HORIZON EUROPE: European Open Science Cloud takes a step forward with new association and its first president

A new non-profit association to advance the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) has elected Karel Luyben, the rector magnificus emeritus of Delft University of Technology, as its first president.  Established as a legal entity on 29th July 2020, the EOSC Association was founded by GÉANT, CESAER, CSIC and GARR and has since attracted 114 research preforming organisations, 12 research funding organisations and 57 service providing associations as provisional members.

The Association is working with the European Commission to co-design and deploy a “European Research Data Commons” in which data is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR), and as open as possible. The goal is to support the development of interoperable services that address the entire research data life cycle, from discovery to storage, management, analysis and re-use across borders and scientific disciplines. The Association hopes to help bring about a global ‘web of FAIR data and related services for science’ that will generate new insights and innovations, higher research productivity and improved reproducibility in science.

Luyben had been the chair of the EOSC executive board, an advisory group set up by the Commission to support the development of the science cloud. The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), the European University Association (EUA), the League of European Research Universities (LERU), Science Europe and The Guild issued letters of endorsements for Luyben’s nomination.