RDA Representation on EOSC Executive Board
The European Commission announced the members of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Executive Board (EB) during the launch of the EOSC in Vienna, Austria on Friday 23 November 2018. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is delighted that Juan Bicarregui will represent RDA on the European Science Cloud Executive Board (EOSC EB).
The Executive Board’s tasks are to establish a cooperation between the European Commission (EC) and Research & Infrastructure (R&I) stakeholders on questions relating to the Implementation Roadmap for the European Open Science Cloud (‘EOSC’) in coordination with the Member States. The group shall assist the EC in the first phase of development of the EOSC until 2020 and in the preparation of the transition to the second phase of development of the EOSC after 2020.
Juan is Head of the Data Division, Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom. Juan’s vast national, European and international experience in e- and research infrastructures, science policy and strategy as well as his active role in the co-ordination and management of the EOSCpilot project and funder representation on Open Science policy in Europe, give him the necessary experience, insights and knowledge to provide advice and support on the strategy, implementation, monitoring and reporting on the progress of the implementation of the EOSC.
Juan has been actively contributing to the Research Data Alliance since its inception, and indeed is one of the founding members. He has covered a myriad of roles in the alliance, including Organisational Advisory Board co-chair, Sustainability and regional engagement task force leadership. RDA believes that given his contribution and involvement, he has a deep understanding of the many facets of the alliance as well as the complex challenges and problems that the research, scientific and private sectors face in terms of interoperability.
Juan provided us with some insights on his experience and knowledge of the European landscape and the long legacy leading up to the advent of the EOSC:
I have been a strong advocate of Open Science for more than 15 years. In 2003, I set up the STFC (then CLRC) Institutional Repository, epubs, which now contains approximately 45,000 records of STFC related publications spanning more than 50 years. In 2006, I initiated the development of the “CLRC Data Portal” project which later became ICAT and now provides an expansive catalogue of data from the ISIS Neutron Source and Diamond Synchrotron. In 2010, I formed the PaNdata collaboration which developed an open data policy and shared technologies for data management across the major European Photon and Neutron Sources facilities. Since 2011, I have been leading the harmonisation of Data Policies across UK Research Councils, including developing the RCUK Common Principles on Data in 2012. As coordinator of the EOSCpilot project since 2017, I have had the opportunity to bring together many communities of domain specific and horizontal e-Infrastructure providers, to discuss and agree ways forward for EOSC, including proposals for governance and policy, services, architecture, and training; as well as some scientific demonstrators that show potential features of the EOSC. I believe that I have a great deal of experience and expertise that will be very relevant to the discussions and decisions that the EOSC Executive Board will be undertaking, and I am delighted that I will be able to continue to contribute to the development of the EOSC through membership of this Board.
Juan Bicarregui, November 2018.
RDA as a global, technology neutral and integrative initiative has shown its capability to bring people from different countries, scientific disciplines and even sectors together. RDA is pivotal in transforming a fragmented landscape of research data practitioners into a diverse ecosystem. RDA acts as an international forum, enabling the interplay of scientific and technical communities. This interplay leads to the development of standards/best practices that provide actionable ways of turning FAIR principles into FAIR practices. RDA has been recognised as an organisation compliant with the processes and procedures to issue ICT technical specifications in Europe and has 8 approved ICT technical specifications to date.
I am delighted that the RDA community is represented on the EOSC EB. This is an important milestone, not only for Europe but globally and RDA as a truly international community can offer insights and contributions from across the globe. Juan has been involved in RDA since the very beginning, when RDA was an idea and a dream. He has been instrumental in many aspects of RDA and it is fitting that he represent the “RDA vox populi”. I look forward to witnessing the important goals that Juan and his EB colleagues will achieve over the next few years. RDA will benefit greatly from being involved and contributing to the realisation of the European Open Science Cloud.
Hilary Hanahoe, RDA Secretary General, November 2018
RDA is a unique global platform to synchronize between the national, European, disciplinary and sector stakeholders to support the transition towards Open Science Open World and Open Innovation. Our open, neutral social platform where international research data experts meet, covering 135 countries and more than 7500 individual members, 45 Organisational members exchange views and agree on topics at the heart of the EOSC, e.g. social hurdles on data culture, data stewardship and training challenges, data management plans and certification of data repositories to name just a few of the priorities addressed.
EOSC Executive Board Members:
Organisations & Representatives
- CAESAR, Karel Luyben (Chair)
- CESSDA ERIC, Ron Dekker
- EMBL, Rupert Luck
- ESS ERIC, John Womersley
- GEANT, Catherine Stover (Vice Chair)
- OPENAIRE, Natalia Manola
- RDA, Juan Bicarregui
- Science Europe, Stefan Kuster
Individual Experts
- Jean-Francois Abramatic
- Jan Hrusek
- Sarah Jones