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.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Researchers from all scientific disciplines
• Data scientists
• Members of research infrastructures

REGISTER HERE

 

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.

 

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.

Click here to read the full press release.

Registration is officially open for the EOSC Symposium, which will take place in Madrid, Spain, from 20-22 September 2023. The event is being co-organised by the EOSC Future project, the European Commission, the EOSC Association and the EOSC Steering Board, and registration is open for both in-person and online participation.

Under the heading ‘Taking EOSC into the future’, EOSC Symposium 2023 will tackle all of your questions:

• What will be the EOSC assets that will be sustained after 2027? 
• How will they be financed and governed? 
• What will be the impact of EOSC on the European Data and Infrastructure ecosystem? 

During plenary and breakout sessions:

• The results achieved so far will be presented by the EOSC tripartite collaboration, EOSC projects, the Science Clusters and many other active stakeholders. 
• EOSC Future will showcase how the work completed in the past 3 years has contributed to progress the EOSC MVE (a minimum viable EOSC).
• The EOSC Association Task Forces and the INFRAEOSC-07 projects will discuss how they are advancing some of the technical and non-technical challenges highlighted in the SRIA.
• Speakers representing other initiatives such as Data Spaces, CoARA, etc., will join the event to help us understand the role of EOSC in the broader ecosystem.

Open Science experts, researchers and research support networks, regional and EU policymakers, IT service and infrastructure providers, Research Infrastructures…be prepared to connect, take inventory of the year’s achievements and lead EOSC into the future!

Registration is open until 31 July 2023, 23.59 CEST. Click here to reserve your spot at EOSC Symposium 2023.

Early birds: Grab your seat at the main EOSC event of the year

Make sure to register as soon as possible; places are limited and will fill up quickly. For those who cannot attend in Madrid, there is an online participation option via the above link. 

Keep in mind: Event registration costs will vary depending on in-person or online attendance, among other conditions. Information on registration fees (i) Standard, ii) European Commission, EOSC Steering Board, EOSC Association Board of Directors, iii) EOSC Association Task Force co-chairs is included on the event website. You will also find accommodation and other logistical information in the ‘Practical information’ section. 

Participants who decide to stay at the venue (NH Ventas – Madrid) can benefit from a special rate of 138,61 EUR/night (VAT incl.). Here is the link to book rooms directly:   https://www.nh-hotels.com/event/eosc-symposium-2023 

 

An open call for exhibitors

Don´t miss the opportunity to show your work and network at your personalised exhibition booth in Madrid. A marvellous exhibition area is waiting for you. 

Book your #EOSCsymposium23 booth here by 7 July 2023.

More information on the programme and other opportunities coming soon. In the meantime, stay tuned for updates on the official EOSC Symposium website and keep an eye out for the #EOSCsymposium23 hashtag.

Welcome to the 6th EUFAR Airborne Science Webinar on the 28th of June, 2023.

The NASA Airborne Science Program supports the Science Mission Directorate Earth Science Division with modified aircraft capable of flying a variety of different kinds of instruments for observing our planet. Inlets, upward and downward ports and windows, onboard computing and satcom onboard these aircraft enable testing of new instruments, underflights of satellites instruments with well calibrated instruments, and collection of unique data to improve earth system models. The Program currently supports flight operations of the NASA ER-2, NASA DC-8, NASA G-III, GV, NASA P-3, NASA WB-57. In 2021 the National Academies of Sciences released a report recommending a replacement be acquired for the aging DC-8 flying laboratory. This past year NASA purchased a 777 that will provide a next generation flying laboratory with global reach to replace the DC-8.

This talk will provide an overview of this new NASA aircraft as well as providing an overview of other Program developments and an overview of science currently being conducted on NASA science aircraft in support of earth observations.

To register for this webinar please follow this link.

This post was first published on the EUFAR website.

by Soulaine Theocharides – Software developer (Naturalis Biodiversity Center)

In the realm of biodiversity and geoscience research, the digitization of natural history collections has revolutionized the way we study and understand our planet’s rich biological and geological heritage. However, as the volume of digitization and other valuable data resources continues to grow, ensuring their long-term accessibility and interoperability becomes increasingly challenging. This is where Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) come into play, providing a robust and reliable solution for managing and referencing these digital assets. FAIR Digital Object Profiles (FDO Profiles) further standardize and structure PID records, facilitating interoperability between FDOs and sophisticated machine actionability.

In this blog post, we will explore the significance of PIDs in biodiversity research, highlight the role of FDO Profiles in shaping the PID architecture of DiSSCo, and outline the design process of our first FDO Profile, now available for public feedback.

Go to DiSSCo Tech for more on PIDs

The Importance of Persistent Identifiers

PIDs assign globally unique identifiers to objects, providing a stable reference even if the objects are relocated or undergo changes. By ensuring persistence, PIDs eliminate broken links and guarantee the accessibility of digital resources, regardless of any future changes in storage infrastructure or hosting platforms.

When a specimen record is ingested into DiSSCo, it is assigned a PID. Through robust PID infrastructure, researchers, machines, and the wider community will be able to easily locate and cite specific Digital Specimens or related resources, enhancing transparency and reproducibility in research.

What is an FDO Profile?

In addition to the location of the referenced object, FDO Records contain structured metadata that describes the attributes and characteristics of the resource associated with the PID. The FDO Record is similar to the PID record idea proposed by RDA [1], but the term FDO Record is used to “highlight that there could be possible [implementations] of FDO without explicitly relying on the attributes stored in a PID record” [2]. This metadata may include information such as title, creator, date, identifiers for related objects, access rights, and more. This information allows machines to make decisions regarding the Digital Object without needing to resolve the PID.

Different Types of Digital Objects have different FDO Record metadata requirements, and thus the actions a machine can take on a PID record is defined by the object Type. FDO Profiles standardize which FDO record attributes should be associated with each Type of object. Within DiSSCo alone, we expect to assign PIDs to a diverse array of object Types, including media objects, annotations, and of course, Digital Specimens. Each of these object types will have their own FDO Profile; currently, the FDO profile for Digital Specimens is available for public feedback.

FDO Profiles and DiSSCo

Recognizing the need for consistency and harmonization, our FDO profiles incorporate elements that can be reused for various Digital Object types within DiSSCo. Attributes like issue date or PID status are applicable not only to Digital Specimens but also to media objects, annotations, and other resource types. This consistency promotes interoperability and simplifies metadata management efforts.

Subsequently, we added additional attributes specific to Digital Specimens, such as specimen host and material sample type. This approach strikes a balance between standardized metadata representation across biodiversity research resources while accommodating the unique characteristics of Digital Specimens.

Next Steps

We are actively working on designing additional FDO profiles for different Digital Object Types within DiSSCo. These profiles will further enhance the interoperability and standardization of biodiversity research resources, ensuring that the benefits of PIDs and FDO profiles extend beyond Digital Specimens to encompass various data types and formats.

We are actively seeking feedback from the community on the current FDO Profile for Digital Specimens via an RFC Document, available here. The RFC (Request for Comments) process facilitates conversation between DiSSCo and community members, provides an opportunity to receive feedback on the DiSSCo development process, and defines how decision making works. More information on the RFC process itself can be found here.

Conclusion

Persistent Identifiers and FDO profiles are crucial components of the DiSSCo infrastructure. By providing stable and globally unique identifiers, PIDs ensure the accessibility, citation, and long-term preservation of Digital Objects. Meanwhile, FDO profiles offer a means to describe the attributes of these PID records in a standardized and interoperable manner. As digitization efforts expand, leveraging PIDs and FDO Profiles will continue to play a pivotal role in unlocking the vast potential of biodiversity research, enabling collaboration, discovery, and machine actionability.

 

[1] RDA PID KI. 2019. RDA Recommendation on PID Kernel Information. Research Data Alliance. [Online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15497/RDA00031

[2] S. Islam, “FAIR digital objects, persistent identifiers and machine actionability,” FAIR Connect. [Online]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3233/FC-230001

 

This article was first published on the DiSSCo research infrastructure website.

New ATMO-ACCESS Virtual access service launched!

Discover and make use of the FLEXPART atmospheric transport modelling products for ground-based observations to analyse source regions and emission sources of aerosols and reactive trace gases. ATMO-ACCESS service offers now model tools for interpretation of measurement data from background stations. You can request model runs to produce data products (e.g footprint residence times, source contributions from different emission sectors) for your decided locations, or search and use the already produced products.

This is just one of the services launched on the ATMO-ACCESS virtual access portal, that you can access here.

Nord University will host the Arctic Congress 2024 Bodo, bringing UArctic, IASSA and High North Dialogue together as partners, May 29-June 3, 2024 in Bodø, Norway.

Call for Session Proposals is now open until June 15, 2023.

UArctic will partner with the International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS 2024) and the High North Dialogue 2024 as part of this joint event, with a common Congress program, as well as each organization’s individual Assembly and business meetings. This will be a showcase of Arctic cooperation, and will reduce travel expenses and time for many participants who would participate both UArctic Congress and ICASS or High North Dialogue.

In 2024 Bodø City is European Cultural Capital, which will provide an excellent frame for the UArctic/ICASS/HND events.

This post appeared first on INTERACT website.