The 13th General Assembly of the EOSC Association (EOSC-A), held on 28–29 May 2026 in Brussels, confirmed that the European EOSC initiative is entering a new phase. The discussion was no longer focused only on infrastructure, services, or governance models. What came through increasingly strongly was that the long-term success of EOSC will depend above all on the people who will actually use it.
The main topic of the meeting was the future of EOSC after 2027, following the end of the current Horizon Europe framework. Members of the EOSC Association unanimously adopted a common position on how EOSC should be anchored in the forthcoming 10th EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation, known as FP10. In this position, EOSC-A calls for establishing a dedicated Work Program-based Partnership to build on previous European, national, and institutional investments while ensuring stable funding and governance for EOSC in the years ahead.
One of the key points of GA#13 was the development of the EOSC Federation. It is gradually moving from conceptual proposals to operational reality, expanding through additional thematically diverse nodes and beginning to show the first concrete examples of use across the Federation.
This shift is also important for the Czech community. The EOSC Federation is intended to provide an environment in which researchers can securely and efficiently use services, repositories, and other tools across the European research area. An important topic for its further development is also the operational coordination of services, including simpler and more unified user access to tools and data resources across the Federation. In recent years, the Czech Republic has been intensively building its own ecosystem for research data management within the EOSC CZ initiative, including the development of the National Data Infrastructure. The emergence of thematic repositories, support for the FAIR principles, and work on methodologies for managing sensitive data all show that EOSC is not merely a distant European concept. It is becoming a practical support for the everyday work of research institutions.
The topic of EOSC users also resonated strongly with the meeting attendees. The planned EOSC Federation User Forum is intended to create a structured space for collecting feedback from the research community, sharing experience across the Federation, and gaining a deeper understanding of who the real users of EOSC are and what they need.
User engagement is therefore crucial for the further development of EOSC. EOSC cannot succeed solely as an infrastructure built “from above”. For the EOSC Federation to be truly used, it must be adopted by research communities that see a concrete benefit for their own work. A series of short videos with practical use-case examples is also intended to contribute to this goal, showing how the EOSC Federation enables cross-disciplinary scientific collaboration and supports the needs of individual communities.
At the same time, communication and outreach to the scientific and professional community open up significant opportunities for Czech involvement. EOSC CZ has experience in communicating with research teams, engaging data stewards, and explaining the practical importance of research data management. It can therefore bring concrete experience to the European debate in connecting technical solutions with the real needs of individual disciplines, supporting a change in research culture and clearly communicating the benefits of EOSC for everyday scientific work.
Another important area concerns working groups and strategic priorities for the post-2027 period, including SRIA 2.0. The discussion includes topics such as data sovereignty, data quality, semantic interoperability, the use of artificial intelligence, and ensuring that data entering repositories is well described, reusable, and trustworthy. These themes also resonate strongly in the Czech environment, where, alongside the technical development of repositories, increasing attention is being paid to methodologies, training, the role of Data Access Committees, and work with sensitive data.
GA#13 confirmed that EOSC is entering an important period. Questions of long-term funding, governance, legal certainty, operational coordination, and the relationship between the EOSC Association and the EOSC Federation will need to be addressed. Just as important, however, will be keeping the focus on research communities and their needs. Without them, EOSC will remain a tool without users. With them, it can become a genuine common European data space for research and innovation.
For EOSC CZ, the conclusion is clear. Czech involvement in EOSC makes sense precisely when it can connect European strategy with the concrete practice of Czech research institutions. Building thematic repositories, emphasizing data quality, and developing skills are essential prerequisites for EOSC to become a truly used, trusted, and long-term sustainable environment for research data, both in Czechia and across Europe.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding marks a major milestone for the EOSC Node Czechia on its path towards full membership in the EOSC Federation. The Czech Node connects the national research infrastructure, services, and expert communities with the European Open Science ecosystem, enabling Czech research services to become fully integrated into the European research landscape.
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