Opensource
Inria, mandated member of EOSC: a structuring commitment to open science in Europe
Date:
Changed on 04/03/2025
Since November 2020, Inria has been a mandated member of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), an initiative aimed at structuring and pooling scientific infrastructures on a European scale. This ambitious project, a real lever for open and accessible science, is part of a context marked by a crucial need for coordination and sovereignty around research data.
A strategic European context
Launched in 2017, the EOSC initiative comes at a pivotal moment for European research. Dazzling technological advances, particularly in generative artificial intelligence, and the explosion in the volume of scientific data require a rapid and coordinated response on a continental scale. It is therefore becoming imperative to structure and pool research infrastructures to avoid fragmentation of resources, but also to preserve the sovereignty of scientific data in the face of the solutions proposed by the major technology companies (GAFAM).
The main aim of EOSC is therefore twofold: to open up scientific data while offering researchers alternative environments for accessing, processing and exchanging this data in a secure manner. The aim is not only to open up scientific knowledge, but also to create an integrated ecosystem where researchers, institutions and scientific communities can exchange, collaborate and innovate together.
EOSC is based on existing European research infrastructures, which are the real pillars of this initiative. These infrastructures, such as DARIAH (co-created by Laurent Romary) and Slices (currently being set up), play a key role in federating scientific communities and providing shared services.
A commitment at the heart of Inria's open science strategy
Inria is involved in this project, which will shape the future of research in Europe, as a mandated member. This commitment is part of a long-standing open science strategy.
For many years, the institute has been working to make scientific data, software and publications accessible, reusable and interoperable, by promoting shared and sustainable tools.
Verbatim
Our policy is not to develop anything on our own as Inria, but to favour pooling through national and European infrastructures. This guarantees not only the long-term stability of the objects produced, but also their anchorage in sovereign, long-term environments.
Auteur
Poste
Director for Scientific Information and Culture
The creation in 2015 of Software Heritage, the universal archive of software source codes co-founded by Inria, is a case in point, as is the Institute's role in the development of national infrastructures such as HAL and recherche.data.gouv.
A key role for the institute
Through its expertise and involvement in the development of open-source tools, Inria is playing a key role in the construction of EOSC, and in particular in the design of the infrastructures and standards required for this initiative.
‘Inria has a great deal of know-how at European level, particularly in the field of software, which will provide a valuable building block in the construction of this federation,’ explains Victoria Dominguez Del Angel, project leader in charge of EOSC at Inria. ‘Inria has committed itself to this step by step, ensuring above all that what it applies at national level can be propagated at European level. Software Heritage, HAL and recherche.data.gouv have, for example, been identified as elements that could be one of the nodes in the construction of EOSC’, adds Laurent Romary.
Finally, Inria's involvement in EOSC includes contributions to European projects, as well as the dissemination of best practice. ‘For this data to be able to circulate between countries, it needs to be interoperable, so rules are needed to make it all work, and that's what Inria is contributing to,’ concludes Victoria Dominguez Del Angel.