EOSC-CONNECT officially launched today, 29 September 2026, in Helsinki with its kick-off meeting, bringing partners together to begin a joint effort to strengthen, connect and advance EOSC National Nodes across Europe.
Strengthening 14 National Nodes
At the core of the project are 14 National Nodes from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The project will support these Nodes at different stages of development, helping them move towards stronger interoperability, sustainability and enrolment in the EOSC Federation.
The first day of the kick-off focused on the role National Nodes can play as sustainable national entry points to EOSC, as well as on the technical, legal, organisational and governance conditions needed to support that role over time.
A key part of EOSC-CONNECT's work will be to develop a common blueprint for EOSC National Nodes, encourage peer learning between countries, and support the implementation and evolution of federating capabilities. The project will also explore cross-border resource sharing and test its approach through four multi-node use cases and two demonstrators, covering areas such as data discovery, distributed computing, AI-supported research data discovery and access to shared costly resources.
Contributing to the wider EOSC Federation
During the meeting, Bob Jones, Special Envoy for the EOSC Federation, provided an overview of the current status and evolution of the EOSC Federation, including its transition towards an operational structure and the role of National Nodes in that process.
EOSC-CONNECT will also contribute to the wider development of the EOSC Federation by addressing gaps in federating capabilities, interoperability, supporting the onboarding of third-party resources, and exploring resilience and sustainability models for cross-node collaboration.
The project is part of a broader group of initiatives funded under the same call, alongside EOSC MESH, EOSC4ALL and EOSC-Marine, with shared work spanning Federation architecture, governance, engagement and sustainability.
With the kick-off now underway, EOSC-CONNECT begins its work to turn stronger national coordination and cross-border collaboration into practical value for researchers and Europe's research and innovation ecosystem.
Stay tuned for Day 2 of the EOSC-CONNECT kick-off meeting, as discussions continue on how to turn the project's ambitions into concrete action across the EOSC Federation.