The European Commission is pleased to announce the official launch of the EOSC EU Node services, marking a critical milestone in its goal to accelerate the adoption of Open Science across Europe.
Following the launch of the EOSC EU Node initial web presence in April 2024, this platform now serves as a gateway for researchers to:
Discover, access and use tens of millions of scientific publications, data and software.
Find and access services and tools from research infrastructures, technology providers, world-leading scientific clusters and more.
Use integrated compute, storage as well as interactive collaboration tools, applications and services free at the point of use.
Create teams and work together putting Open Science principles in practice to access a variety of tools, services, and resources designed to streamline and enhance their research efforts.
The platform supports users at every stage of the research lifecycle, fostering greater collaboration and innovation across Europe’s scientific landscape.
Newly Released Services
The full deployment of the EOSC EU Node includes a robust set of services that address key challenges in modern research workflows, allowing users to operate efficiently within data-intensive environments. The following tools are now live:
Bulk Data Transfer: Move data effortlessly to data-intensive execution environments. Learn more.
Large File Transfer: Streamline large file transfers online with added security and integrity. Learn more.
Virtual Machines: Design and conduct experiments with flexibility while ensuring reproducibility. Learn more.
Cloud Container Platform: Deploy cloud-native containerised applications that can easily scale. Learn more.
Interactive Notebooks: Create and share documents with real-time code execution. Learn more.
File Sync & Share: Enable automatic file syncing and secure sharing across locations and teams. Learn more.
These services not only facilitate collaboration across borders but also enable researchers to work with large-scale data, develop advanced simulations, and execute complex computations—all within a secure and highly integrated environment.
In line with its mission to promote Open Science, the EOSC EU Node is the first European-level node of the emerging EOSC Federation, which is envisioned to be a network of interconnected autonomous nodes, all operating under a common framework of standards, policies, and best practices. It welcomes contributions from scientific resource providers throughout Europe, known as Contributors within the EOSC EU Node ecosystem, are invited to share their data, software, services, and tools, expanding the rich ecosystem of resources available through the platform.
With the launch of these services, contributors can now access select core capabilities “as a Service,” allowing them to leverage EOSC’s infrastructure for their own projects. This federated approach to resource sharing is a key feature of the EOSC EU Node, creating a more collaborative and interconnected research environment.
As the EOSC EU Node continues to evolve, users and contributors alike are encouraged to stay engaged with the platform – not only by utilising and contributing to its services, tools, and resources, but also by sharing insights and providing feedback through the User or Technology Forum. Future updates will bring additional features and functionalities, further enhancing the capacity of researchers across Europe to pursue groundbreaking discoveries. The EOSC EU Node remains committed to supporting the European research community in its mission to accelerate scientific progress and innovation through Open Science.
For more information and to explore the newly launched services, please visit the EOSC EU Node website.
The ENVRINNOV project is excited to introduce the “ENVRIInnovation Resources Toolbox”, an essential component of a new section to be established on the ENVRI-HUB on “Innovation Resources for the ENVRI community”.
The Toolbox will offer open access to tools and resources to support innovation activities for, and by, the ENVRI community. It aims to provide tailored guidelines, templates, and best practices that will help ENVRIs navigate the entire innovation process. This includes generating ideas for new products or services, technology development, technology transfer and commercialization. It will also provide resources to build partnerships for innovation with stakeholders outside the ENVRI community and focus on enhancing collaboration with industry.
The aim is for the toolbox to be used by ENVRI community members across different roles, in RIs and RPOs. For instance, those who work in the development or adoption of new technologies and services or participate in innovation projects. Innovation policy and collaboration resources may also benefit RI Head Office management and administration, along with those involved in external engagement e.g. Industrial Liaison Officers (ILOs), Industrial Contact Officers (ICOs), and Outreach Officers.
To ensure that the contents of the toolbox meet the diverse needs of all ENVRI stakeholders, it is being designed through a bottom-up approach. The initial version of the toolbox is being developed by the ENVRINNOV consortium, which includes RIs from all four ENVRI subdomains at varying maturity levels. The toolbox will then be refined through a call for feedback and input from the wider community.
Once launched on the ENVRI-HUB, the Toolbox, complemented by additional Innovation supporting features such as the ENVRI Innovation Training Program (currently under development), will serve as an essential platform for fostering innovation by, and for, the ENVRI community.
Toolbox Contents
The first preliminary draft of the ENVRI Innovation toolbox has been recently developed by the ENVRINNOV consortium. It is currently an offline iteration, that will be developed further and digitalized on the ENVRI-HUB. More details about the toolbox here.
Its preliminary content structure is summarized below.
Collaboration tools: Resources to support the facilitation of collaborations with different types of stakeholders for innovation purposes, such as:
Collaboration Checklist: a practical tool with critical steps to consider towards a successful collaboration (e.g. needs assessment, identification of stakeholders, collaboration agreements).
Collaboration canvas: a practical tool to be used at the stage of initial engagement with partners to help define the what, who, and how of the collaboration.
Networking Tools: including a list of events, conferences, web tools for networking, partners’ search and outreach (pan-European, per domain, per technology sector).
Funding opportunities: relevant to specific collaboration models (e.g. per TRL level, Public-private partnerships, etc.).
Agreement templates: Collaboration and confidentiality agreements templates and guides, such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA), Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and Data or material transfer agreements.
Success stories: compilation of collaboration success stories from across the ENVRI community to highlight and demonstrate the positive impact ENVRIs had in different sectors.
Innovation self-assessment and step-guide tool: A practical tool that will assist RIs in initiating and planning new collaborations with partners (RIs/RPOs, companies, governmental bodies) based on the technology or service need, and considering critical points for success (TRL level, development needs, agreements/contacts needs, disclosure and IP protection needs, etc).
Innovation collaboration model’s matrix: A summary of collaboration models that could occur with and within the ENVRI community. Identifying the most relevant model of collaboration can help accelerate a successful innovation process and facilitate an efficient business plan. It can also assist in considering the different stakeholders that ENVRIs could collaborate with on matters of innovation, and the end users of their results. The outline can be shown in this table here.
Technology Development tools: Resources supporting the Technology Development process, such as:
Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) assessment tool. The TRL is a necessary assessment for a specific technology in any innovation process stage, whether you are looking for funding, looking to initiate a co-development partnership, planning further technology development or want to assess your ready-to-market product.
Technology Development case studies: from across the ENVRI community, to highlight success stories and best practices. An open call to gather input from across the ENVRI community will be issued as part of the ENVRINNOV project.
Technology Transfer Tools: Resources to support commercialization or other type of Technology Transfer, and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Management, including:
Introduction to Technology Transfer (web resources, guidelines).
Agreement templates (collaboration agreements, confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, data transfer agreements, website resources, guidelines).
Introduction to IPR Basics (web resources, available online webinars, guidelines).
IPR Management (web resources, available online webinars, guidelines).
IP in Open Science and Open Innovation guidelines.
Additional Resources: relevant to Innovation Support, such as:
Digital innovation platforms and toolboxes by other European and global clusters.
Labels and standards: relevant certifications that may enhance trustworthiness to boost collaborations and marketability and facilitate commercialization.
Get Involved!
Are you interested in getting involved in the development of innovation resources for the ENVRI community? Join the ENVRINNOV project mailing list, by signing up here.
In the coming months, we will issue calls of interest for individuals interested in testing the first digital version of the Innovation Resources Toolbox, and/or to participate in the Innovation Training Program developed by the ENVRINNOV project. Make sure you’re in the know by joining our mailing list.
About the ENVRINNOV project
The ENVRI Innovation Resources Toolbox initiative is part of the ENVRINNOV project. ENVRINNOV is working towards co-designing, testing, and validating an Innovation Roadmap for the ENVRI community. This roadmap will set a pathway to establish and operate an ENVRI Innovation Hub (EIH), that will support the development of advanced technologies and services.
The ENVRINNOV project was motivated by the “ESFRI Strategy Working Group on the Environment” Landscape Analysis which highlights the need for coordinated innovation to address current and future technological gaps in the environmental domain. It also considers needs identified in previous ENVRI-cluster initiatives (ENVRI-FAIR, ENVRI PLUS), ENVRINNOV will address these by establishing the EIH, a centralized platform to drive innovation across the entire ENVRI community. For more information, visit the ENVRINNOV project webpage.
This news item was developed in alignment with ENVRINNOV Milestone MS3.1: Innovation Resources Toolbox (First Version) (M9). The ENVRINNOV project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101131426. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
The ENVRINNOV project has launched a survey aimed at better understanding the skills and training needs of the ENVRI (Environmental Research Infrastructures) community in the areas of innovation and collaboration with the private sector. The survey results will be used to devise a pilot training program for the ENVRI community, so input on current training needs and gaps will be crucial in ensuring that what is developed is helpful.
Stakeholders and members of relevant infrastructures are encouraged to participate in the survey and share it within their networks. The survey is available here and must be completed by Thursday, 12 September, 2024.
For more information about the ENVRINNOV project, please contact Mrs Marina Papageorgiou at m.papageorgiou@cyi.ac.cy. For questions specifically related to the survey, please contact Ariane Dubost at ariane.dubost@uca.fror Flamine de Quatrebarbes at flamine.de_quatrebarbes@uca.fr. Your participation is highly valued and appreciated.
The ENVRINNOV project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2023 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101131426.
“Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA. Neither the European Union, nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”
ATMO-ACCESS – an EU H2020 initiative encompassing IAGOS, ACTRIS, and ICOS – and RI-URBANS – an EU H2020 project aimed at enhancing monitoring capabilities for urban air pollution evaluation, prediction and abatement of urban air pollution- are inviting expressions of interest. They seek to train public authorities in implementing protocols for measuring novel air quality parameters in accordance with the revised EU Ambient Air Quality Directive.
The call targets public authorities involved in air quality assessments, reporting on air pollution levels, or addressing the health and climate impacts of air pollutants. This call offers a unique opportunity to gain insights and engage with air quality experts from the European research community. Attendance of the webinar is free of charge.
The training will be organised as 2 online sessions to be held in October 2024. Please register your interest at this online form by 19 July
Your application will be screened and selected by ATMO-ACCESS Strategic Access Board.
Click here for the programme and additional information.
The Horizon Europe funded project “ENVRINNOV- ENVironment Research infrastructures Innovation Roadmap”, coordinated by CARE-C, The Cyprus Institute, is working towards the development of an Innovation Roadmap for the ENVRI community. This will include proposed mechanisms for collaboration between all innovation-performing stakeholders in the ENVRI ecosystem (RIs, RPOs, and Industry) for the development of new technologies and services. To ensure that these mechanisms are fit for the needs of ENVRIs, they will be tested during the project by five RPOs from different subdomains (Atmosphere, Biosphere, Geosphere) through four small-scale pilot cases.
All four pilot cases have now been initiated by the Consortium. Details are included below, while progress and results from the pilots will be shared as the ENVRINNOV project moves forward.
Pilot #1: “Technology Infrastructure”: providing access to ENVRI research facilities, unique state-of-the-art instrumentation, and know-how to the private sector. Led by CEA and the Cyprus Institute.
This pilot case consists of a mobile CH4 emission measurement system that will ultimately deliver on a need expressed by the waste management and natural gas industries. The purpose is to demonstrate the ability to provide technology infrastructure to the private sector. To that end, the following actions have been taken:
Step 1: Development of a new technology (drone-sensor system to detect and quantify methane leaks) at TRL5 by a National Facility (CyI-USRL) from ACTRIS. Actions: Analysis of industry needs has been fed by previous research involving CEA and CYI (Liu et al., AMT 2024), and led to an appreciation of operational constraints (ATEX, safety) and performance requirements (CH4 leak rate, precision, certifications). The initial design of a technology solution has been done with ABB LGR instrument and 3D sonic anemometer onboard octopter UAV. The flux estimation method exploiting concentration measurement is under development. Step 2: Calibration/test at TRL6 by a Central Facility (CEA-ATC) from ICOS. Actions: Conception of a technology infrastructure response. This has involved connecting the USRL UAV infrastructure of CYI (ACTRIS) and the greenhouse gas metrology laboratory at CEA (ICOS ATC), establishing staff exchanges (visit of JD Paris from CEA to CYI in January 2024, visits of CYI staff Roubina Papaconstandinou and Pierre Yves Quehe to CEA in March 2024). Step 3: Validation in operational environment at TRL7. Actions: Firsts attempt to sample CH4 emissions from a proxy source close to the UAV flight range (a cattle farm near Orounda, Cyprus).
Pilot #2: “Tech-Boost” pipeline: creating optimal conditions for instrument manufacturers to foster the full “development-to-deployment” chain of technologies fit for the needs of ENVRIs.
Led by KIT
Since 2010, one of the most accurate and fast instruments for the in-situ detection of ozone (O3) is operated on passenger aircraft (IAGOS), research aircraft (German HALO, US HIAPER and others) and for eddy-flux measurements at ground. It has been developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and applies two techniques: a super-accurate and low-noise 2-channel O3 photometer and a fast 10 Hz solid-state chemiluminescence detector (Zahn et al., AMT, 2012). Both detectors are quantum-noise limited, the precision at 10 Hz is 0.5 – 1.0% at typical O3 mixing rations of 50 – 100 ppb. See example of a flight at 12 km altitude around Cape horn, with atmospheric gravity waves and O3 changes by a factor of 2 in less than 0.3 seconds.
In a close partnership with a medium-sized company (VBE electronics, 70 employees), the development of a new control electronics is initiated which is state-of-the-art, much smaller and provides much more features. Together with a further hardware optimisation and miniaturization, the new ozone instrument shall be distinctly smaller and lightweight, more versatile and ruggedized regarding the operation on different platforms, ready-to-use (plug & play) after a warm-up of less than one minute and shall provide quality pre-assessed data (based on a detailed instrument health status).
Step 1 of the envisaged Tech-Boost pipeline (sketched in section 1.2.3.2 of the proposal) has largely been detailed and set up, with the following actions and to guarantee an efficient development process and cooperation: (i) initial physical meeting at VBE electronics to discuss all development steps and the content of the system description of the new electronics, in which we could nicely combine the (fairly synergistic) expertise and experiences of the involved stakeholders, (ii) after discussing the details of shared documents and information, we decided to (only) sign a collaboration agreement for this first development phase (instead of a more official NDA), (iii) created a workplan with a series of development steps (especially regarding test procedures first at the company and at a later more mature status at the reference laboratory at the KIT), (iv) iterated the description of the new communication protocol and (v) started to define the hardware components. In the cooperation agreement, it has been contractually agreed that all documents (including cable plans, routing and layout, and software source code) are provided to the KIT, inter alia, to allow the airworthiness certification for the operation on airborne platforms (e.g. IAGOS) and to simplify future hardware and software updates, e.g. when certain electronic components are discontinued, or new instrument features are requested.
Pilot #3: “Scientific Services”: mobilizing ENVRI scientists to develop and provide new services to better serve emerging needs of a wider user community.
Led by University of Helsinki, with two components: in Atmosphere and Biosphere.
#3.1: Atmosphere, number concentration in urban environment with a dense network of instruments
Work regarding urban mapping of aerosol number concentration with a dense network of sensors has been initiated and the pilot will take place in Helsinki. The local air quality monitoring network has been contacted and discussed the options of deployment of novel Condensation Particle Counters within their measurement locations. The authority is positive towards implementing a short pilot activity within their facility. It is also planned to deploy gap-filling measurements with mobile measurements around and between the fixed observation sites and we are preparing the instrumentation for these measurements.
#3.2: Biosphere targets the scientific community’s need for better estimates of environmental impacts of abiotic stressors to ecosystem productivity.
Work towards pilot case 3.2 during summer 2024 has begun. Utilizing a combination of emerging technologies, such as drones and prototype optical sensors, this pilot aims to further our understanding of the impacts of plant abiotic stress to ecosystem productivity. The study site will be located at the University of Helsinki Viikki campus (Helsinki, Finland), with the measurements taking place both in field and greenhouse conditions, combining the work of several research groups.
We will be measuring both annual and perennial species, using a combination of reflectance and chlorophyll fluorescence – based optical techniques. Using both established and prototype sensors, the versatile instruments at our disposal allow us to measure both leaf and canopy level variables. The results from this study will hopefully demonstrate the ability of combined hyperspectral and low-cost fluorescence imaging sensor measurements to capture drought stress in a variety of species and pave the way for them as an established means to study plant abiotic stress.
Map of available supersites and sites providing indicative aerosol number concentrations in Helsinki (left) and an example time series of aerosol number concentrations with different instruments participating in the pilot activity (right).
Pilot #4: “Intra-RI Technological Development”: to set a process for the development of interoperable/harmonized technologies by RIs and their effective transfer within ENVRIs.
Led by UFZ
This pilot aims to enhance RPO/RI technological autonomy and promote coordinated experimental strategies within ENVRIs towards the adoption of common technologies fulfilling environmental monitoring needs. The pilot case selected here will address the further methodological development of Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing (CRNS) processing to enable its deployment across RIs of the Environment Domain for the monitoring of soil moisture, a key state variable of the environment and defined as one of the “Essential Climate Variables” defined by the WMO Global Climate Observing System (GCOS).
Vertical and horizontal scales of soil moisture measurement (modified after Schrön et al., 2021)
CRNS is an innovative technique for monitoring soil moisture based on the interaction between cosmic-ray neutrons and hydrogen atoms in the soil. This non-invasive method measures the intensity of neutrons at the earth’s surface, which correlates with the moisture content of the soil over a large area. In contrast to traditional point-based methods such as soil moisture probes or gravimetric measurements, cosmic neutron measurements offer several key advantages. Firstly, it provides a spatially integrated measurement of soil moisture that covers a larger area (several ha, several decimetre depth) without the need for multiple sensors. Secondly, it offers continuous monitoring capabilities, allowing data to be collected and analysed in real time. It is also requiring minimal maintenance once installed. Overall, cosmic neutron sensing offers a practical and efficient solution for soil moisture monitoring, which is particularly beneficial also for environmental applications.
Although CRNS technology is now successfully established worldwide, the successful processing of measurement data requires quite extensive knowledge of the theory of CRNS measurements to calibrate the devices and process the measurement data correctly. An easy-to-use guide to implementing the measurement technology and, above all, high quality research software allowing for an easy-to-use processing of the CRNS data, is an important step to reduce the hurdles to using this technology in a harmonized way across different environmental RIs.
The implementation pilot will develop a community, ready-to-use and open-source processing and visualization technology. In a first step (March 2024) the workplan has been drafted. Furthermore, overlaps and redundancies of methodologies and tools for soil moisture monitoring in European ENVRIs have been evaluated.
The next steps are:
Step 2: Identifying ENVRI users and specifying user needs and technical requirements: needs for training programs, technical support to ENVRI researchers, ENVRI’s needs for user friendly data processing and visualization tools for CRNS
Step 3: ENVRI community-driven development of a prototype for a ready-to-use software for real-time data processing and visualisation of CRNS data
Step 4: The final step will be to test the CRNS technology for soil moisture monitoring and the performance of the processing-visualisation tool across different RIs.
Acknowledgements
This news item was developed in alignment with ENVRINNOV Milestone MS2.1: Pilot cases initiated (M3). The ENVRINNOV project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2023 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101131426.
“Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however of those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them”
ATMO-ACCESS provides access to 61 of the leading European atmospheric research facilities within the current call. Note that the new ATMOBox service developed at ICOS ATC will be available as part of this call.
A full list of facilities can be found at https://www.atmo-access.eu/facilities/. Facilities can be accessed in person, remotely or in a hybrid format, combining physical and remote access. Remote access can enable the users to perform a research project without the need to visit the facility on-site, with the support of the local service providers. Access to any of the ATMO-ACCESS facilities is provided for users with no charges for the use of the infrastructure, instrumentation, or expert support. What is more, users may benefit from a contribution to support some of their accommodation and travel costs.
Applications for access within this call are submitted via the PASS Platform (https://passactris.smapply.io/prog/atmo-access_7th_call_for_transnational_access/ ). You will be asked to provide a short proposal outlining the content of your research project, the problem it addresses and how access to the ATMO-ACCESS infrastructure will enable progress that would otherwise have not been possible. You will also be asked about any co-funding you can provide for travel costs, in addition to ATMO-ACCESS’s partial contribution.
Access for a new and unconventional use of the facilities, which favors an effective combination of the research interest, knowledge, and resources of the user and the facility staff is strongly encouraged. Applications will be reviewed first by an Independent Experts Panel and the final decision will be made by the project’s Strategic Board. Please note that the ATMO-ACCESS TNA programme is a competitive process with an average 60-70% success rate.
Final selection (joint Coordination/STVB/SAMU meeting): Week 20-24 May 2024
Final list of accepted TNAs: 28 May 2024
Access Period: June 2024- January 2025
N.B.Users from potential ACTRIS National Facilities seeking support from Central Facilities are not eligible, as Central Facilities services are covered by the ACTRIS ERIC funding scheme.
We are pleased to invite you to join us online for an open day dedicated to the launch of the OSCARS project Open Call for Open Science projects, which will take place in Thessaloniki, Greece, on Friday, 15 March 2024.
The call, which is the first of two calls foreseen in the frame of the project (total worth ~16 million EUR), aims to support research communities from any scientific domain to take up open science and foster the involvement of scientists in EOSC.
Researchers from all scientific disciplines are welcome to apply with proposals for the development of new, innovative Open Science projects or services, that together will drive the uptake of FAIR-data-intensive research throughout the European Research Area (ERA).
Projects – which will be funded with a lump sum between 100,000 and 250,000 EUR – can be proposed in the field of any of the Science Clusters and beyond by any researcher or group of researchers.
By the end of the project, it is expected that a series of valuable scientific demonstrators will be available, leading to an increased uptake of Open Science by researchers and to promote cross-border and cross-domain cooperation in the long run.
During the event, participants will learn more about the scope and content of the call, and will be welcome to raise any question about the call and the application process.
WHY ATTEND?
To learn about OSCARS and the opportunity given by the 1st OSCARS Open Call for Open Science projects, which will be launched on March 15th, 2024.
To ask any question related to the call and get useful answers to increase the chances of submitting a successful proposal.
OSCARS is a four-year EU-funded project that will foster the uptake of Open Science in Europe by consolidating the achievements of world-class European research infrastructures in the ESFRI roadmap and beyond into lasting interdisciplinary FAIR data services and working practices. The project will strengthen the role of the Science Clusters in the ERA by developing domain-based Competence Centres and by fostering the implementation of Open Science projects funded through a cascading grant mechanism.
Eight Environmental Research Infrastructures (ACTRIS ERIC, AnaEE ERIC, EPOS ERIC, EuroArgo ERIC, IAGOS, ICOS ERIC, LifeWatch ERIC and eLTER) are integral of the ENVRI-Hub NEXT project that will bring the gateway to interdisciplinary environmental research data – ENVRI-Hub – to the NEXT level. Launched on February 1, 2024, and funded by Horizon Europe under Call: HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01, the project convenes a consortium of 21 partners for a face-to-face meeting at the EGI Foundation in Amsterdam’s Science Park from February 6 to 8, 2024.
Project Overview
ENVRI-Hub NEXT aims to expand multidisciplinary environmental sciences by fostering operational synergies between the participating environmental research infrastructures and beyond. The project leverages complementarities in data and services provision, enhancing the integration of cutting-edge information technology and contributing to a more integrated, productive, and globally competitive ENVRI Science Cluster.
Objectives and Ambition
The participating ENVRIs are actively contributing to addressing the growing demand for environmental scientific knowledge. Our involvement aligns with the project’s goal of further integrating research infrastructures across subdomains (Atmosphere, Marine, Solid Earth, and Biodiversity/Ecosystems) and horizontally, with the e-infrastructures to leverage the full potential of the ENVRI cluster for integrated environmental research.
To transform integrated Earth observation into a concept for a global climate observation system, ENVRI-Hub NEXT aligns with the World Meteorological Organization’s set of Essential Climate Variables (ECV) and global climate indicators. These variables provide empirical evidence crucial for understanding and predicting climate evolution, guiding mitigation and adaptation
Project Duration and Impact
The project is coordinated by the EGI Foundation and is set to run until January 2027, contributing to the European Open Science Cloud and promoting collaboration across environmental research infrastructures.
More information
For more information on the ENVRI community’s role and contributions, please contact communications(at)envri.eu. Stay tuned for the official project website launch at www.envri-hub-next.eu. In the mean time, follow our updates on LinkedIn or X.
Research-driven environmental policies, and new technologies and services to support their effective implementation and monitoring, are essential for a timely and concerted approach to adapt to and mitigate the effects of the unfolding climate crisis. European Research Infrastructures (RIs) of the Environment Domain, collectively referred to as the European Environmental and Earth System RIs (ENVRI) community, provide the crucial data necessary upon this is built. To respond to the emerging challenges and needs brought upon the climate crisis, and adequately serve scientific and policy priorities across all environment domains, new services and technologies for scientists, policy-makers and industrial users, need to be developed and deployed by ENVRIs in an ongoing basis. To do this effectively, ENVRIs must monitor emerging needs and gaps that need to be filled, and leverage a coordinated innovation approach to accelerate the technological and service developments necessary to meet them.
This will be addressed through the new Horizon Europe project “ENVRINNOV- ENVironment Research infrastructures INNOVation Roadmap”. ENVRINNOV received €2.5 million funding from the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme, to prepare common strategies for the future development of Research Infrastructure (RI) technologies and services within the Environment community.
Starting in January, 2024 and with a duration of three (3) years, ENVRINNOV will co-design, test, and validate a common Innovation Roadmap for theENVRIcommunity. This Roadmap will set a credible pathway for the ENVRI community to establish and operate an ENVRI Innovation Hub (EIH), for the future development of new state-of-the-art technologies and services. The project will also develop the tools, policies, and community necessary for the Roadmap’s successful implementation.
To achieve this, ENVRINNOV will: i) Conduct a comprehensive analysis of ENVRI services and technological needs & gaps, and define how to monitor them regularly. ii) Define, digitalize, and promote the uptake of common ENVRI innovation strategies for new technologies/services development to meet emerging needs/gaps. This will be done by defining and testing innovation co-creation mechanisms between ENVRIs, industry and the scientific community and shaping them into common policies. The project will also develop an ENVRI innovation capacity-building programme, a digital platform to enable them, and an uptake strategy to promote them. iii) Engage the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and R&I environment ecosystems to ensure long-term synergies and complementarities with ENVRI and gather feedback and support for the Roadmap.
Finally, the project will plan for the timely and realistic implementation of the Roadmap, by also creating and validating with the ENVRI community an implementation plan, governance model and business model for the EIH.
ENVRINNOV’s approach supports ESFRI’s strategic objective to “accelerate the exploitation of EU RIs as knowledge & innovation hubs”. It will help strengthen the European response to the climate crisis and its associated scientific, societal and economic challenges, by increasing the capacity of ENVRIs to respond to them. It will contribute to a more effective EU RI landscape, and support better integration across thematic areas and with the EU Technology Infrastructure landscape.
ENVRINNOV’s impact will manifest on multiple levels , unlocking opportunities for novel environmental monitoring technology solutions and data applications, while indirectly promoting the development of the Technology Infrastructure dimension in various RIs.
To achieve its objectives, the ENVRINNOV consortium brings together ten (10) partners from five (5) European countries- Cyprus, Germany, Finland, Italy and France. In addition to the Cyprus Institute, which is the coordinator of the project, the rest of the partners consist of: Forschungzentrum Julich GMBH -FZH (Germany), the Integrated Carbon Observation System- European Research Infrastructure Consortium- ICOS ERIC (Finland), the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure- European Research Infrastructure Consortium – ACTRIS ERIC (Finland), the European Multi-Disciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory-European Research Infrastructure Consortium – EMSO ERIC (Italy), Helsingin Yliopisto- UHEL (Finland), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique -CNSRS (France), Commissariat à L’énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives – CEA (France), Karlsruher Institut Fuer Technologie – KIT (Germany) and Helmholtz-Zentrum Fur Umweltforschung GMBH – UFZ (Germany).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2023 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101131426.
OSCARS is a four-year EU-funded project that will foster the uptake of Open Science in Europe by consolidating the achievements of world-class European research infrastructures in the ESFRI roadmap and beyond into lasting interdisciplinary FAIR data services and working practices. The project will strengthen the role of the Science Clusters in the ERA by developing domain-based Competence Centres and by fostering the implementation of Open Science projects funded through a cascading grant mechanism.
To maintain the high-momentum achieved in these past years on FAIR data management and connecting research communities from all scientific domains to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), all Science Clusters are working together in the Horizon Europe OSCARS project, which has been granted ~25M EUR funding in the framework of the European Commission Horizon Europe call HORIZON-INFRA-2023-EOSC-01-01.
OSCARS brings together world-class European RIs in the ESFRI roadmap and beyond, and will be implemented in the next four years. Its first objective is to consolidate the achievements from the previous projects of the Science Clusters into lasting interdisciplinary FAIR data services and working practices. Moreover, the project will lead and foster the involvement of a broad range of research communities in EOSC by launching two Open Calls (in total worth at about 16 million Euro) for the development of new, innovative Open Science projects,
To increase data FAIRness, OSCARS will also further develop a FAIR-compliant certification scheme for research data, community-based science platforms embedded in the EOSC portal and providing access to FAIR data services, data sources, guidelines and training. It will, in addition, provide highly composable research-enabling services, as well as data processing and management solutions.
The implementation of the work has already started, based on a long-standing collaboration among all the science clusters, whose role in the European Research Area will be further strengthened, recognised, acknowledged and sustained for the future. It is expected that, through OSCARS, the advances in organisational models, as well as in sharing digital technologies and services for the benefit of all domains, will be further strengthened, and that there will be a widespread uptake of multidisciplinary Open Science practices in the different research communities and beyond.
