Skills for the European Open Science commons: creating a training ecosystem for Open and FAIR science
Skills4EOSC is funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe programme (GA 101058527). Coordinated by Consortium GARR and supported by 44 partners in 18 European countries, Skills4EOSC will set up a pan-European network of competence centres to speed up the training of European researchers and harmonise the training of new professional figures for scientific data management.
The project officially started on the 1st of September 2022. Over the next three years, it will work to provide Open Science Commons and create an EOSC-ready skilled European workforce, connecting existing Competence Centres in open science and scientific data management. The aim is to develop common methodologies, activities and training resources to unify the current training landscape into a collaborative and reliable ecosystem and to provide dedicated community-specific support to leverage the potential of EOSC for open and data-intensive research.
Skill4EOSC objectives are to:
- Map career profiles related to Open Science and define, through co-creation the “Minimum Viable Skillset” (MVS) for each of them; create a shared framework for the recognition of competencies acquired by university students, trainers and new professionals as a part of an academic path or a lifelong learning process.
- Define a methodology and a Quality Assurance process to ensure the quality and relevance of OS learning materials and the management of their life-cycle, thus enhancing their re-usability.
- Offer training on OS and the usage of data in evidence-based policy for civil servants and policymakers and empower CCs, researchers and “honest brokers” through the offering of resources to carry out training for this target.
- Define “OS and data-intensive science essentials” for inclusion in generic undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD curricula as a key skill that anyone doing research is expected to acquire.
- Design and implement a collaboration model between national and regional CCs and international Research Infrastructures and communities to provide specialised OS competencies targeting the needs of researchers and thematic RI professionals.
- Support lifelong learning through professional networks as an enabling environment to discuss, cocreate and exchange best practices and solutions among OS professionals and researchers.
- Coordinate national, regional and thematic Competence Centres on OS and EOSC in Europe and leverage their expertise to create a widespread user support network and an environment that fosters and harmonises training and skills activities.
- Create and implement a strategy for engaging with relevant stakeholders to co-create and promote the project outputs (Curricula, shared certification and QA frameworks, human networks), building partnerships to embed project activities and results among the broadest network of stakeholders.
- Establish synergies with key actors within the Member States and in the EOSC arena, and with human capital and training programmes at the national, regional and European levels to maximise the impact of the project activities and results and pave the way for their long-term sustainability.
