O.S.C.A.R.S. - Open Science Clusters’ Action for Research and Society

Project Information

OSCARS

Grant agreement ID: 101129751

DOI

10.3030/101129751

EC signature date 23 October 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 30 June 2028

Funded under

• Research infrastructures

Total cost

€ 24 998 586,25

EU contribution

€ 24 998 586,25

Coordinated by

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OSCARS (O.S.C.A.R.S. - Open Science Clusters’ Action for Research and Society)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The OSCARS project promotes Open Science in Europe by advancing the development and uptake of thematic infrastructural services in the ecosystem of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
Through cross-disciplinary collaboration among the Research Infrastructures (RIs) in the five EOSC Science Clusters (ENVRI - Environmental Sciences, ESCAPE - Astronomy, Nuclear and Particle Physics, LS-RI - Life Sciences, PaNOSC - Photon and Neutron Science, SSHOC - Humanities and Social Sciences), OSCARS supports the adoption of FAIR and Open Science practices across diverse scientific communities.
Its key objectives are:
• Set up and implement Clusters’ Open Science Competence Centres (CLOCCs), community-based virtual hubs dedicated to fostering research excellence through training and knowledge transfer.
• Identify and provide Composable Open Data and Analysis Services (CODAS)
• Contribute to a Data space for science, research and innovation
By consolidating Science Clusters’ past achievements into lasting interdisciplinary FAIR data services and working practices across scientific disciplines and communities, the project has been further strengthening their role in the European Research Area (ERA).
Through two Open Calls addressing researchers, research infrastructures, universities, SMEs and other organisations from within and beyond the scientific domains of the Science Clusters, OSCARS has been fostering the implementation of Open Science projects and services, giving the opportunity for inter-cluster cross-adoption and co-development of services with the potential to be used in combination with the core services in EOSC.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

OSCARS is implementing an integrated technical and scientific programme across the five EOSC Science Clusters to consolidate and extend their FAIR data and service capacities within the EOSC ecosystem. Central to this effort is the establishment of the Clusters’ Open Science Competence Centres (CLOCCs), which structure domain-specific expertise into coordinated hubs supporting harmonised data stewardship practices, metadata standards alignment, interoperability frameworks and FAIR-by-design workflows. In parallel, OSCARS defined and advanced Composable Open Data and Analysis Services (CODAS), identifying reusable, interoperable tools and services that can be combined with EOSC core services and adopted across disciplinary boundaries.
Through two cascading Open Calls, OSCARS funded 70 projects spanning environmental sciences, astronomy and particle physics, life sciences, photon and neutron science, materials sciences, and social sciences and humanities, as well as cross-domain collaborations. These projects delivered concrete technical outputs including FAIR datasets, interoperable repository workflows, metadata annotation pipelines, knowledge graphs, AI-assisted tools for FAIR data validation and analysis, and reusable software services integrated with cluster infrastructures and EOSC. The second Open Call demonstrated a substantial community demand, with applications rising from 264 to 746, involving more than 1200 organisations from 67 countries. As a result of the first call alone, 23 new positions had already been created in April last year, representing over 34 person-years of research and technical capacity.
Outcomes include measurable improvements in data lifecycle management across disciplines, strengthened cross-cluster interoperability, the integration of new EOSC-ready services, and the establishment of a pool of Open Science experts contributing to sustainable, large-scale FAIR implementation within the ERA.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

OSCARS delivers results beyond the state of the art by moving from siloed and fragmented data and services within individual domains to coordinated, cross-cluster, FAIR solutions embedded in the EOSC ecosystem.
By consolidating the capacities of the five EOSC Science Clusters, the project has identified and co-designed composable Open Data and Analysis Services that operate across disciplinary boundaries and communities and integrate with EOSC core services.
In addition, the 70 projects funded via OSCARS Open Calls have produced advanced outputs and outcomes throughout the full research data lifecycle:
• Upgraded infrastructure: new stations installed, VREs
• Governance frameworks and FAIR data policy adoption: Regulatory documentation, DMPs, user requirements collection and publication, gap analyses, reports
• FAIR compliance of newly collected datasets
• Interoperable and standardised data curation practices: Data cleaning & processing workflows, (meta)data standards and protocols, vocabularies (and their integration), ontologies, annotation pipelines and tools, new data classification models, metadata schema and knowledge graphs & maps
• FAIR-aligned data preservation and seamless access: APIs, data catalogues, repositories, databases, data hubs, data portals
• Enhanced data analysis and exploration capacity: Jupyter Notebooks, analytical workflows, data dashboards
• New and upgraded software and (AI) tools: design, development and implementation of tools and technologies (for data annotation, search, visualisation, analysis, teaching)
• Capacity strengthened through new training resources: textbooks, materials and platform development
• Scientific networks strengthened within and across communities
The establishment of Clusters’ Open Science Competence Centres, providing expertise, best practices and services in relation to Open Science and promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration and of a European-wide pool of Open Science evaluators, further strengthens the structural capacity for sustained FAIR implementation.
The strong oversubscription of the 2nd Open Call demonstrates high community demand and scalability potential.
Ensuring long-term uptake will require continued support for cascading funding instruments, sustained integration of services within EOSC, alignment with evolving standards and interoperability frameworks, and ongoing investment in community-based expertise to maintain and expand the results and structural outcomes across the European Research Area.

Overview of OSCARS goals