In the EOSC, a large number of stakeholders work together to create the European web of research data and services. This requires a significant investment of money, resources, and work from all partners involved. The EOSC Association, the European Commission, and the EU member states, and associated countries each have to provide their share to make the EOSC a success story.
Obviously, we need to know which contributions truly advance the EOSC ecosystem, how much is invested where, and how we can improve the return of investment.
In order to do so, the three parties of the EOSC partnership have agreed to build up a monitoring system, which will eventually measure the progress towards Open Science as the new normal.
In this context, the monitoring is not only a way to take stock, but also to share best practices and to motivate all partners of the EOSC to strengthen their involvement and investment.
As a first step, the EU member states and associated countries have worked with the European Commission to start the EOSC monitoring by performing an annual survey on the national contributions to EOSC. This includes the development of policies in the different countries that support EOSC-relevant activities, and resulting from this or already in place, significant investment into the EOSC. In the first survey, the EOSC Steering Board asks its members about these aspects. Then, in 2022, the EOSC Association will launch its surveys to measure “Additional Activities” and the impact of their members’ activities. These monitoring activities are integrated into the EOSC Observatory, which is developed by the EOSC Future project.
To give you an idea of what the national survey includes, you can find the questions which are asked to the countries’ representatives at this link.