Solutions for a sustainable EOSC: a FAIR Lady (olim Iron Lady) report from the EOSC Sustainability Working Group
This document explores possible means for sustaining the European Open Science Cloud beyond its initial phase which terminates at the end of 2020. This independent document builds on earlier strawman and tinman versions and the feedback received from the EOSC Executive Board, Governance Board as well as the European Commission (EC) and the stakeholder community on each version. It also takes into account the progress towards the EOSC goals as well as the outputs of commissioned studies. It considers the financing model, legal vehicle, governance structure under the planned European Partnership with the EC as well as the regulatory and policy environment of the EOSC. It recommends beginning with a first iteration to establish a Minimum Viable EOSC (MVE) addressing the needs of publicly funded researchers exploiting openly available data. Subsequent iterations expand the EOSC to address usage beyond openly available FAIR data and engage a wider user base including the public sector and the private sector.