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Written by Tassos Stavropoulos on . Posted in News.

OSTrails’ partners co-authored and signed the Salzburg Manifesto on Machine Actionable Data Management Plans

Setting the scene 

At the dawn of 2024, just two weeks after OSTrails kicked off, the core Data Management Plan (DMP) service providers of the project, namely ARGOS, DAMAP and DSW, published the Salzburg Manifesto on machine-actionable Data Management Plans (maDMPs). This manifesto proudly presents the shared commitment of the major DMP service providers in the EU, US, and UK to continue collaborating and optimising data management planning through common standards and automations.

Why It Matters

In today’s digital research landscape, the need for efficient and streamlined data management practices has never been more critical. Recent developments reveal the community’s need for seamless and automated exchange of scientific information across (Research Data Management) RDM services. DMP platforms support this need at the planning stage and have the potential to lead the acquisition of new competences and harmonising best practices across the RDM lifestyle while stimulating cultural change and innovation. 

About the Manifesto

Emerging from a longstanding collaboration in the context of the Research Data Alliance’s Active DMPs IG and DMP Common Standard WG, the manifesto portrays the DMP providers’ and users’ common vision and commitment to driving progress and innovation in the field of research data. It calls for endorsement by the global scientific community to collectively turn DMPs from static .pdfs to active and “living” documents.

OSTrails enriching the European Open Science Cloud with maDMPs

Representing the European landscape, managers of ARGOS (OpenAIRE, ARC, CITE), DAMAP (TU WIEN), and DSW (CTU in Prague, Codevence) who co-chair the RDA groups, led the authorship of the Salzburg Manifesto providing input from the OSTrails project that reflects the EOSC priorities and directions towards a “Web of FAIR data and services”. Their efforts seek to align with other regions to standardise the DMP practices, gazing at a future where data management is not just a requirement but a catalyst for groundbreaking discoveries and strong collaborations.

OSTrails aims to advance the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of scientific knowledge production in EOSC by promoting FAIR principles, connectivity, and machine actionability throughout the research lifecycle. To achieve this goal at the planning stage, the project leverages the DMP Common Standard and the consortium’s expertise and participatory spirit to improve the efficacy of DMPs and transform them into machine-actionable resources serving the diverse needs of national and thematic RDM communities. 

Through this involvement, OSTrails is participating as a pioneer in the genesis of a community of practice that thrives on mutual consultation and creates an open space where expertise can be freely shared and valued.

Resources:

Join the community by signing the Salzburg Manifesto: ActiveDMPs 

Zenodo record: Salzburg Manifesto on machine actionable Data Management Plans

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Written by Iro Bournazou on . Posted in News.

OSTrails Contribution to Open Science Policy

The occasion

On May 7th 2024, OSTrails was in Madrid for the 1st Symposium of Research Infrastructures (RIs) organised by the RICH Europe project. The event complemented the project’s activities to strengthen and standardise the services of Research Infrastructures National Contact Points (NCPs) across Europe. It highlighted Horizon Europe's support for Open Science and broader access to RIs, showcasing funded projects, educating NCPs, and fostering global dialogue on RIs.

Supporting EOSC and Open Science Policies

During the Symposium, a session was held to reflect on the project's lessons learned and gather feedback that would enhance the Open Science policy landscape in Europe. Pilar Castro, Head of the Open Access, Repositories and Journals Unit at FECYT, a beneficiary of OSTrails, moderated the session and Elli Papadopoulou, deputy coordinator of OSTrails, provided an overview of the project activities contributing to enhancing the EOSC infrastructure and policies for open science. 

OSTrails has set the ambitious goal of delivering a FAIR-enhanced, interconnected and machine actionable environment along with the pathways to navigate scientific information shared across services that enable and support planning, tracking and assessing research activities. To achieve this, the consortium consists of major service providers of data management plans (DMPs), FAIR assessments and scientific knowledge graphs (SKGs) who collaborate to ensure interoperability and develop common methods, standards and tools for integrating and harmonising best practices. 

Complementary to the technical work, 25 pilots serve as the backbone of the project ensuring that the results are fit-for-purpose and pragmatic, respecting the diverse research ecosystems of the 15 national infrastructures and the 9 Science Clusters RIs that they represent. In this endeavour, the user communities, research funders and local stakeholders are engaged to co-define and validate the outcomes of the project in different countries and domains reflecting on and supporting their open science policies. Finally, a pilot on the Horizon Europe framework programme aims to scale up the adoption of OSTrails results leveraging the OpenAIRE Graph data.  

 

Key takeaways

All presentations of the dedicated policy session emphasised the importance of community involvement in driving progress -> “by community, for community”. Furthermore, the discussion highlighted the opportunities arising by infrastructures in strengthening data sharing and eliminating market failures similar to the scientific publishers phenomenon, and they challenged the implementation of Open Science which is different at macro and micro levels (European vs national vs institutional). Overall, it underscored the use of curated data, transparent indicators, and knowledge graphs, such as the OpenAIREGraph, to inform policymaking effectively, and exuded hope towards initiatives such as CoARA that have the ability to accelerate Open Science adoption targeting the much needed shift of the research culture today.

Resources

Life Sciences, National Pilots, Horizon Europe

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Written by Elli Papadopoulou on . Posted in News.

OSTrails kick off meeting in Athens

On 5-6 February 2024 in Athens, Greece, we embarked on our Open Science Trails journey. OSTrails is a 3-year Horizon Europe project, coordinated by OpenAIRE, that aims to set the necessary foundations to streamline FAIR assessment and machine actionability in the European Open Science Cloud by enhancing and connecting the Planning, Tracking, Assessing phases of research.

Data Management Plans (DMPs) play a crucial role in research, outlining researchers' intentions and supporting them in following best practices while staying organised. The RDA DMP Common Standard is adopted by various platforms and Science Europe proposes Domain Data Protocols (DDPs) to address domain-specific practices. While DMPs prove valuable, assessing them at scale is challenging. The FAIRification of DMPs is seen as a solution, with efforts made to treat them as outputs and include them in Scholarly Knowledge Graphs (SKGs). As research assessment expands beyond publications, SKGs representing scholarly knowledge could offer rich data but encounter obstacles like interoperability, semantic and syntactical heterogeneity. At the same time, the globally endorsed FAIR Principles face challenges in implementation and interpretation, especially in extending to other digital artifacts. Achieving a standardised approach for interpreting FAIR principles remains a significant hurdle.

In response to the landscape limitations, our project undertakes a “commons” approach to support the co-design and delivery of pragmatic solutions on the three pillars:

  • PLAN: to eliminate .pdfs and enhance the effectiveness of Data Management Plans by transforming them into dynamic, interconnected "machine actionable" resources.
  • TRACK: to enrich the quality and content of Scientific Knowledge Graphs to serve as evidence of FAIR implementations and research assessment.
  • ASSESS: to move the dial from FAIR assessment to FAIR assistance while providing modular and extensible FAIR tests, embedded into other RDM tools.

The consortium builds on the technical expertise, managed services and research communities of 38 partners representing 22 Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and the 5 Science Clusters. Recognising that there is no one-size-fits-all, at the cornerstone of OSTrails are 24 pilots that will co-create, implement, validate, and adopt results in diverse national and thematic research ecosystems.

ostrails partners

The kick off meeting welcomed more than 65 in person and 100 online participants unveiling the collective interest and urge for convergence on these topics. The two-day event in Athens marked the official launch of OSTrails, and provided the opportunity for the whole consortium to get together and plan for the first year focusing on immediate deliverables. The first day was dedicated to a general introduction by the EC, EOSC-A and the coordinator and helped clarify administrative and financial logistics. It also delved into the presentations of technical work packages and supported planning of the technical priorities across the three pillars and their service implementers: Plan with DMP platforms, Track with Scientific Knowledge Graphs and Assess with FAIR assessment tools. The second day was devoted to the pilots to understand their intricacies and establish the methodology in thematic and national contexts. Similarly, the session on training and integrated competence center offered a draft plan and discussed approaches to implementing its activities with partners. Lastly, a dedicated session involving all technical partners supported first decisions and actions towards the Interoperability Reference Architecture and the Plan-Track-Assess Pathways deliverables.

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