The European Open Science Cloud Portal was launched on 23 November 2018. The new EOSC Portal facilitates discovery of data and resources; processing and analysis; research data management; computation; storage; networking; training and security. To mark the launch of the EOSC Portal, the European Commission issued two supporting documents: Prompting EOSC in Practice which explains the governance of the new ecosystem, and; Turning FAIR into Reality which provides an overview of requirements to fulfill the goal of making research data ‘Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.’ EOSC has six components…

Google launched a new search tool for open data on 5 September. Google Dataset Search (beta) helps find open datasets and data series – by searching data repositories worldwide. The new resource searches both open public data repositories (governments; international organisations) and open research data repositories (universities, research institutions). Full details of the new search tool are in the Google Blog and this video. Dataset Search is developed by Google’s AI research division. For access to licensed, statistical datasets at the EUI, visit the Library’s Data Portal.

The European Commission published a new Recommendation on Access to, and Preservation of, Scientific Information on 25 April, to promote the transition to open science in the European Union. The recommendation provides guidance on incentives for openness; research data management; text and data mining; and technical standards for the re-use of research content. The European Commission published a roadmap for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) 14 March 2018. The EOSC is a “pan-European federation of research data infrastructures, with a view to moving from the current fragmentation, to a situation where data is easy to store, find, share and re-use.”

The Library has completed the beta test phase of the new ResData repository infrastructure. Ten EUI-generated datasets are now available for open data sharing. There are over 50 sub-sets. EUI members from all departments and centres are encouraged to submit research data outputs for preservation in the multi-disciplinary ResData repository. The new repository is compliant with the open data mandates of EU Horizon 2020 and other international science funding programmes. The EUI Library offers specialist advice regarding the preparation of data for reposit, data protection and data copyright – which helps EUI members determine if, and when, their data is suitable for open data sharing with, or without, embargo.

EUI members can now submit their research datasets for inclusion in the EUI ResData repository – a solution for sharing and archiving EUI research data outputs. Library staff provide advice on dataset tagging (metadata), formats, structure and whether data should be archived under embargo, or made available as open data. The first step is to complete the online form – providing details about the dataset for reposit. The Library will then make an appointment for data transfer. Full details.

The Research Data Alliance (Europe) hosts a two-day workshop on research data management and open data on 14-15 November. Sessions are live-streamed from the Università di Firenze. The workshop is organised in collaboration with the universities of Bologna, Milano, Parma, Torino and Trento with the support of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Associazione italiana per la promozione della scienza aperta and OpenAIRE. The workshop brings together researchers, data managers and librarians to share experiences regarding the discovery, management, elaboration, re-use, and reproducibility of research data. The EUI Library is represented at the workshop.