On 18 June 2026, OSTrails hosted the webinar "Interoperability Frameworks in Practice: From Node Experience to Adoption in the EOSC Federation", bringing together over 50 participants, including representatives from national and thematic (candidate) nodes of the  EOSC Federation, research infrastructures, and the wider Open Science community.

The webinar provided a practical look into how the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks (IFs), Data Management Plans-IF (DMP-IF), Scientific Knowledge Graphs-IF (SKG-IF), and FAIR-IF, are being implemented across Europe through national and thematic pilots. The session demonstrated that adopting these frameworks is both feasible and achievable with a low barrier to entry, with the potential to strengthen interoperability in research data management within the emerging EOSC Federation.

From Interoperability Concepts to Practical Implementation

Opening the webinar, Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien) introduced the OSTrails architecture and the three interoperability frameworks and explained how they address key aspects of the research lifecycle:

• DMP-IF enables machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs) that can seamlessly exchange information with other research services.
• SKG-IF provides a common framework for connecting SKGs, allowing research outputs, datasets, software, projects, instruments, and researchers to become part of an interoperable scholarly ecosystem.
• FAIR-IF establishes an approach to FAIR assessment, promoting transparent, evidence-based evaluation of FAIRness of data and other resources across communities.

Rather than targeting researchers directly, the frameworks are designed to support service providers, software developers and infrastructure operators by reducing integration costs, enabling automation, and avoiding vendor lock-in. Several speakers highlighted interoperability as a factor that could potentially support more efficient research workflows.

Further information is available in the OSTrails project documentation that can be accessed through this link: OSTrails Documentation

National Pilots Showcase Real-World Adoption

A central part of the webinar featured experiences from three national pilots that are actively integrating the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks into their national research infrastructures.

Finnish Node

Johanna Laiho-Kauranne (CSC) presented Finland’s pilot on developing a scalable, machine-actionable DMP metadata model aligned with both the RDA standard and the OSTrails DMP-IF. The pilot aims to develop a single reference data model for maDMPs that is expected to be adopted by at least 60 organisations in Finland. Developed in collaboration with more than 20 organisations and numerous national stakeholders, the model demonstrates how national requirements can be addressed while remaining fully compatible with European interoperability efforts. The pilot presentation also highlighted the importance of persistent identifiers, machine-readable metadata, software management planning, and API-based integration across research services.

Polish Node

Raul Palma (PSNC) showcased how the Polish pilot integrates the three OSTrails interoperability frameworks through the national research infrastructures. By connecting machine-actionable DMPs, FAIR assessment services, SKGs and national repositories, the pilot demonstrates how interoperable services can support both national infrastructure and future EOSC Federation services. The adoption of common APIs demonstrates how interoperability can be practically implemented and is reducing the complexity of integrating diverse research tools.

Dutch Node

Eileen Waegemaekers (SURF) presented the Dutch pilot, which focusses on integrating research workflows across institutions in the Netherlands. The work presented explores how maDMPs can support compliance processes, improve discoverability through Scientific Knowledge Graphs, and enable reproducible research workflows by connecting services across the Dutch EOSC Node.

A key aspect of the pilot is reproducibility as a workflow: the use of maDMPs enables end-to-end workflow coordination, while SKG-IF supports tracking research from outputs to research processes, connecting related entities across the scholarly ecosystem. The use cases presented demonstrated the integration of maDMPs and how related entities are tracked through maDMP-driven workflows.

Thematic Pilots Demonstrate Domain-Specific Benefits

The webinar also featured some thematic pilots that illustrate how the interoperability frameworks can support domain-specific research communities: (i) PaNOSC, and (ii) CLARIN and SSH at large. The PaNOSC pilot presentation demonstrates how persistent identifiers, maDMPs, SKGs and FAIR assessment can be integrated into experimental research workflows, enabling stronger links between datasets, instruments, publications and research infrastructures.

You can see the full presentation of this pilot here: OSTrails – Thematic Pilot PaNOSC - Photon and Neutron Open Science Cloud - Presentation | Zenodo

The focus of the thematic pilot conducted by CLARIN is focusing onmaking metadata accessible to machines. The CLARIN research infrastructure for language resources is already offering metadata from a network of distributed repositories to human users via the Virtual Language Observatory (VLO).  The SKG-IF adds machine access to the metadata harvested by the VLO via a common API shared across multiple research infrastructure nodes, thus strengthening interoperability within the EOSC Federation. In addition, the pilot focuses on how the FAIR-IF can be incorporated into the workflow of CLARIN nodes by reporting the FAIRness of datasetsand providing guidance for improvement where applicable. The pilot also covers how the DMP-IF supports projects in anticipating and monitoring compliance with CLARIN requirements.

In Summary

Together, the national and thematic pilots demonstrate that the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks are sufficiently flexible to address diverse disciplinary requirements while maintaining a common approach to interoperability.

Key Messages from the Discussion

The interactive Q&A session generated valuable discussion around the future adoption of the interoperability frameworks within the EOSC Federation.

One of the key messages was the growing interest from (candidate) EOSC Federation nodes. Several participants expressed an interest to further explore how the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks could be integrated into their own infrastructures and highlighted the importance of continued dialogue with the OSTrails team to address node-specific implementation needs.

Participants also noted that quantitative evidence demonstrating how the frameworks improve the quality of Data Management Plans would be particularly valuable in supporting wider adoption.

Anca Hienola (ENVRI Community) highlighted the strategic importance of SKGs, emphasising that their true value lies in connecting datasets, publications, software, researchers and other scholarly resources into an interoperable research ecosystem. The discussion also underlined the role of FAIR assessment tools in providing evidence of FAIRness through higher-quality metadata and machine-actionable information.

Responding to these points, Tomasz Miksa, Technical Coordinator of OSTrails, highlighted that OSTrails is committed to supporting EOSC Federation nodes with practical implementation guidance while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the interoperability frameworks.

Paolo Manghi, CTO of OpenAIRE, further observed that the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks represent a strategic step towards building a shared vision of interoperability across research infrastructures and the EOSC Federation.

Looking Ahead

The webinar confirmed that interoperability is no longer simply a conceptual objective; it is becoming an operational reality.

The experiences shared by the pilot teams demonstrated that the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks can be adopted incrementally, allowing organisations to modernise existing services without necessarily requiring major changes to their infrastructural set-up. This practical, standards-based approach positions the frameworks as valuable building blocks for the EOSC Federation.

As a next step, the OSTrails pilot teams will engage directly with interested national and thematic EOSC Federation nodes to better understand their specific requirements and explore how tailored support can facilitate future adoption.

The knowledge generated through all 23 OSTrails pilot studies will be consolidated in the upcoming project deliverables D4.3 and D4.4, that will document the findings and provide guidance to support the implementation of interoperable research data management services across Europe.

The portuguese OSTrails pilot was present at the Dataverse Community Meeting 2026 in Barcelona, presenting “FAIR Assessment and DataRepositóriUM: OSTrails pilot use case”, both as a poster and as a presentation. The contribution was part of the panel “Showcase: FAIR data publication, curation, and assessment”.

About the Dataverse Community Meeting

The Dataverse Community Meeting(DCM) is an international event that brings together repository managers, developers, researchers, and data professionals working with the Dataverse platform and related research data infrastructures. It provides a space to share experiences, showcase developments, and discuss approaches to data publication, curation, and FAIR alignment.

From FAIR Principles to Practice: The OSTrails FAIR Reference Model

The aim of this presentation was to introduce the core of the OSTrails FAIR Reference Model (FRM) and demonstrate its practical application through the use case of DataRepositóriUM - University of Minho Data Repository, showcasing how the model can be used to assess the FAIR compliance of datasets deposited in repositories. The presentation illustrated how the FRM approach can serve as an example for other repositories seeking alignment with the FAIR principles.

This work reflects the ongoing collaboration between the University of Minho and FCCN-FCT (digital services of Foundation for Science and Technology) within the Portuguese pilot, focusing on the practical implementation of FAIR assessment in institutional data repositories.

A pilot tailored to the specific needs of Portuguese Dataverse repositories

The Portuguese OSTrails pilot aims to design and implement a FAIR benchmark specifically adapted to the characteristics of the Portuguese Dataverse repositoryneeds, . This initiative recognises that generic FAIR assessment frameworks do not always fully capture the operational context and specificities of institutional repositories.

By grounding FAIR assessment in a real-world repository environment, this pilot contributes to making evaluation approaches more practical, actionable, and relevant for repository managers.

The OSTrails FAIR Reference Model

The FAIR Reference Model enables a unified conceptual and structural foundation for evaluating how well datasets comply with the principles of being Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Developed within the OSTrails project, the model emerged from a systematic comparison of existing FAIR assessment tools, which revealed significant inconsistencies in how FAIR principles were interpreted, implemented, and reported. To overcome this fragmentation, the FRM identifies the core components essential for FAIR assessment (Dimensions, Metrics, Tests, and Benchmarks) and defines how these components should be represented, related, and expressed through machine‑actionable metadata. 

The FRM plays a key role in improving the FAIR assessment of datasets deposited in repositories by establishing a shared vocabulary and conceptual structure. It enables harmonised and transparent evaluations, reducing discrepancies that arise when different tools assess the same object using divergent interpretations of FAIR principles.

Relevance of the FAIR Reference Model and Portuguese FAIR Benchmark for the Dataverse Community

The presentation of the FRM, together with the Portuguese FAIR Benchmark, provided an important opportunity to disseminate one of the key contributions of OSTrails to a broader community of data repository managers worldwide.

By engaging with the Dataverse community, this work supports ongoing efforts to establish a shared foundation for assessing the FAIRness of digital objects, while recognising the need to adapt evaluation approaches to the specific contexts and requirements of different communities. The discussion fostered interest in how such a benchmark can be applied in practice, contributing to more consistent, transparent, and community-driven FAIR assessment practices.

Access to materials:

The presentation and poster are available here: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/101486

We are pleased to announce the second edition of the OSTrails  Train-the-trainer Bootcamp, to be held online September 22-24.  

The event offers training on the three OSTrails pillars - Data Management Plans, Scientific Knowledge Graphs, and FAIR Assessment. It aims to provide participants with the opportunity to work directly with the teams developing the OSTrails tools and services, while gaining a practical understanding of implementation requirements, integration workflows and training approaches. 

The bootcamp is meant for OSTrails pilots, trainers, IT infrastructures managers, research support staff and data stewards from national infrastructures and research iInfrastructures (recruited from relevant competence centres and training initiatives of the European Research Area and ESFRI RIs). 

Participation in the bootcamp is free of charge but requires prior registration. Applications will be evaluated based on the information provided in the registration form, including motivation, expected impact, and future plans for applying the knowledge gained during the training.

Participants are expected to have some prior knowledge of the main OSTrails topics and to plan training activities on these topics within their communities.

The first edition of this bootcamp, held in March 2026, was exclusively aimed at OSTrails pilots. This second edition, however, is open to the wider community. You can explore the main outcomes of the first edition in this news item.

Registrations close on 3 July 2026.

Applicants will be notified by 13 July 2026 whether their application has been accepted. 

Application form: https://forms.office.com/e/PnfH5VL0LB  

The OSTrails consortium held its General Assembly on 23-24 March in Braga, bringing together partners to review progress and align on the next phase of the project. The meeting marked a clear transition from framework development towards initial implementation across pilots

Discussions covered project results, pilot activities, technical readiness and capacity-building efforts, all framed within the broader objective of supporting interoperable and FAIR research practices across Europe.

Key Outcomes

The meeting confirmed that OSTrails is delivering tangible results that are actively used by the 41 partner organisations, highlighting the real-world impact, usefulness, and value of the outputs generated. The emphasis is now on supporting pilots in adopting and integrating the project’s outputs within their communities, ensuring that these are tested, validated, and effectively used in their diverse settings.

A strong position of the project at the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Federation was also highlighted during the discussions. OSTrails interoperability frameworks are already being adopted by several EOSC Nodes (e.g. PaNOSC, CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd) as important components for enabling Federation capabilities for planning, tracking and assessing knowledge production. In this context, long-term sustainability remains a key priority, with continued development and consolidation of OSTrails Commons, and the importance of governance approaches supported by community endorsement.

Year 2 has delivered a substantial set of results across the project’s core areas. In the FAIR domain, the project has developed and released multiple frameworks and services, supported by FAIR metrics and the publication of FAIR-related resources on platforms such as GitHub. Seven services have already adopted FAIR-IF components, with five partners actively using DCAT application profiles and one external platform having migrated to the framework.

In the DMP, work has progressed on machine-actionable Data Management Plans, including the development of application profiles, APIs, and alignment with RDA Common Standards. For scientific knowledge graphs, SKG-IF has been implemented across multiple infrastructures, including APIs and extensions. A validation and tagging framework have also been introduced, supported by an open-source graph-agnostic tool and a proposed registry of norms with persistent identifiers.

The project has also demonstrated strong outreach impact, reaching multiple stakeholders across Europe and beyond, with project outputs widely accessed through Zenodo.

A Look Back: What We Discussed

• PTA Pathways & Interoperability Reference Architecture

Participants emphasised that while the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable – Interoperability Framework (FAIR-IF), Data Management Plan – Interoperability Framework (DMP-IF), and Scientific Knowledge Graph – Interoperability Framework (SKG-IF) are now well-developed, their real value will depend on how easily they can be applied in practice. Improving usability and providing clearer, more concrete guidance for pilot implementations were identified as essential next steps to ensure these frameworks effectively support reuse, standardisation, and system integration.

Building on this, discussions focused on advancing interoperability through concrete implementation efforts across pilots and services, where integration is already underway to combine FAIR assessment, machine-actionable DMPs, and SKG technologies into operational workflows. For example, DMP tools are being connected via APIs to enable automated creation and updating of plans, FAIR assessment services are being embedded into metadata harvesting pipelines, and SKG components are being used to link datasets, publications, and services within research infrastructures.

Several concrete tools and services were highlighted throughout the sessions. These include FAIRassist, used for the creation and discovery of FAIR metrics and benchmarks, FAIR Champion, which currently include two registered tests that serve as the first validation tools, and the broader FAIR metrics ecosystem, which now comprises 85 active metrics. In the DMP domain, tools such as DSW and ARGOS are being updated to support the DMP Common Standards, including API-based workflows and integration of the DMP Evaluator as a service. For scientific knowledge graphs, infrastructures such as ROHub, OpenAIRE, CESSDA, CLARIN, and OpenCitations are already implementing SKG-IF components and APIs.

At the same time, these discussions highlighted opportunities to further strengthen the solutions being developed. Ongoing efforts are focusing on enhancing usability, improving metadata quality through more robust harvesting and validation approaches, and refining how technical concepts are translated into clear, user-facing guidance, key steps to support broader adoption and more effective use across diverse research communities.

• Pilot Progress

National pilots, such as those in Poland, Finland, Spain, and Sweden, are focusing on large-scale coordination across institutions, repositories, CRIS systems, and national infrastructures. For instance, the Spanish pilot now aggregates metadata from 191 repositories and has implemented validation mechanisms and controlled vocabularies for DMP, resulting in nationwide DMP publication coverage. The Finnish pilot is developing a national maDMP template designed to be applicable across approximately 60 organisations.

In parallel, thematic pilots, including Marine and Coastal Science, Social Sciences and Humanities, and Astronomy, are integrating OSTrails components directly into disciplinary workflows. These include the use of SKG editors, DMP APIs, FAIR assessment tools, and knowledge graph infrastructures to support research processes, metadata enrichment, and data publication pipelines.

Capacity Building

Capacity building is a central component of OSTrails, designed to support adoption, knowledge transfer, and long-term sustainability of project results (https://ostrails.eu/training).

The project is to develop a structured set of activities that include a training library, online courses, factsheets, a train-the-trainer bootcamp, and a mentorship programme. The training library serves as a central repository for reusable materials, while online courses focus on practical topics such as DMPs and machine-actionable workflows. Additional materials will be produced including how-to guides that provide structured and targeted information on how to use the OSTrails software, tools and services.

Immediately following the meeting, OSTrails delivered its first Train-the-Trainer Bootcamp on 25 March in Braga, marking an important step as the project moves into its implementation phase. The Bootcamp focused on equipping organisations, trainers, and pilot partners to act as multipliers, supporting wider adoption of OSTrails results.

Across all these activities, sustainability is a key consideration. Materials are being made available through existing infrastructures to ensure that capacity-building efforts are practical, accessible, and aligned with the needs of pilots and stakeholders.

Conclusions

The General Assembly confirmed that OSTrails is now firmly in its implementation phase, with strong foundations in place across FAIR, DMP, and SKG interoperability frameworks. The immediate focus is on supporting pilot implementations while advancing upcoming deliverables and milestones.

Work will continue implementing APIs and strengthening interoperability, alongside hands-on support for pilots adopting OSTrails tools and services. Ensuring that these solutions are practical, well-documented, and effectively integrated into real-world environments will be a shared priority across partners.

Capacity-building efforts will expand through training courses, bootcamps, and supporting materials, helping communities adopt and apply the project’s outputs. At the same time, attention to user support and long-term sustainability will remain central to maximising impact.

By aligning technical development with community engagement and structured support, OSTrails is well positioned to contribute to a more interoperable and FAIR-aligned research ecosystem.

The General Assembly also provided a valuable opportunity for partners to meet in person, exchange ideas, and strengthen collaboration across the consortium. Bringing the team together reinforces the shared commitment to the project’s goals and supports the collective effort to promote OSTrails solutions and maximise their impact across the research ecosystem.