All news at TU Wien

A spotlight on the formation of EOSC Nodes

Over the past year, TU Wien chaired the Management Board and therefore hosted the 5th General Assembly of the EOSC Support Office Austria at TUtheSky on 18 November 2025.

A man and a woman stand next to each other, smiling at the camera and holding a small, rectangular glass object.

© TU Wien / Livia Beck

Transfer of the Chair of the Management Board, accompanied by the symbolic handover of the EOSC Austria glass trophy, from Barbara Sánchez Solís (TU Wien) to Dimitri Prandner (JKU)

This year's General Assembly of the EOSC Support Office Austria (EOSC SOA), opens an external URL in a new windowwas shaped by discussions on the formation of the EOSC Federation, particularly the EOSC Nodes. In his welcome address, Vice Rector Wolfgang Kastner emphasised that EOSC aligns closely with the vision of TU Wien as a “creative urban tech university committed to openness, digital innovation, and social responsibility.” He noted that TU Wien recently received the CoreTrustSeal, underscoring the university‘s commitment to promoting digital sovereignty and ensuring that digital foundations remain open, interoperable, secure, and aligned with public values. According to Kastner, EOSC will play a decisive role in shaping research infrastructures for decades to come by advancing standards based on the FAIR principles and fostering community-driven governance.

Petra Karlhuber, Secretary General of the ACOnet Association, then presented the ACONET 2030 Vision: establishing a modern, independent National Research and Education Network (NREN) with inclusive and pluralistic governance that enables all participating institutions to contribute to strategic decision-making. The proposed pathway involves restructuring and expanding the existing GmbH. The first step is to extend ACOmarket from eight to all 22 public universities—coordinated by UNIKO and the ACOnet Association—followed by further expansion across all types of research institutions and universities.

Barbara Sánchez, serving as acting Chairperson of the EOSC Support Office Austria Management Board, presented the year in review. Structured communication and targeted stakeholder engagement resulted in five new partners in 2025: EODC, BOKU, PLUS, ÖAW, and IT:U. Much of the year’s work also centred on preparations for implementing an EOSC Austria Node. The coordinated discussion process began with a meeting on 11 July 2025 involving participants from the BMFWF, the ACOnet Association, and the EOSC SOA Steering Committee. In the subsequent elections, Barbara Sánchez, who will remain a member of the Management Board in the coming year, handed over her role as MB Chairperson to Dimitri Prandner from JKU. 

Implementing EOSC Country Nodes 

The second half of the GA focused on the development of the EOSC Federation and its Nodes. Bob Jones, Special Envoy for the EOSC Federation, informed the community that the first wave of 13 Candidate Nodes, together with the EOSC EU Node, forms the initial Federation. These Nodes represent a mix of national, thematic, and e-infrastructure organisations. Looking ahead, a more detailed governance and operational structure will be established through the MoU for Nodes. A second wave of Nodes is expected in early 2026. Node expansion will be supported through the EOSC Gravity cascading grants, Horizon INFRA calls, and additional enrolment rounds later in 2026.

Aneta Pazik-Aybar, NCN Poland, then presented an example from the first wave: the Polish EOSC Node. Poland benefits from a strong national policy framework for open research data, a broad network of 29 institutions, and a federated governance model aligned with the EOSC partnership as well as the evolving governance and funding landscape at the European level.

Conclusion and outlook for Austria

Ilire Hasani-Mavriqi, Chair of the SOA General Assembly, and Stefan Hanslik from the BMFWF concluded the event with an update on developments in Austria. They highlighted that many lessons can be drawn from the first wave of Nodes, including project charters, governance models, and training materials. In Austria, several national initiatives already exist – such as basic research data infrastructure, FAIR data and Open Science activities, and data stewardship – providing a solid basis for developing a future Austrian EOSC Node. Although the legal entity for an EOSC Austria Node still needs to be defined, the EOSC SOA will act as the umbrella organisation coordinating the Austrian Node and has been officially mandated to prepare the national application. A structured roadmap is currently being developed: aligning the Austrian approach with the requirements of the EOSC Federation build-up group, trying to meet the strict deadline of 18 February 2026 for the next enrolment call – either for a full Node application or for a preparatory grant. Austria will also consult existing Nodes to gather expressions of interest supporting the application.

The presentation slides of the General Assembly can be found at https://zenodo.org/records/17699509, opens an external URL in a new window.

Contact

TU Wien
Center for Research Data Management
research.data@tuwien.ac.at