The EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox is a testbed with advanced automation tools for the testing
The EOSC United project, coordinated and represented by the EOSC Association AISBL (EOSC-A), and the EOSC Beyond project, represented by the EGI Foundation, have officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in April 2026. This strategic agreement establishes a collaborative framework to complement each other's strengths, maximising their collective impact on the development of the EOSC Federation.
About the Projects
EOSC United: A Coordination and Support Action funded under Grant Agreement No. 101215594. Led by the EOSC Association, it plays a central role in the operationalisation, governance, and coordination required to establish a sustainable EOSC Federation.
EOSC Beyond: A Research and Innovation Action funded under Grant Agreement No. 101131875. Coordinated by the EGI Foundation, its objective is to advance Open Science by providing new EOSC Core capabilities, enabling scientific applications to compose and access resources, and establishing a federated network of pilot EOSC Nodes.
Key Areas of Collaboration
The MoU outlines an extensive roadmap of coordinated technical activities, designed to accelerate the deployment and maturity of EOSC Nodes:
Technical Support and Node Operations
- Jointly provide technical support to the EOSC Federation Node Operations Committee (NOC) to define guidelines for Helpdesk, Monitoring, and Service Management System (SMS) federating capabilities. This includes joint information events to present proposals to the NOC and finalising capabilities based on their feedback.
- Deliver technical support to set up and federate core services, including Helpdesk, Monitoring, and the Research Product Catalogue, with the EU Node and other participating Nodes.
- Collaborate to establish a FitSM-based management system and the broader EOSC Federation Management System across EOSC Nodes.
The EOSC Beyond Sandbox
The partnership leverages the EOSC Beyond Innovation Sandbox as the environment for testing and validation. It is actively offered to:
- All active Nodes to voluntarily test architectural evolutions proposed by both projects, with results reported back to the Architecture Working Group.
- Nodes preparing to enroll in the Federation (such as Nodes from the Tripartite’s second node enrolment call).
- All Nodes as an optional testbed to validate new federating capabilities.
Alignment of the EOSC Federation Architecture
Both initiatives will collaborate on architecture work while clearly distinguishing project contributions. Crucially, EOSC Beyond is scheduled to publish its final architecture deliverable (D6.2) in September 2026. To ensure continuity, EOSC United’s subsequent deliverable (D3.7, expected January 2027) will take into account and build upon EOSC Beyond's architectural foundations.
All proposals and activities for federating capabilities will strictly follow the principles outlined in the latest official version of the EOSC Federation Handbook. Also, while EOSC Beyond provides technical support to individual nodes and service providers, the EOSC EU Node remains responsible for operating and delivering many of the services required to enable federating capabilities.
Looking Ahead
“Anchoring the EOSC Federation in the European research community requires the alignment of technical innovation with a robust and collaborative coordination strategy. This MoU ensures that the technical building blocks being developed by EOSC Beyond are aligned with EOSC United’s development of the operational frameworks, stakeholder engagement, and architectural roadmap guiding the expansion of the EOSC Federation. The two projects will work together to bridge the operational and technical pillars of Europe’s research and innovation data space to strengthen European data sovereignty, security and resilience..” - Klaus Tochtermann, President, EOSC Association
“The synergy between EOSC Beyond and EOSC United will facilitate the technical implementation of the EOSC Federation. By pooling our technical expertise, setting up robust interoperability guidelines, and leveraging the EOSC Beyond Innovation Sandbox, we can offer clear and validated pathways for individual nodes to integrate. This partnership guarantees that our technical innovations translate directly into cohesive operational realities.” Diego Scardaci, EOSC Beyond Project Director, EGI Foundation
This partnership strives to help the EOSC Federation develop as a cohesive, highly interoperable ecosystem capable of supporting the next generation of European research. For regular updates and deep dives into the technical milestones of this collaboration, visit the official websites of EOSC United and EOSC Beyond.
EOSC Beyond Services
