On 8-9 July, 2026, the 2026 Coordination Meeting of EOSC-related projects funded under Horizon Europe took place. It was organised back-to-back with a meeting of the EOSC Federation Build-Up group, bringing together 34 projects, the European Commission (DGs RTD and CNECT and REA), the EOSC Association, plus Node representatives (members of the Federation Build-Up group) that joined the first two sessions.
The event highlighted the need for collaboration between the evolving EOSC Federation and the EOSC-related projects.
OSCARS was invited to present an ice-breaking presentation to kick-off the discussions in the break out session on FAIR data ecosystems and scientific uptake, moderated by Suzanne Dumouchel (LUMEN).
The objective of the session was to explore what has proven effective in supporting the uptake of FAIR practices within research communities, to discuss how community-driven solutions can be sustained and integrated into the evolving EOSC Federation, and to identify concrete opportunities for collaboration across projects over the coming year.
As a general remark, it was highlighted that adoption of solutions requires not only technical interoperability, but also community engagement, collaboration across domains, and shared approaches to measuring and demonstrating impact.
OSCARS project manager, Friederike Schmidt-Tremmel, gave the presentation “OSCARS: Engaging Communities, Sustaining FAIR Data”, which aimed to address the first two of the three questions to be discussed:
- Which approaches to FAIR implementation and community engagement have proven most effective across scientific domains?
- What mechanisms are needed to ensure that community-driven solutions can be sustained and adopted by EOSC Nodes and the Federation?
- And what are the two or three most concrete opportunities for collaboration among EOSC projects—and beyond—that we could realistically pursue over the next twelve months?
Download the presentation on Zenodo
Evdokimos Konstantinidis (RAISE-Suite) gave another ice-breaking presentation on “Sustainability Insights and lessons learnt”.
Rapporteur Simon Hodson (CODATA, CDIF4EOSC) summarised the breakout discussion around the three guiding questions.
On effective approaches to FAIR implementation, participants stressed the importance of "FAIR by Design" - involving researchers, data and metadata considerations from the very outset - alongside the challenge of engaging researchers by demonstrating clear benefits and hiding technical complexity behind good user experience. Community engagement, the group noted, works best when projects build outward from committed "pet researcher" groups through word of mouth, while research evaluation was flagged as a key lever for broader cultural change.
On sustaining community-driven solutions within the EOSC Federation, the discussion pointed to the need to involve solution providers directly in onboarding processes, and for projects, research infrastructures and organisations to better understand what onboarding entails - from AAI and security to legal, organisational and governance requirements. Participants also raised the value of a "market model", where EOSC Nodes assess onboarding based on demonstrated benefit and an existing user base, paired with clear ownership and business thinking (value propositions, champions, and business developers as partners) to reinforce sustainability beyond the project's lifetime.
Looking ahead, the group identified concrete opportunities for collaboration over the next 12 months: developing mechanisms for onboarding project solutions with Nodes, creating more structured opportunities for cross-project discussion at future meetings, and building tools to match requirements with existing solutions across projects. Extending services to new user groups - including early-career researchers and PhD students - was also highlighted as a priority, though participants acknowledged this takes time to achieve.