CSC study gives new insights into national EOSC structures

CSC building. Photo: CSC Finland.

A new study gives a broad overview of the national EOSC coordination and engagement mechanisms in different European countries.

CSC – IT Science for Science conducted a study EOSC National Structures: an overview of the national EOSC coordination and engagement mechanisms in Europe (October 2021) as part CSC´s involvement in the EOSCsecretariat.eu project. The study examines what kind of arrangements European countries have made at national level to organise EOSC coordination and engagement activities in the country and analyses how these structures are positioned in the EOSC Partnership context.

The study gives an overview of the EOSC national structures in 24 EU Member States, 11 Associated Countries and Switzerland in 2021 (overall 36 countries surveyed) i) providing information on their rationale, scope of activities and governance models; ii) describing the best practices and main challenges of engaging stakeholders with EOSC at national level and running such national EOSC structures; iii) highlighting the benefits that EOSC national structures can bring to the different countries and to the EOSC Partnership and Ecosystem at large.

The results reveal that the majority of the countries have an EOSC national structure in place (e.g. EOSC Finnish Forum in Finland) or are currently setting up one. Almost all of them are aiming for permanent structures. Only in two countries (Austria, Estonia) the EOSC national structure corresponds to the country´s mandated organisation in the EOSC Association, but nine countries are in the process of setting up legal entities that will become the official EOSC mandated organisations. Related to these and many more findings the study provides recommendations how the EOSC Partnership and the whole EOSC Ecosystem can benefit from the EOSC national structures and vice versa.

Read the report

This article was first published on October 28 by CSC.