Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EPOS IP (EPOS Implementation Phase)

Teaser

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS) aims at creating a pan-European research infrastructure for solid Earth science to provide virtual access to data, products and services and physical access to facilities. EPOS fosters innovation in a multidisciplinary research...

Summary

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS) aims at creating a pan-European research infrastructure for solid Earth science to provide virtual access to data, products and services and physical access to facilities. EPOS fosters innovation in a multidisciplinary research framework, utilizing human capital in terms of skills and knowledge and infrastructures across different disciplines, technologies and countries. EPOS allows for a better understanding of the Earth dynamics and this scientific progress will be used for assessing geo-hazards and the secure and sustainable use and exploitation of geo-resources. The EPOS mission is to create a single sustainable, permanent and distributed infrastructure that integrates the diverse and advanced European Research Infrastructures for solid Earth science. The EPOS vision and mission have been maintained since the beginning of the preparatory phase and they are still guiding the implementation phase, being shared with a broad scientific community.
Understanding how the Earth works as a system is critically important to modern society. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, landslides and tsunamis are all Earth phenomena impacting on society. Solid Earth science is the place where to find answers on how to maintain the Earth a safe, prosperous, and habitable planet. Earth scientists use observational and experimental data to model how geo-hazards arise and evolve. EPOS, by providing open access to harmonized and quality controlled data from diverse Earth science disciplines and by facilitating cross-disciplinary research, can contribute to this and other grand challenges.
The EPOS overall objective is to build the integrated research platform empowering our ability to respond to fundamental scientific questions in solid Earth sciences and socio-economic questions related to geo-Hazards and geo-Resources.

This is currently done by:
• Implementing thematic services (TCS) for the diverse scientific communities contributing to EPOS;
• Ensuring TCS integration within the EPOS delivery framework, covering legal, governance, financial and technical aspects and connection to the integrated services (ICS);
• Developing the ICS central hub to provide interoperability, data management and access to services and facilities;
• Creating optimal conditions for the central coordination of the EPOS-ERIC;
• Ensure long-term financial & legal sustainability for EPOS-ERIC and implemented services;
• Harmonizing the EPOS implementation with national priorities and strategies;
• Further gaining users’ trust and awareness of the impact of the new research exploitation platform;
• Integrating EPOS in the global science community to enhance the EPOS services;
• Fostering training, outreach and international cooperation.

Work performed

The EPOS Implementation Phase consists of the implementation of Thematic (TCS) and Integrated (ICS) core services and the legal establishment of EPOS-ERIC. The EPOS IP project is designed to address these undertakings. Specifically, the concept design and the activity plan of the EPOS IP project rely on: (i) technical Implementation of data and service provision through TCS and ICS, including the interoperability with the novel research platform in an effective legal, governance and financial framework; (ii) harmonization of pan-European implementation plans with national priorities and strategies; (iii) management of the work plan from technical, administrative, and financial perspectives, while ensuring effective contributions for the establishment of EPOS-ERIC.
The work done for the technical implementation of data and service provision provided the following main results:
• implementation and validation of the Data, Data-products, Service and Software (DDSS) provision by each TCS; currently the DDSS provision consists of 386 elements, of which 184 have been implemented and among these 103 are validated and integrated in ICS-C;
• implementation of the metadata catalogue for TCS-ICS interoperability;
• design and development of the user interface and user registry for the ICS and TCS;
• design and development of the ICS central hub and its prototype;
• harmonization of data standards and quality management across TCS communities;
• design of the service portfolio for developing procurement policies to access computational resources;
• share and adopt the EPOS Data Policy and Access Rules;
• establish TCS governance through a shared legal framework linking TCS with EPOS-ERIC;
• TCS and ICS service validation approved by Board of Governmental Representatives;
• implementation of TCS Cost Book for the EPOS infrastructure;
• implementation of the EPOS ERIC Financial Plan for the operation of the EPOS delivery framework.
A key achievement corroborating the impact of these activities has been the legal establishment of EPOS-ERIC on October 30th 2018.
The high number of countries that have participated to the process for establishing EPOS ERIC substantiates the outcome of the harmonization work. EPOS is included in the national roadmap of 14 countries and national consortia or joint research units have been created in 16 countries to foster a harmonized participation to EPOS. The dimension of the EPOS data and service provision confirms the European added value: currently, 138 research organizations, 256 research infrastructures from 25 countries and 5 international organizations (Orfeus, EMSC, EUREF, INTERMAGNET, EuroGeoSurveys) are involved in the EPOS delivery framework. The community participating to the EPOS Implementation Phase project is also relevant with a total of about 680 people involved in the project. These figures guarantee both an effective engagement of scientists and a shared approach to data, metadata and service integration.

Final results

EPOS is contributing to develop an open innovation culture at different levels.

Crossdisciplinary data and service provision. EPOS is enabling science by providing access to multidisciplinary data, products (including software) and services. EPOS brings together European nations and combines solid Earth science infrastructures and their associated data and services together with the scientific expertise into one integrated delivery system for solid Earth science. This allows the data to be managed, stored and preserved in a cost-efficient way, with appropriate quality and safety assurances, fostering access to the data across borders and domain boundaries.

Foster e-science innovation in RIs management and operation. EPOS can provide effective solutions to share and preserve FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) data. EPOS is fostering IT innovation for empowering access to, storing, preserving and curating large amounts of solid Earth data, enabling stakeholders from different fields (research, education, society, business) to use, re-use and exploit data and services for the benefit of science and society.

Long-term sustainability of integrated RIs in a pan-European perspective. There is an intrinsic economic value in harmonizing and optimizing public investments to support national RIs in Earth science as well as in sharing resources to implement and operate novel core services (TCS, ICS) of global perspective. Moving from financial viability to long-term sustainability of pan-European integrated services coordinated by an ERIC represents a contribution to innovation culture for operating environmental distributed RIs.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.epos-ip.org.