On 8 and 9 September 2026, the Build-up Group of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) met at KIT. The meeting focused on preparing the EOSC Federation for the transition to operations. Among other topics, participants discussed common criteria for the operational readiness of EOSC Nodes as well as organisational, technical, and legal requirements for future collaboration within the Federation.
The meeting was hosted by KIT together with EOSC Node Germany and EOSC Node EUDAT. EOSC Node Germany is coordinated by the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). Participants included representatives of the Candidate EOSC Nodes, the EOSC Association, the European Commission, and the EOSC EU Node.
Prof. Dr. Achim Streit, Director of SCC, welcomed the participants to KIT. SCC has also been involved in establishing EOSC Node Germany and EOSC Node EUDAT. It is represented in the working groups on user authentication, the future Federation Agreement, and the helpdesk. In close cooperation with representatives of the NFDI Directorate, SCC also contributed to the organisation and logistics of the meeting.
An important milestone for the EOSC Federation is the EOSC Symposium from 14 to 16 October 2026. By then, the first EOSC Nodes are expected to meet the requirements for production status. At the meeting in Karlsruhe, participants agreed, among other things, on criteria for this “Production Readiness”. Other topics included Node registration, access policies, cybersecurity, legal frameworks, and the integration of shared helpdesk and monitoring services. In addition, a new Working Group on Federated Computing and Storage was established.
The EOSC Federation is creating a federated European environment in which research data, scientific services, and computing and storage resources can be connected across institutional and national boundaries. In establishing the EOSC Nodes Germany and EUDAT, SCC contributes expert knowledge gained from its participation in the EOSC EU Node as well as from various international projects related to the EOSC Federation.
Read the EOSC news article