EOSC is not being built from scratch: Key takeaways from the EOSC Winter School in Nice

As the EOSC Federation moves from concept to reality, key questions emerge: how it will work in practice, what will motivate researchers to use shared data and services across Europe, and how trust, standards, and people influence its success. These questions were explored during the three-day EOSC Winter School in Nice.

“What matters most is to keep the momentum, the ambition and the shared purpose that have brought us this far. So let's seize this moment, let's act together to complete the EOSC Federation fast and make it the backbone of Europe's digital research and innovation ecosystem. You can count on the full support of the European Commission in this vital and transformative endeavor,” said Ute Gunsenheimer, Secretary General of the EOSC Association, in her opening address to this year’s Winter School, quoting the words of Marc Lemaître delivered at the EOSC Symposium in 2025.

The EOSC Federation in practice
Her remarks were followed by Bob Jones, Special Envoy for the EOSC Federation, who stressed that the goal is to move the EOSC Federation from a prototype into real-world operation while addressing all legal, governance, operational, and participation-related issues. He also mentioned the establishment of the EOSC Academy, which is intended to provide training, mentoring, and best practices, and encouraged Winter School participants to engage in discussions that could influence the next phase of the EOSC Federation.

Practical aspects of how the EOSC Federation functions and how to join it are summarised in the EOSC Federation Handbook, whose content was presented by Rudolf Dimper, ICT Consultant to the EOSC Association. User feedback will be crucial for the next version of the Handbook, expected in approximately one year.

Three main themes of the Winter School
Following the introductory presentations, participants split into three parallel groups, each focusing on a different key topic: service and data interoperability, resources, and competencies and training.

Interoperability
The group focusing on interoperability concentrated on defining a federated data access approach that enables resource discovery across EOSC nodes. Discussions addressed cybersecurity, existing gaps in this area, and the need for joint training, trust-building, and sustainability among service providers, EOSC nodes, and researchers. The classification of services offered across the EOSC Federation was also discussed as a potential way to improve navigation and orientation within the available resources.

Resources
“We were fortunate to be working at just three tables in a smaller group, which allowed us to go into great detail,” said Marek Cebecauer from the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who led the group. The group’s goal was to strengthen user trust in services integrated into the EOSC Federation by improving the quality of provided services and resources. Three main priorities were discussed:
i) clarifying the concept of “data quality”;
ii) defining not only minimum requirements but also recommended and long-term supported protocols and standards, including raising awareness of European standards such as the obligation to use DCAT-AP; and
iii) implementing rules for data preservation and long-term data quality improvement in EOSC node repositories.

EOSC Academy
The third group focused on competencies, training, and the human factor, which is difficult to fit into uniform templates. Participants discussed the role of the EOSC Academy, competence centres, and training materials that can support both existing and candidate EOSC nodes and service providers. Emphasis was placed on understanding the EOSC ecosystem as a whole, sharing best practices, mentoring and success stories, and cooperation with the EOSC Federation Training Working Group.

Roksana Wilk from the Academic Computing Centre CYFRONET shared her experience, noting that key skills for building EOSC nodes include marketing, identifying the right target audience, and having a clear operational plan. According to Sara Pittonet, strong IT skills are essential, while Magdalena Szuflita-Żurawska highlighted that, alongside data stewards, EOSC involves many other actors. Veronika Ambrozová from the EOSC CZ project summarised the overall impression of this thematic block: “I appreciated the sharing of experiences from already operational EOSC nodes and the way individual stakeholders were involved in the whole process. I am taking away valuable input for the Czech EOSC node.”

The networking format proved its worth
The EOSC Winter School also included a Brokerage Event, providing opportunities for participants, projects, EOSC nodes, and service providers to connect within the EOSC ecosystem. The aim was to facilitate collaboration and the exchange of experience. The event proved to be a very successful experiment, with 281 meetings held among participants from 24 countries and 101 positive evaluations submitted. The closing message thus resonated clearly: “The human factor must be at the heart of all services.”