In 2025, scientists will connect to the National Data Infrastructure for the first time, a system developed over the past two years, say Jiří Marek and Martin Dvořák from the EOSC CZ initiative

What do you consider to be the greatest achievement of 2024?

Martin
That everything is working as planned. The IPs EOSC-CZ project has established and continues to develop the foundation upon which the National Repository Platform (NRP) builds as infrastructure for storing structured data. The IPs CARDS project complements this by providing support, particularly for persistent identifiers, and the Open Science II (OS II) call is being prepared. This system fits perfectly together. I am also pleased with the proactive approach of the scientific community, which participates in training, offers valuable input, and helps shape the ecosystem for data management.

Jirka
The year 2024 marked a significant milestone—the NRP project received its legal framework and progressed to the implementation phase, involving approximately a hundred more people working intensively on EOSC CZ across the Czech Republic. The topic of research data management has firmly established itself within the scientific community. The Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR), as another national funding agency, has incorporated this issue into its calls, referencing EOSC CZ and planning to promote our data steward map. This map aims to support the identification and involvement of data stewards for the scientific community at individual institutions.

Can we say that the results of 2024 ultimately exceeded your expectations?

Jirka
The entire topic is still relatively new, often requiring innovative solutions, and the team developing the initiative is also new. So, the fact that we managed to achieve everything we aimed for is a tremendous success. This success lays the foundation for 2025, when Czech researchers will finally be able to use what we’ve been building.

Martin
I would support this with some figures. A total of 20 partners (institutions) are now involved in the various projects (EOSC, NRP, CARDS, OS II) that are creating the ecosystem for research data management. Our target group includes 228 research organizations in the Czech Republic.

If we focus purely on participants in working groups, there are nearly 500 of them, connected to 70 research institutions! This means we are already actively communicating with and involving almost one-third of research institutions, which is quite good!

Was it difficult to activate the scientific communities and connect the teams?

Martin
Na začátku asi ano, ale lidé v pracovních skupinách by logicky měli At the beginning, it probably was. However, people in the working groups should logically be interested in participating not only to gain up-to-date information but also to have the opportunity to influence the direction of the initiative (projects, recommendations, etc.). If we compare the numbers year-over-year, the membership in the working groups has grown by nearly 100%. The working groups are the core and the primary professional drivers of the initiative and its projects.

For example, the Metadata Working Group had 70 members at the end of 2023, and a year later, it has 140. This put higher demands on management and coordination, and perhaps even on the efficiency of the outputs being delivered. So, we’ll need to think about how to structure the working group management. It’s not our goal to have as many people as possible in the working groups, as this could be counterproductive. Instead, we want committed and active members who contribute and help shape the environment themselves.

Jirka
The design is such that the working groups should be long-lasting and independent of specific projects. And regarding the 100% growth—just before Christmas, we attended the Austrian EOSC annual meeting, where a question was raised: "How did you manage to double your numbers?"

Well, first, it’s partly due to the influence of projects. The second factor is a bit of luck, as this topic is increasingly resonating not just in academic circles but also in other areas. For instance, prestigious journals like Nature are now working with data. This natural progression is pushing the scientific community toward better research data management.

Another contributing factor is the effort of the working group secretaries, who actively sought out experts in this field across the country and motivated them to join and contribute to the development of this initiative.

How did you reach out to the people you wanted to collaborate with? Was it always through personal contact?

Jirka
Partially. When we were setting up the system of working groups, we started with an open call inviting anyone interested in research data to join. Later, we began reaching out to people directly. Over time, we realized that standard communication channels weren’t enough, and to engage researchers from other Czech universities, personal contact was necessary. That’s why we launched EOSC CZ Networking. When introducing concepts like Open Science and research data management, we asked questions like: "Do you have data stewards? No? Do you need guidance? Training?"

Martin
Through EOSC CZ Networking, we are building deeper collaborations with research institutions and universities on-site. We’re not just a virtual platform where you have to find everything online we actively communicate with scientists and the broader community in person. In 2024, we visited universities in Olomouc, Liberec, České Budějovice, and Zlín, and we plan to continue these meetings in 2025. These events are designed for researchers, data stewards, librarians, and Open Science specialists. University leadership representatives often attend as well. This creates lively discussions about local conditions and possibilities for research data management, which can then be effectively complemented by national solutions.

Jirka
It’s really significant that scientists and often even vice-rectors joined us for these meetings. They showed interest in the initiative and provided us with suggestions for changes. This kind of engagement, especially in the area of Open Science, wasn’t common until recently.

So, there’s no need to persuade them?

Jirka
Often, they’re already curious. We try to explain that what we’re building here will be something everyone can use. So now they’re asking us: "Okay, it will work, but how will we use it at our university? That’s a perfect way how to engage data stewards, who are essentially our contacts to various institutions."

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your activities in 2024, and what steps do you plan to take next?

Jirka
In 2024, we effectively used the available tools to strengthen the impact of our activities on the scientific community. Now, we’re ready for the next step in 2025, we will enable scientists to truly utilize the results of our work from the past two years.

Can it be said that the goal for 2025 is the implementation of data storage tools? And do you plan to launch them this year?

Jirka
Yes, in the second half of this year. So far, the focus has primarily been on individual researchers and everyone who showed interest. Now, we’re moving into the practical phase how data management will impact institutions and research fields as a whole. Having a national infrastructure with the ability to create repositories where an individual researcher can store their data, understand how to describe it, and operate within the system is a major achievement. That’s precisely the goal of the NRP project, which includes another educational initiative, "Train the Trainers". This ensures that people within institutions can then help researchers with these processes. And this is connected to the Training Center. Everything is interconnected.

Martin
In total, we have realized more than twenty training sessions, which have different attendance, from 20 people in onsite workshops to 200 participants in online workshops. So the reach in the audience is significant. In terms of topics, we cover FAIR data management or metadata, as well as legal aspects, open data in public administration, citizen science, metadata and more. And that's clearly what people are interested in and looking for that content. We have people attending not only from academia, but also from public administration or private commercial enterprises. So far, we have training mostly in Czech, and because of that, we have a lot of people coming from Slovakia as well. They also have their EOSC there and are developing it. It is great that we can cooperate with our colleagues in this area as well, thanks to the fact that we do not have a language barrier.

You actively support the role of data stewards in the Czech scientific community. What specific steps are you taking to develop this role?

Martin
Our communicators, in collaboration with the UX team on the EOSC CZ website, have created new pages that introduce the role of data stewards and the opportunities this position offers. We are launching a campaign focused on identifying data stewards we are encouraging those who hold or feel connected to this role within their institutions, research, or project teams to sign up on the data steward map. Through this interactive map, we want to show the entire scientific community that there is a data steward here, and you can reach out to them. There are already over 50 data stewards on the map, even though it only started running just before Christmas! It’s nice to see this community taking shape, even though these positions are often unknown or new within institutions.

Jirka
Through this campaign, we aim to establish these new types of roles. Some institutions already have data stewards, utilize them, and try to spread their know-how and connect more research teams across the country. There are different types of data stewards, from data managers overseeing an entire institution to those who are closely linked with a specific research team. This reflects the needs of various fields. Some are data-intensive right now, while others are just beginning to embrace this. The map is meant to work like this: if I am a researcher from Olomouc and I have no idea that anything is happening with data, I might suddenly learn that EOSC exists and there’s a map of data stewards. I can then search for mine at my institution and get in touch with them. Some focus on general support, while others specialize more, but they will all know about each other and can help guide researchers correctly.

Can we now focus on the topic of data repositories? What options do they currently offer?

Martin
There is a pilot national data (catch-all) repository, where about 50 datasets are uploaded in test mode. One can at least get an idea of the functionalities this storage for structured data offers and how the data might look. The data is stored in repositories, and a metadata search engine is above it. So, you can search by topic, field, filter, title, or author. I wouldn't claim it's fully functional yet, but it meets basic expectations. However, it doesn't include other components such as authorization, authentication, or other services we will offer within the National Data Infrastructure (NDI).

Jirka
We are trying to create an environment that will make it easier for scientists to work with data. For example, in the future, using the NDI repository will significantly simplify data management, thanks to the possibility of partial automation in preparing Data Management Plans (DMPs) based on already stored information. The national solution we are building across the country ensures efficiency and consistency compared to individual approaches at various institutions. The core foundation of the NDI is the NRP project, which started in 2024, and now it is followed by the Open Science II project.

What did the autumn Symposium in Berlin bring to the development of EOSC, and how is the Czech Republic contributing?

Jirka
At the European level, EOSC has entered the "operational" phase, which means that scientists will soon finally be able to upload data, perform computations and use them within the federated infrastructure. An example of how this could work is the so-called EOSC EU Node, the first of many "nodes" in this federated infrastructure. Thus, in the future, the federated approach should make it possible to reproduce the analysis of frogs from southern France without having to repeat the whole analysis. All this within the whole of Europe. The Czech Republic is now also involved in this phase. Not only are we keeping up, but thanks to the concentrated efforts of the EOSC CZ initiative and project funding, we are contributing to building this infrastructure. This is not common in other Member States.

Martin
I would add that CESNET, as one of the institutions of the national e-infrastructure e-INFRA CZ, which participates in the development of EOSC CZ, is also involved in the development at the European level, which allows us to directly contribute to the direction of the "European EOSC" as well. This gives the Czech Republic the opportunity to help shape what the European infrastructure will ultimately look like. One of the nice things is that our data steward map has been noticed abroad, and it might even serve as a model for all of Europe.

So we can inspire others. And there will probably be more?

Martin
The authorization and authentication infrastructure (AAI) is definitely something that can make an impact in Europe.

Jirka
We are one of the countries involved in the development of data management planning tools, specifically the Data Stewardship Wizard tool.

What is the challenge for the next year?

Jirka
I would like our position within the European EOSC to be further strengthened. We are already there, but I would like our involvement to be even deeper. I also hope that scientists will have the opportunity to store structured data and actively work with it.

What about some numbers for the future?

Martin
According to the Czech Statistical Office, there are 39,000 people working as researchers in the government and higher education sectors in the Czech Republic. If we sum up the numbers of people in working groups, those attending our training sessions, those receiving our newsletter, those watching videos from the Training Centre on YouTube, or following our social media, we are actively communicating with about a thousand people. The total outreach is around 3,000 to 4,000 researchers. So, we are communicating information about FAIR data, Open Science, and EOSC to roughly 5% of scientists. We will certainly not reach all of them. Some are generally reserved towards open science, or they do not support these ideas. But I believe that as we continue to offer more services within the National Data Infrastructure and generally provide the opportunity to manage data in a secure environment, we have the potential to reach 10, 15, maybe even 20 percent of the community next year. That would mean actively reaching out to 10,000 researchers in the Czech Republic.

Jirka
The fact that some are reserved and don't want it reflects a lot on the individual fields and how data-ready they are. So it's not that some don't want to do it, but maybe they don't know they should do it or it's irrelevant in that field. But it's not a thing for next year, it will last until at least 2028.

In conclusion, what do you think science will ideally look like in the near future?

Jirka
The goal is for data management not to be a "hassle" for scientists. They should want to store data in a structured way and see the potential for reusing their data, whether publicly or just within their laboratory or research team. The aim of digitalizing Czech science is to enable real work with data, its repeated use, and the resulting knowledge and economic benefits. We would like data to be used not only by the academic community but also by companies for their own research, thereby fostering new collaborations. Of course, all of this will be under the conditions set by the scientist themselves, as we could read in the previous interview with the project manager of IPs EOSC-CZ, Matej Antol. On one side, we need scientists who conduct basic research, build projects, collaborations, and publications – that’s what is crucial for the scientific community. On the other side, we are creating a data system that enables the efficient use of this data, supports innovations, and improves operations in the Czech Republic. The automation of processes will help ease the everyday work of scientists and other users.

Martin
In the future, we will benefit from an important legislative update: the Data Management and Controlled Data Access Act. At the same time, we aim to convince scientists, IT specialists, librarians, analysts, and other professionals that this infrastructure offers significant advantages and is much safer than storing data on local disks. The system will ensure that data is accessible only to authorized users, guaranteeing security and long-term sustainability that local storage can never provide. Moreover, the data will be stored in three copies. This redundancy means that even if one location fails, the data will remain safely stored in the other two—a critical advantage. This approach will also enhance research reproducibility, as scientists will be able to reuse data and build upon it, ultimately improving the quality of scientific work.

Complete information about the results of the EOSC CZ initiative can be found in the Evaluation Report, which will be published in January 2025.