EOSC Beyond at EGI2025: Advancing Innovation and Pilot Nodes
EGI2025 (2–6 June, Santander) - the annual conference organised by the EOSC Beyond coordinator EGI Foundation - welcomed 280+ participants and served as a dynamic hub for Europe’s research infrastructure community, hosted at the historic Palacio de la Magdalena by CSIC and LIP. Against this inspiring backdrop, EOSC Beyond actively advanced discussions on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) through multiple technical sessions.
On June 4, Dale Robertson (EGI Foundation) opened our contributions with insights into the sustainability of EOSC Core Services, followed by parallel sessions where John Shepherdson (CESSDA) presented software quality assurance and release management for EOSC Beyond co-authored with João Pina (LIP).
EOSC Beyond heavily contributed to the "EOSC - Nodes for the build-up" session, where our Technical Coordinator Nicola Fiore (EGI Foundation) explained the role of EOSC Beyond in the establishment of the EOSC Federation Infrastructures. The session also featured two examples of pilot nodes, as Tim Wetzel (DESY) presented takeaways from the NFDI pilot node, while John Shepherdson introduced the CESSDA pilot node. Beyond the sessions, the project engaged attendees at the EGI exhibition booth and showcased the EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox through a poster in the conference gallery.
Complementing these activities, the EOSC Beyond consortium convened a co-located project meeting on June 5–6. Attended by 40+ partners from all over Europe, the meeting celebrated Year 1 achievements, such as the deployment of the Innovation Sandbox, and charted Year 2 priorities. Focus areas included scaling pilot nodes and refining the Sandbox to accelerate user onboarding.
EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox Webinar
The momentum continued post-conference with a public webinar on June 19, introducing the EOSC Core Innovation Sandbox. Watch the recording to explore how this testbed enables seamless service integration within EOSC, featuring pilot case studies from Fabrizio Antonio (CMCC/ENES), Tim Wetzel (DESY/NFDI), and John Shepherdson (CESSDA). Discover how your institution can leverage the Sandbox for prototyping FAIR data solutions or infrastructure configurations.
"EGI2025 was a catalyst for EOSC Beyond’s next phase. With pilot nodes maturing and the Sandbox now operational, we look forward to contributing to the next phase of EOSC."
Nicola Fiore, Technical Coordinator, EGI Foundation