Read the Interview with the Thematic Pilot for Physics to discover the latest updates on OSTrails pilot studies. Explore pilots progress in integrating open science principles and advancing research assessment. This month we had the pleasure of speaking with Renaud Duyme (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France) and Majid Ounsy (SOLEIL Synchrotron, France). 

"Within the OSTrails project, our main goal objective is to enhance access and discovery of datasets generated by scientists in Photon and Neutron facilities. We aim to increase the visibility and reuse of these datasets across multiple scientific domains by integrating our data repositories with external tools and services, such as Data Management Plans and Scientific Knowledge Graphs."

-Can you briefly introduce your organisations? How does they contribute to EOSC?  

The Photon and Neutron Open Science Cluster (PaNOSC) provides the international scientific community with unique experiment tools to observe materials and living matter. PaNOSC is a European science cluster grouping multiple research facilities. PaNOSC is a candidate node in the EOSC federation.

For OSTrails, 2 institutions represent PaNOSC: the ESRF (Grenoble, France) and SOLEIL (Paris, France). Both are photon facilities hosting synchrotrons, often described as giant microscopes. A synchrotron "films" the position and motion of atoms in condensed and living matter and reveals the structure of matter in all its beauty and complexity. It provides unrivalled opportunities for scientists in the exploration of materials and living matter in a very wide variety of fields: chemistry, material physics, archaeology and cultural heritage, structural biology and medical applications, environmental sciences, information science and nanotechnologies.

The ESRF is the world's brightest synchrotron and is part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI landmark). SOLEIL is a French national Research Infrastructure. The users of the ESRF and SOLEIL synchrotrons come from universities and laboratories from all over the world.

-What are you most excited about in OSTrails? What are you looking forward to?   

The OSTrails project is a great opportunity for us to continue integrating open science and FAIR concepts in Photon and Neutrons facilities.

-How is planning, tracking and assessing research being realised in your scientific domain?

Here is a typical workflow in a PaNOSC facility: a scientist sends us a proposal to perform an experiment in our facility. After selection, we grant access to our instruments and schedule an experiment session. During a session, datasets are generated and referenced in our data catalogs. Our librarians then track scientific articles mentioning these experiments and datasets. Datasets have an embargo period (3 years for ESRF) before being open access.

Datasets are key assets of scientific publications. We need to ensure that the datasets produced in our facilities can be properly discovered, used, cited, and finally even reused by other scientists.

Our community is developing the Photon and Neutron Experiment Technique (PaNET) vocabulary. This vocabulary defines a list of specific experimental observation techniques used in our facilities (for example: “x-ray diffraction”, “small angle scattering” ...). It gives us a generic way to annotate datasets in our repositories (ex: ESRF's Data Catalogue). ESRF is also minting dataset DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) with DataCite. We also annotate DataCite metadata.

PUMA (Publication and User experiment metadata Analyser) is an internal application available in a few PaNOSC facilities. PUMA provides standard instrument dashboards and search features. It is fed by the facility library catalog and the user office proposal/grant system. Multiple facets are involved: publications, proposals/grants, instruments, scholarly journals, scientists, institutions (laboratories, universities), datasets. These facets, when linked as entities, provide a Scientific Knowledge Graph (SKG). This SKG allows us to better track and understand science produced by our facility.

-Can you provide some details on your pilot's main actors, services and priorities? How will your pilot adopt the results of OSTrails?

Our OSTrails pilot will involve the following services: ESRF’s Data Catalog, PUMA and DSWizard DMP Tool.

We would like to report on the quality of our datasets. This assessment can be done in various workflows including the Data Managment Plan (DMP) evaluation process, when a DMP is mentioning one of our datasets.

We also want to showcase how we can enhance and standardise the exchanges of metadata related to our datasets between these services. Typical elements we would like to exchange are publication/dataset citation links and publication/grant citation links. The SKG-IF will be used for these data exchanges.

-Ongoing activities and Next Steps?

ESRF is updating internal instrument data workflow to plug and output PaNET techniques in the metadata of our data portal datasets and DataCite DOIs. Work has been done to push missing information to DataCite DOIs (license, affiliations, grant...). ESRF is involved in the delivery of the SKG-IF API.

SOLEIL is currently adapting its internal webservices (user office and library systems) to set up the PUMA application. SOLEIL is evaluating the DMP platform: DSWizard.

For the next steps, ESRF would like to use the OSTrails FAIR assessment IF. We will focus on the metadata quality of our datasets. This work will be done with the ESRF Data Catalog team, the FAIRsharing team and the DSWizard team for the ESRF local DSWizard instance.

Explore the National Pilot Interview from Portugal to discover the latest updates on the OSTrails pilot studies. Dive into their national activities and learn about their progress promoting the use of machine-actionable DMPs, enhancing the FAIRness of digital objects stored in their repositories, and strengthening interoperability among RDM services. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Pedro Príncipe, Filipa Pereira and André Vieira from the University of Minho and Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

"Through the OSTrails pilot, we expect to strengthen our institutional and national research ecosystems by advancing the implementation of machine-actionable DMPs, improving FAIRness of digital objects deposited in our data repositories, and fostering interoperability across RDM services. These developments will help us deliver more efficient, integrated, and trustworthy infrastructures, while embedding Open Science and FAIR principles into research practices."

The annual Shared RDM project meeting took place at Graz University of Technology from 23–24 September 2025, bringing together Austrian partners to reflect on the project’s progress and its future beyond the official funding period. Around 40 participants from various Austrian Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) were present.

A key highlight of the meeting was an in-depth presentation of the EU project OSTrails, whose mission closely aligns with Shared RDM's mission of creating sustainable, collaborative infrastructures for research data management (RDM). OSTrails introduces innovative approaches to enhance the Plan-Track-Assess stages of research outputs and offers a valuable perspective on how Shared RDM's outcomes can be linked with efforts in the wider European landscape. 

The presentations emphasised the Interoperability Frameworks, Pilots, and the Data Management Plan (DMP) tool DAMAP illustrating their contributions to other European initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The presenters from OSTrails included:

- Ka Yee Suvini Lai (TU Wien), who introduced the overall OSTrail’s project and its goals.

- Daniel Spichtinger (UniWien), who discussed the Pilots activities, engaging national stakeholders at this Shared RDM event.

- Valentin Futterer (TU Wien) and Laura Thaci (TU Graz), who covered the latest and upcoming developments of DAMAP.

- Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien), the technical lead of WPx, who provided in-depth details on DAMAP and its role in OSTrails.

Key Takeaways

• Shared vision: Both projects push for sustainable RDM collaboration beyond project timelines.

• Clearer picture of OSTrails: The Shared RDM participants were able to understand how OSTrails will fit their use-cases via the three fundamental pillars and the Commons.

• DAMAP tool: Demonstrated as a practical, user-friendly DMP solution supporting FAIR and interoperable research data.

• The Pilots and their impact:

• National pilots: 15 countries co-design practical, local RDM solutions.

• Thematic pilots: 8 domains tailor DMPs, enrich knowledge graphs, and define FAIR rules.

• Horizon Europe pilot: Scales FAIR assessment across flagship EU projects.

Quote

“OSTrails is entering a transformative phase, with pilots turning technical developments into impact. For Austria, DAMAP plays a central role in making DMPs machine-actionable and advancing the DMP Interoperability Framework—an essential step towards federating capabilities for EOSC Nodes.”

-Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien)

15–17 September 2025, Geneva. From the sponsor booth to hallway conversations, OSFAIR 2025 gave us space to test, stress-check, and present how Plan–Track–Assess pathways work in practice.

All about Open Science. OSFAIR brought 352 attendees across research support teams, funders, infrastructure and service providers, and communities together around five tracks, from Digital Backbone to Research Assessment and Skills & Community. We were there to listen to and compare notes with colleagues and experts from Europe, Asia, and the US, engaging at the booth with universities, national research institutes and academies, international infrastructures, and community networks. Our presentation, “OSTrails: Connecting Tools and Communities for a Federated Open Science Ecosystem ”, gave us the opportunity to explain our modus operandi and engage in conversation with everyone in a lively Q&A.

Below, we share the insights and actions we’re taking forward regarding how systems connect, who is responsible for what, and the steps different professionals follow, presented in the form of field-notes.

Plan - Track - Assess Pathways

Open sponsor-area booth included a board game of OSTrails consisting of:
a. service icons (DMPs, Evaluators, Repositories, FAIR-check tools, SKGs)
b. moveable arrows
c. colour-coded post-its per role (data policy officers, ITs, librarians & data stewards, ethics reviewers, researchers)

Reflections from participants

• Less retyping. Let tools pass a small set of facts automatically.
• Clear roles. Make it obvious who owns what and who confirms it.
• Start simple. A basic setup that works everywhere, with optional upgrades later.

Useful Resources: D1.1

Interoperability - focused presentation

Useful Resources: D1.4

Key takeaways:

1. Keep things simple. Use a few core links so people enter information once and reuse it elsewhere.
2. Offer core examples that work now. Publish a straightforward, end-to-end set of service interactions with examples of per stakeholder actions.
3. Build reviews on facts. Agree with a small, shared set of assessments, send them automatically to reviewers, and loop results back.
4. Make it easy to adapt and adapt. Spell out who does what, keep the rules light, and provide short how-to guides.
5. Improve by measuring. Track number of links and how often information is reused, and how widely this is adopted, then iterate.

One step closer to our vision!

These steps move us from architecture to practice, towards a federated, FAIR-aligned, machine-actionable ecosystem where researchers do less duplicate work, services interoperate by default, and assessments rely on verifiable tests and documented processes.

Thanks to everyone who leaned in at OSFAIR!

We’d love to continue our discussions, so feel free to reach us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..