EOSC interoperability framework Report from the EOSC Executive Board Working Groups FAIR and Architecture
This document has been developed by the Interoperability Task Force of the
EOSC Executive Board FAIR Working Group, with participation from the
Architecture WG. Achieving interoperability within EOSC is essential in
order for the federation of services that will compose EOSC to provide
added value for service users. In the context of the FAIR principles,
interoperability is discussed in relation to the fact that “research data
usually need to be integrated with other data; in addition, the data need
to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and
processing”. Our view on interoperability does not only consider data but
also the many other research artefacts that may be used in the context of
research activity, such as software code, scientific workflows, laboratory
protocols, open hardware designs, etc. It also considers the need to make
services and e-infrastructures as interoperable as possible. This document
identifies the general principles that should drive the creation of the
EOSC Interoperability Framework (EOSC IF), and organises them into the four
layers that are commonly considered in other interoperability frameworks
(e.g., the European Interoperability Framework - EIF): technical, semantic,
organisational and legal interoperability. For each of these layers, a
catalogue of problems and needs, as well as challenges and high-level
recommendations have been proposed, which should be considered in the
further development and implementation of the EOSC IF components. Such
requirements and recommendations have been developed after an extensive
review of related literature as well as by running interviews with
stakeholders from ERICs (European Research Infrastructure Consortia), ESFRI
(European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) projects, service
providers and research communities. Some examples of such requirements are:
“every semantic artefact that is being maintained in EOSC must have
sufficient associated documentation, with clear examples of usage and
conceptual diagrams”, or “Coarse-grained and fine-grained dataset (and
other research object) search tools need to be made available”, etc. The
document finally contains a proposal for the management of FAIR Digital
Objects in the context of EOSC and a reference architecture for the EOSC
Interoperability Framework that is inspired by and extends the European
Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA), identifying the main
building blocks required.