on 23 November 2018 in Vienna

“On 23 November the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) went online. The Cloud will allow millions of researchers to store huge volumes of research data in a reliable environment, to manage, analyse and reuse them – across different technologies, disciplines and borders. By providing first class supercomputing functionalities, high speed connectivity and the latest data and software services, big data will greatly benefit science, research and the public sector”,

said Heinz Faßmann, Federal Minister for Education, Science and Research on 23 November 2018 at the European Science Cloud launch event.

“In making Open Science a priority we have committed ourselves to changing the way European science operates. The launch of the first Cloud portal constitutes in this respect an important milestone. The Cloud will provide Europe with a global advantage when it comes to fully exploiting the benefits of data-driven science. Thanks to the commitment of scientists, representatives of industry and EU member states, we were able to turn an idea into reality in less than 3 years”,

said Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation.

The European Commission gave the mandate for the conceptual design of this Cloud in May 2018 and only a few months later concrete results are already available. At a conference under the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 23 November in Vienna, the European Commission presented the governance structure and the portal to its future users. During the event, the participants of the conference also adopted the Vienna Declaration and thereby confirmed the governance structure of the EOSC and reconfirmed their readiness for continued cooperation.

The governance structure comprises individuals and institutions which consist of the members of the EOSC governance board, the executive board and the stakeholder forum. Together, they will elaborate the strategic implementation plan and annual work plans as well as rules of participation for the EOSC. The launch of the portal, which gives access to the first services and resources, is an important step towards finalising the EOSC by 2020. This portal allows about 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology experts to access a growing volume of open data and other resources from a broad range of national, regional and institutional public research infrastructures in Europe.

600 million euros were made available under Horizon 2020 for the creation of the European Open Science Cloud. The efforts to make the interconnection infrastructure of the EOSC more comprehensive and to integrate all phases of the research cycle as well as all scientific communities will go hand in hand with initiatives for the expansion of the EOSC’s user base to the public and private sector.

More information about the event can be found on the event page.