Funding EOSC: Statement of the Financial Sustainability Task Force
The EOSC governance bodies are considering the future legal entity/ies and governance structures which may be adopted for EOSC from 2027.
In this short statement, the EOSC Association's Financial Sustainability Task Force wishes to provide its most relevant conclusions to these considerations, specifying requirements of the future EOSC legal entity, making eight recommendations for the funding of EOSC which underpin our proposals, and presenting estimates of the possible future costs of EOSC.
EGI’s Senior Strategy and Innovation Officer / EOSC Liaison Manager Dale Robertson is co-chair of the Task Force (TF), collaborating with SIKT’s Jan Meijer. The statement was jointly produced by TF members, featuring experts at key organisations from across Europe.
“The Financial Sustainability TF members possess a great deal of relevant knowledge and experience, reflected in this statement which summarises our main conclusions as we approach the end of our mandate. I’m very pleased that Jan and I, as co-chairs, had the opportunity to present it to the EOSC Steering Board as part of their preparation for their next meeting and for the EOSC European Tripartite meeting on 28 November 2023. I hope our contribution will assist the ongoing deliberations about the future governance and funding of EOSC.” says Dale.
Specific Requirements for the EOSC Legal Entity from the Perspective of Financial Sustainability
The Task Force has identified a number of requirements against which legal models under consideration for the future EOSC legal entity should be assessed.
- The legal entity has a long term sustainable time horizon (10 years or more).
- Member States (MS) & Associated Countries (AC) are present in governance as stakeholders making a long-term financial commitment.
- Different legal forms of research entities (e.g. ERICs, European Intergovernmental Research Organisations), can participate appropriately.
- The community of stakeholders can exercise influence within the legal entity over the EOSC work programme, including the selection of centrally financed services.
- Research performing and public sector organisations can use services from the EOSC marketplace without going through a public procurement.
- There is a means to avoid paying VAT when users purchase services through the EOSC Exchange.
- Potential participation of private companies as users of EOSC is possible.
Recommendations for Funding EOSC
A brief overview of the recommendations can be found below, you can find the full text in the document on Zenodo:
- Joint funding by the EC and MS/ACs of the collective EOSC components is essential to ensure real engagement of MS/AC in EOSC at European level.
- Long-term, stable political and financial commitment (at least 10 years) from the EC and the EU Member States and Associated Countries is essential.
- EOSC should build on, complement and enhance the landscape.
- The EOSC Exchange needs to provide straightforward access to the European research community’s services and platforms for data utilisation and analytics.
- Federating data and services through EOSC involves additional costs for providers, which should be identified with RIs and e-Infrastructures and paid for by MS/ACs.
- Coordination of EOSC strategy and funding between Member States and with the EC, is required and should be assured as part of the EOSC governance.
- The sustainability of services must be addressed for efficient use of investment.
- Inclusiveness.