Explore the National Pilot Interview from Portugal to discover the latest updates on the OSTrails pilot studies. Dive into their national activities and learn about their progress promoting the use of machine-actionable DMPs, enhancing the FAIRness of digital objects stored in their repositories, and strengthening interoperability among RDM services. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Pedro Príncipe, Filipa Pereira and André Vieira from the University of Minho and Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

"Through the OSTrails pilot, we expect to strengthen our institutional and national research ecosystems by advancing the implementation of machine-actionable DMPs, improving FAIRness of digital objects deposited in our data repositories, and fostering interoperability across RDM services. These developments will help us deliver more efficient, integrated, and trustworthy infrastructures, while embedding Open Science and FAIR principles into research practices."

The annual Shared RDM project meeting took place at Graz University of Technology from 23–24 September 2025, bringing together Austrian partners to reflect on the project’s progress and its future beyond the official funding period. Around 40 participants from various Austrian Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) were present.

A key highlight of the meeting was an in-depth presentation of the EU project OSTrails, whose mission closely aligns with Shared RDM's mission of creating sustainable, collaborative infrastructures for research data management (RDM). OSTrails introduces innovative approaches to enhance the Plan-Track-Assess stages of research outputs and offers a valuable perspective on how Shared RDM's outcomes can be linked with efforts in the wider European landscape. 

The presentations emphasised the Interoperability Frameworks, Pilots, and the Data Management Plan (DMP) tool DAMAP illustrating their contributions to other European initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The presenters from OSTrails included:

- Ka Yee Suvini Lai (TU Wien), who introduced the overall OSTrail’s project and its goals.

- Daniel Spichtinger (UniWien), who discussed the Pilots activities, engaging national stakeholders at this Shared RDM event.

- Valentin Futterer (TU Wien) and Laura Thaci (TU Graz), who covered the latest and upcoming developments of DAMAP.

- Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien), the technical lead of WPx, who provided in-depth details on DAMAP and its role in OSTrails.

Key Takeaways

• Shared vision: Both projects push for sustainable RDM collaboration beyond project timelines.

• Clearer picture of OSTrails: The Shared RDM participants were able to understand how OSTrails will fit their use-cases via the three fundamental pillars and the Commons.

• DAMAP tool: Demonstrated as a practical, user-friendly DMP solution supporting FAIR and interoperable research data.

• The Pilots and their impact:

• National pilots: 15 countries co-design practical, local RDM solutions.

• Thematic pilots: 8 domains tailor DMPs, enrich knowledge graphs, and define FAIR rules.

• Horizon Europe pilot: Scales FAIR assessment across flagship EU projects.

Quote

“OSTrails is entering a transformative phase, with pilots turning technical developments into impact. For Austria, DAMAP plays a central role in making DMPs machine-actionable and advancing the DMP Interoperability Framework—an essential step towards federating capabilities for EOSC Nodes.”

-Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien)

15–17 September 2025, Geneva. From the sponsor booth to hallway conversations, OSFAIR 2025 gave us space to test, stress-check, and present how Plan–Track–Assess pathways work in practice.

All about Open Science. OSFAIR brought 352 attendees across research support teams, funders, infrastructure and service providers, and communities together around five tracks, from Digital Backbone to Research Assessment and Skills & Community. We were there to listen to and compare notes with colleagues and experts from Europe, Asia, and the US, engaging at the booth with universities, national research institutes and academies, international infrastructures, and community networks. Our presentation, “OSTrails: Connecting Tools and Communities for a Federated Open Science Ecosystem ”, gave us the opportunity to explain our modus operandi and engage in conversation with everyone in a lively Q&A.

Below, we share the insights and actions we’re taking forward regarding how systems connect, who is responsible for what, and the steps different professionals follow, presented in the form of field-notes.

Plan - Track - Assess Pathways

Open sponsor-area booth included a board game of OSTrails consisting of:
a. service icons (DMPs, Evaluators, Repositories, FAIR-check tools, SKGs)
b. moveable arrows
c. colour-coded post-its per role (data policy officers, ITs, librarians & data stewards, ethics reviewers, researchers)

Reflections from participants

• Less retyping. Let tools pass a small set of facts automatically.
• Clear roles. Make it obvious who owns what and who confirms it.
• Start simple. A basic setup that works everywhere, with optional upgrades later.

Useful Resources: D1.1

Interoperability - focused presentation

Useful Resources: D1.4

Key takeaways:

1. Keep things simple. Use a few core links so people enter information once and reuse it elsewhere.
2. Offer core examples that work now. Publish a straightforward, end-to-end set of service interactions with examples of per stakeholder actions.
3. Build reviews on facts. Agree with a small, shared set of assessments, send them automatically to reviewers, and loop results back.
4. Make it easy to adapt and adapt. Spell out who does what, keep the rules light, and provide short how-to guides.
5. Improve by measuring. Track number of links and how often information is reused, and how widely this is adopted, then iterate.

One step closer to our vision!

These steps move us from architecture to practice, towards a federated, FAIR-aligned, machine-actionable ecosystem where researchers do less duplicate work, services interoperate by default, and assessments rely on verifiable tests and documented processes.

Thanks to everyone who leaned in at OSFAIR!

We’d love to continue our discussions, so feel free to reach us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On 12 June, the OSTrails Horizon Europe project launched the first in its series of maDMP Evaluation Webinars, aiming to improve data management practices through the adoption of machine-actionable Data Management Plans (maDMPs). Attended by more than 80 participants, the first webinar focused on inviting funders to explore new potentials, discuss evaluation challenges, and directly shape the OSTrails maDMP Evaluation Framework.

Key Takeaways 

• Funders want practical tools that help evaluate DMPs based on clarity, feasibility, and policy alignment, not just completeness.

• Machine-actionable DMPs are powerful, but they must be designed and evaluated with care. Undoubtedly because they make it easier to link planning with implementation, reuse, and assessment.

• The evaluation framework fills a gap by translating high-level guidance (e.g. Science Europe) into structured, testable dimensions. This can help align DMPs with funder goals and research needs.

• Community feedback is essential to ensure the framework supports real workflows and diverse policy contexts. Rather than enforcing universal openness, Open Science infrastructures should support pluralistic and ethical openness that is tailored to different contexts.

• There is a strong interest in using the evaluation service dimensions once it moves beyond beta.

The central message was that DMPs should no longer be treated as static documents but rather as active and shared components of research workflows.

The session was led by the OSTrails Horizon Europe pilot, which has been working with funders and research communities to redesign how DMPs are created, reviewed, and assessed. It introduced the three core areas of OSTrails’ work with DMPs:

1. Conceptual: Defining the structure, content, and principles of DMPs, including the evaluation framework and the underlying policy and community requirements. 
2. Technical: Developing the specifications, standards, and interoperability mechanisms that enable DMPs to be machine-actionable and integrated with other research services. 
3. Operational: Implementing and testing DMP concepts and technical solutions through platforms, pilots, and real-world use cases, ensuring they work in practice and can be adopted by different stakeholders. 

As a concrete example, the pilot presented a proposed two-layer Horizon Europe DMP model separating declarative content (e.g. intent, policy) from implementation details (e.g. storage, preservation, access), to better support assessment and improve clarity of roles and responsibilities.

Building on this foundation, participants were introduced to the draft DMP Evaluation Framework, designed to support semi-automated assessments that are flexible enough to adapt to different funder templates and emerging needs. The framework consists of dimensions and metrics that go beyond completeness to address aspects like feasibility and clarity of data practices. This represents a significant shift towards tracking the implementation of data practices over time, rather than merely recording intentions. For OSTrails, this work is fundamental.

The webinar also featured a collaboration with the TIER2 project, which focuses on enhancing the reproducibility aspects available in DMPs. Together, we shared community insights and demonstrated the importance of engaging with stakeholders early on and often.

The session invited funders to contribute feedback through a short survey, reinforcing the participatory ethos that underpins the OSTrails approach. Moreover, it demonstrated that the OSTrails approach (combining machine-actionable formats, shared APIs, and layered planning) is technically feasible and ready to be integrated into funder workflows and DMP platforms. This confirmation is essential as OSTrails prepares for broader adoption across EOSC-related infrastructures used in its 24 pilots.

Participating research funders found the session highly relevant and timely. Many expressed strong interest in the evaluation approach and welcomed the opportunity to shape its development. There was clear demand for the DMP evaluation service, with several attendees noting they were eager to use it once it moves from beta to full production.

As OSTrails continues its work, this webinar series will provide an ongoing opportunity to include more voices in the conversation, including not only funders, but also researchers, institutions and community organisations.

We thank all attendees and invite continued engagement through upcoming sessions and surveys!