The pan-European project Skills4EOSC (Skills for the European Open Science Commons) kicked off with a two-day conference in Pisa on 21–22 September. The project will run for three years with the purpose to coordinate trainings in Open Science in Europe. SND is one of four Swedish representatives in the collaboration.
Skills4EOSC is funded by the EU Commission as part of the EU Horizon Europe programme. The objective is to create a unified and coordinated system for training resources, and to raise the level of competence among people who work with questions of Open Science and open data in a European context. 44 European organizations from 18 countries take part in the project, which is chaired by the Italian consortium GARR. The Swedish members are SND (through the University of Gothenburg), Chalmers, Karolinska Institutet, and Umeå University.
“It’s good to have kicked off”
“It’s so good to have kicked off now. We look forward to working together with the driven colleagues we met in Pisa and to bring this huge and exciting project home”, says Arin Savran, Research Data Advisor at SND, who co-authored the project’s grant application and who now coordinates parts of the project.
Skills4EOSC is structured around seven main work packages, each with its own focus. One important task will be to develop common standards (so-called minimum viable skillsets, MVS) for the skills needed to work with Open Science and open data. This work entails to develop a common methodology, curriculum, and training materials, for beginners in the field as well as for experienced data professionals.
Another task for the working groups will be to establish a network of competence centres for the project members. This network will function as a digital platform for knowledge exchange, which will create more favourable conditions to implement and follow up the project’s objectives.
SND participates in six work packages
SND will participate in six work packages in Skills4EOSC and lead the work package “Synergies, stakeholder engagement, advocacy, and communications”.
“The purpose of this work package is to engage various stakeholders in the project, to drive the collaboration and create synergies with other EOSC initiatives and relevant national and international stakeholders. We hope that this project will play a key role in the efforts to create a robust European network of a variety of skills that will continue to train Open Science professionals for many years to come”, says Arin Savran.