Sibylle Hermann, SimTech Data and Software Steward, joined the Researcher Engagement & Adoption Task Force (REA TF) of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and took over together with a colleague the lead of its institutional subgroup. The Task Force is divided into three subgroups: international, national and institutional. Sibylle Hermann and others have defined milestones and deliverables, which are now in the processes of being consolidated and integrated into the overall work program of EOSC. The group’s task it to implement the EOSC charter in the upcoming two years.
The Researcher Engagement & Adoption Task Force (REA TF) is focused on engaging diverse research communities in order to increase their participation in EOSC. The engagement work should be conducted along and between disciplinary lines, utilizing the achievements of the ESFRIs and thematic services, as well as on a country basis via engaging national initiatives, research performing organizations and scientific institutions, and by collaborating with representative bodies. This Task Force will provide concrete plans to facilitate the onboarding of researchers in the EOSC ecosystem.
When asked why she got involved in the EOSC, Sibylle Herman replies that she sees her position at SimTech as an ideal link between infrastructure and science. "Most of the colleagues in the group complain that they don't reach the researchers. With SimTech I have more opportunities. The way I see it, we as an infrastructure have to generate added value and be informed about offers outside our university so that we can pass them on to the researchers. Whereby these offers are still not completely clear to me. There are individual projects that are building infrastructure for research data, for example. Therefore, a first work package of the group will also be to collect these existing offers," Herman explains.
For the Cluster of Excellence SimTech and thus also for the entire University of Stuttgart, Sibylle Herman's collaboration and leadership of the subgroup brings the opportunity to network internationally, to learn from others and to get to know the offers and projects of others. The work of the subgroup is linked to the NFDI initiatives as well as CESAER where collaborative course material is planned.
The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), which is governed by the EOSC Association, is to develop “Web of FAIR Data and services’ for science in Europe. EOSC will be a multi-disciplinary environment where researchers can publish, find and re-use data, tools and services, enabling them to better conduct their work.
EOSC builds on existing infrastructure and services supported by the EC, Member States and research communities. It brings these together in a federated ‘system of systems’ approach, adding value by aggregating content and enabling services to be used together.