EOSC Symposium 2025: Another Milestone for the EOSC Federation
In early November, Brussels hosted the EOSC Symposium 2025, one of Europe’s key annual events dedicated to the future of open science and research data management.
An important meeting of all eleven partners involved in the National Repository Platform for Research Data (NRP) project, part of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative in the Czech Republic, occurred in Prague on 25 and 26 June 2024. The main objective of the meeting was to present the progress made so far and share key information and plans for the next period, but also to get to know each other better among colleagues who often meet only in an online environment.
The program kicked off on Tuesday, 25 June, with a meeting of the teams of each of the key activities of the NRP project and continued with an informal dinner meeting where members of the implementation team had the opportunity to discuss and get to know each other better. This was particularly important as there are over 100 members involved in the project across the Czech Republic. The official program started on 26 June with the morning registration of participants and continued throughout the day until 16:00. Luděk Matyska took the opening ceremony and presented basic information about the project, what it will bring, and its link to the whole EOSC CZ initiative. This was followed by presentations of the project's key activities, where representatives of specific teams presented in detail the objectives and plans of their activities.
Ondřej Prančl, Project Manager of the NRP project, stressed the importance of the meeting: “This project has the potential to fundamentally transform research data management in the Czech Republic and provide the scientific community with tools and infrastructure in line with FAIR principles."
Organizational topics were also an important part of the NRP implementation team's program. The standard background of the EOSC CZ initiative was presented, with the team from the EOSC CZ Secretariat presenting the internal document environment of the project, as well as the visual style and web presentation of the initiative and the use of a unified visual style of the initiative across projects. Subsequently, the EOSC CZ initiative monitoring was presented to the participants, together with a first preview of the EOSC CZ initiative in numbers. In addition, space was dedicated to administrative and procedural issues of the project, presented by Ondřej Prančl.
The afternoon part of the program was devoted to the NRP service roadmap and the topic of the direct connection of various laboratory instruments to future repositories built within the NRP. The meeting was concluded with a presentation by Michal Lorenz about one of the pilot repositories of the NRP project, HUMELab, which aims to test the upcoming national solutions in actual operation.
The National Repository Platform for Research Data (NRP) project aims to support the EOSC initiative in the Czech Republic. The NRP forms a key part of the National Data Infrastructure (NDI). The project aims to consolidate the fragmented research data environment, provide scientists with tools and facilities for data management according to FAIR principles, and provide reliable storage and repositories. The project also includes developing and implementing data management planning solutions, technical and methodological support, and coordinated educational support, which will contribute to improving the quality of research data management and increasing the competitiveness of Czech science at the international level.
In early November, Brussels hosted the EOSC Symposium 2025, one of Europe’s key annual events dedicated to the future of open science and research data management.
Three new European open calls have been launched to support the growth of the EOSC Federation and the integration of new nodes and services into Europe’s open science infrastructure. The calls differ in their focus and type of support — from the enrolment of new EOSC Nodes to preparatory grants and projects expanding the range of services within existing nodes. The deadline for all three calls is 18 February 2026. Interested applicants can join a series of informative webinars 13, 18 and 20 November 2025, which will explain the details of the calls and provide guidance for the application process.