ENVRI-Hub NEXT at EGI 2026

EGI Conference 2026 (1)

Ghent, Belgium

The annual EGI conference takes place from 21 to 25 September 2026. Organised by the EGI Foundation, in collaboration with partners from the EGI Federation, the event brings together digital and research infrastructure providers, data scientists, policy-makers, and innovators, to advance data-intensive science.

This year, the conference is also a chance for the ENVRI-Hub NEXT Project members to gather together for the project’s final meeting, on 21 and 22 September, and hold a public session included in the EGI Conference programme.

The session, called “Aligning and exploiting environmental data to overcome global challenges”, addresses the need to shift from siloed data collection to integrated, interdisciplinary analysis, to tackle the complexity of global environmental challenges. The ENVRI-Hub NEXT project is at the forefront of this transition, providing the technical framework to align environmental data streams into a cohesive, machine-actionable ecosystem.

Gabriel Pelouze (LifeWatch ERIC) will contribute in the Panel with guests from environmental research organisations (more info about the full session here: https://indico.egi.eu/event/6931/sessions/5591/#20260923).

New ENVRI-Hub for Environmental Research

The ENVRI-Hub NEXT (https://www.lifewatch.eu/envri-hub-next) project supports the ENVRI Science Cluster in providing interdisciplinary science-based services. In particular, the project has the objective of creating a robust conceptual and technical framework that will facilitate the integration of environmental science communities into the European Open Science Cloud, guided by the science-based framework of Essential Climate Variables.

Over the past two years, ENVRI-Hub NEXT has reimagined and rebuilt the central platform for Europe’s environmental research infrastructures (RIs), and is now ready to officially launch the upgraded ENVRI-Hub!

This session, will provide an overview of its major changes and new architecture and offer live demonstration of new features, that will allow user to discover and access FAIR data and services. Researchers, data scientists, and anyone whose work relies on integrated environmental data, are welcome to join the session.

For details and registration visit: https://envri.eu/webinar-introducing-new-envri-hub-environmental-research

FAIR-IMPACT Workshop on Data FAIRness assessment with F-UJI

F-UJI webinar

The FAIR-IMPACT Project supports the ambitious goal to realise an EOSC of FAIR data and services, by promoting the implementation of FAIR-enabling practices, tools and services in Europe and beyond. In order to expand Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable solutions across EOSC, the project is identifying proven domain solutions and facilitating their interoperable uptake across scientific domains.

By doing so, it will contribute to transforming the way researchers share and exploit research outputs within and across research disciplines, and to the facilitation of scientific multi-disciplinary cooperation, improving public trust and reproducibility in science.

Within this framework, the project organises a series of public workshops, the FAIR Implementation Series, and on 20 March is happening the next one, called “Using F-UJI to Assess the FAIRness of your Data“.

The workshop will introduce the automated FAIR data assessment tool (F-UJI) and showcase experiences of performed assessments and demos on how to use the tool.

For registration and detailed agenda, please visit:

https://fair-impact.eu/events/fair-impact-events/using-f-uji-assess-fairness-your-data

EOSC Winter School 2025

EOSC Winter School 2025

Sevilla, Spain

EOSC Focus supports the co-programmed EOSC Partnership in delivering its mission of establishing Open Science across the European Union.

As part of its mandate, in response to collaboration needs among Horizon Europe EOSC-related projects, EOSC Focus organises the EOSC Winter School since last year. The second edition will take place in the week of 20 January 2025, in Seville, Spain.

This event was conceptualised following a suggestion at the European Commission’s June 2023 coordination meeting, which identified a significant collaboration gap in the Horizon Europe EOSC-related projects.

Stay tuned for updates on the EOSC Association website: https://eosc.eu/events/eosc-winter-school-2025/

Benefits of EOSC and international collaboration in service development for Finnish Academia

Online

This event aims to gather Finnish academics to learn about the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and its impact on a national level. The program is divided into two parts. The first part will provide a comprehensive overview of EOSC and its implementation status, alongside a presentation by the University of Eastern Finland, the first Finnish research performance organization to join the EOSC Association. The second part will delve into national research services and the vital role of international collaboration in developing and implementing the EOSC vision. Lastly, attendees will learn about the FAIR-IMPACT engagement opportunities and have ample time for discussion.

To learn more, please visit this page: https://fair-impact.eu/events/national-roadshows/fair-impact-national-roadshow-finland

ERIC Forum Annual Meeting 

Brussels, Belgium, 27-28 February 2024

The two-day ERIC Forum meeting on Feb 27th and 28th will address research infrastructure challenges. Day 1 includes a welcome, presentation of work package activities, roundtable discussion, and community discussions. Day 2 has a closed ERIC Forum General Assembly, policy session, and a meeting between ERICs, EOSC-A, EC, ESFRI-EOSC Task Force, and e-RIs. The meeting offers collaboration opportunities and strategic discussions for advancing research infrastructures.

For more information, please visit this page.

Community Engagement: why it is key for Open Science and how to unleash it

Online, 23 November 2023.

Registration for the workshop is free but mandatory.

Transitioning to Open Science is complex. Studies have identified Community Engagement as one of the most effective strategies to encourage large-scale behavioural changes. However, in the context of Open Science, Community Engagement is often ignored or underestimated.

This workshop will explore the concept of Community Engagement and how it can effectively support the transition to Open Science. The focus will be on the International Network of Open Science and Scholarship Communities (INOSC), a vibrant network of 32 local hubs across 16 countries, comprising a community of over 2300 dedicated researchers committed to advancing Open Science. 

In the workshop, participants will learn about Community Engagement principles and their practical implementation in INOSC. Discussions will focus on adapting these principles to diverse contexts. Attendees will gain insights into effective techniques for their research communities. Join this exploration of Community Engagement’s power in fostering Open Science initiatives and gain practical tools to drive positive change.

To register for this workshop, please visit this page.

Documenting mapping community practices

Online, 24 November 2023.

Semantic artefacts such as ontologies, taxonomies, and metadata schema are essential for achieving data interoperability and implementing FAIR principles. However, interconnecting them becomes challenging due to their increasing number and varied uses. Ontology matching or alignment can help address this issue. To ensure the availability of mappings in relevant repositories, FAIR-IMPACT is organising a series of workshops to discuss issues around mappings and crosswalks and how they can become shareable and reusable.

In the first workshop of the series, ‘Why Mappings Matter and How to Make Them FAIR?’, participants will discover the techniques for mapping and how they could benefit more by making them FAIR. The discussion included methodologies, formats, tools, FAIR mapping requirements, and examples.

To register, visit this page.

EOSC Compliant PID Implementations – Practical Guidelines for Implementing Best Practices

Online, 21 November 2023.

The workshop aims to showcase tangible tools, policies, and advancements related to PIDs (Persistent Identifiers). The overview of PIDs within the EOSC framework will cover the PID policy, PID-related projects, and recent developments. During the workshop, the Compliance Assessment Toolkit (CAT) will be introduced, which aims to document, track, and query compliance with the EOSC PID policy and other criteria such as TRUST, FAIR principles, Reproducibility, GDPR, and Licenses.

The workshop will also demonstrate a series of research lifecycle workflows that show how PIDs can be integrated into these workflows. These workflows identify specific points where particular PIDs can enhance the FAIRness, credibility, and openness of research outputs. The workflows can also serve as guidance tools for creating more effective data management plans and drafting more explicit institutional policies.

An open forum will be held to discuss the current challenges hindering the adoption of PID solutions compliant with the EOSC PID policy, as well as potential solutions to address these issues. 

For more information and to register for this workshop, visit this page.

OntoPortal Alliance Workshop 2023

We are pleased to announce the 2nd OntoPortal Alliance Workshop in Lecce, Italy from September 27-29, 2023.

The 2023 workshop will feature 2 public (open to all interested parties) online events:

  • A virtual public session, September 27th, 16h-18h CEST will address the Ontology Development Lifecycle. This session will show examples that integrate ontology development with the OntoPortal platform, and follow with a user panel discussion—including community members using OntoPortal—and audience Q&A on the challenges and opportunities in the lifecycle and OntoPortal. Please register for this session here.
  • The FAIR-IMPACT Semantic Artefact governance workshop, September 28th, 16h30-18h30, a public workshop organized by the EOSC project FAIR-IMPACT’s T4.1 on governance and semantics. Please register for this session here.

The OntoPortal Alliance collaborators share their software and strategies for supporting research communities, and together determine the open source OntoPortal system that others can use for their own purposes. The rest of the event is restricted to the Alliance members or by invitation only

Wednesday 27

Morning

  • Short intros
  • Year in review
  • Update short presentations
  • Newcomers

Afternoon

  • Demonstration and new features (Bio/Agro/Eco)
  • Ontology development lifecycle
  • Tutorial
  • User panel and Q&A session

Thursday 28

Morning

  • Multilingual OntoPortal
  • Federated services 

Afternoon

  • Ontology versioning, diffs and historical views
  • Mappings repository and SSOM compliance
  • Documentation and training
  • Semantic artefact governance workshop

Friday 29

Morning

  • OntoPortal code management
  • Political session and governance
  • Governance of the content

Afternoon

  • Project proposals and funding
  • Plenary debrief and next steps

Detailed Programme