From March 26–28, 2025, the Austria Center Vienna hosted the 2nd Austrian Library Congress under the banner “Libraries: democratic – diverse – sustainable”. The event brought together a wide-ranging community of information professionals, researchers, policymakers, and infrastructure providers, highlighting the multifaceted role of libraries in the age of digital transformation. Hot topics included the growing impact of artificial intelligence in the sector, the future of research communication, inclusivity & accessibility, open access, and, of course, Open Science.

OSTrails was proud to contribute to this dynamic exchange of ideas. Represented by Daniel Spichtinger (University of Vienna), OSTrails presented its vision and early implementation steps toward a more integrated and FAIR-aligned research data ecosystem. His talk, "Improving digital research data management: the OSTrails project", was part of a series of forward-looking contributions tackling the transformation of scholarly infrastructure.

Tackling Fragmentation in Research Data Management

At the core of OSTrails is a recognition of the inefficiencies in current research data management (RDM) practices across Europe. While the FAIR principles are widely accepted as the de facto standard for good RDM, practical implementation remains uneven and often siloed. OSTrails aims to address the currently existing fragmentation in data management based on its Plan-Track-Assess (PTA) framework:

• PLAN: Increase the efficacy of DMPs and reach more researcher-centric, educative, and integrated “machine actionable” DMPs (maDMPs).
• TRACK: Establish an open, interoperable and high quality SKG ecosystem of different types of research products, their relationships and metrics for evaluation.
• ASSESS: Deliver modular and extendable FAIR tests, to make metrics “machine actionable”, complemented by user guidance.

Pilots: Testing in the Real World

One of OSTrails' strengths lies in its broad and diverse pilot structure. The project encompasses 15 national, 8 thematic, and one Horizon Europe pilot, tailored to the specific needs and infrastructures of their research communities. A survey conducted in the first year of the project among the national pilots showcased the different local requirements and needs and priorities of the national pilots. Consequently, the pilots address a number of different use cases, related to the PTA framework.The Austrian pilot, in which TU Graz, TU Wien and the University of Vienna (including AUSSDA and PHAIDRA) participate, will extend DMP tools, support researchers in the creation of discipline-specific DMPs, and check the digital objects for the FAIR principles. These efforts directly align with national needs and policies, while contributing to the broader European Open Science framework envisioned by the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

Libraries as Connectors and Enablers

A recurring theme throughout the congress was the centrality of libraries in shaping future research practices—especially around data stewardship, digital literacy, and inclusivity. OSTrails underscores this by highlighting the role libraries play in supporting machine-actionable DMPs, developing community-specific metadata standards, and embedding FAIR assessment tools into everyday workflows.

As institutions that sit at the intersection of research and infrastructure, libraries are uniquely positioned to support—and in many cases lead—the adoption of OSTrails outputs. The project actively collaborates with library-based services and works to lower adoption barriers through open resources and transparent interoperability protocols.

Looking Ahead

Although the OS trails pilots officially kick off in July 2025, many have already started preparatory work. As OSTrails continues to scale and refine its technical components, the project remains committed to a collaborative, community-driven approach. Tools and insights developed through the pilots will be made openly available via the OSTrails Commons

For more information on the project and its tools, visit:

• https://ostrails.eu/
• https://ostrails.eu/tools-overview
• https://ostrails.eu/deliverables
• https://docs.ostrails.eu/en/latest/

—Written by Dominik Denk fron  University of Vienna (UNIVIE)

On 12 March 2025, OSTrails hosted a series of high-impact hackathons in Athens, held just prior to its General Assembly. These full-day events convened developers and domain experts from across scientific clusters and research infrastructure communities to collaboratively advance Data Management Planning (DMP) Platforms, Scientific Knowledge Graphs (SKG), and FAIR Assessment Tools, that are vital for effective research data management and sharing.

Equipped with the Plan-Track-Assess (PTA) Framework, the hackathon brought together experts and service providers from well-established research data management platforms, both within the consortium and beyond, to build on this progress and test key components in practice.

DMP-IF Hackathon: Laying the Groundwork for a Common maDMP API 

The DMP Hackathon gathered international developers and service providers, including platforms from the consortium and several from outside Europe. The event focused on advancing machine-actionable Data Management Plans (maDMPs) by fostering collaboration around two key objectives: 1) Maintaining the Research Data Alliance DMP Common Standard (RDA DMP CS), 2) Initiating work on a Common maDMP API specification.

As outlined in the OSTrails Architecture, the DMP-IF aims to meet funder and community needs by extending the RDA DMP CS data model, while enabling real-time communication between systems through the introduction of a new Application Profile Interfaces (APIs). In this context, the maintenance of the RDA DMP CS was a key focus during the hackathon, with discussions centred on improving date handling, identifier usage, and specification governance—resulting in concrete proposals to be submitted to the RDA Working Group for inclusion in the standard. In parallel, participants reviewed existing APIs and user requirements, drafted a shared API design based on maDMPs, and agreed to continue development through close collaboration within the newly established RDA group.

Developers exchanging ideas at the DMP IF Hackathon

SKG-IF Hackathon: Advancing Interoperability for Scientific Knowledge Graphs 

The SKG-IF Hackathon brought together prominent SKG services and infrastructure providers onboarded in OSTrails to advance interoperability through hands-on experimentation with the SKG-IF OpenAPI specification and metadata model. The session focused on mapping institutional data to the SKG-IF model and exploring its capacity to accommodate diverse research outputs.

Building on the RDA SKG-IF core data model, OSTrails aims to enhance the framework with a flexible extension mechanism to support domain-specific entities—such as instruments and provenance information, while supporting seamless discovery and integration of graph data with the introduction of a new API. In this framework, the hackathon focused on validating the SKG-IF model through real-world data mapping and collected detailed feedback via the GitHub issue tracker. Key points included the identification of: 1) Gaps in the SKG-IF data model, such as missing fields, insufficient documentation, and the need for greater extensibility; 2) Issues in the OpenAPI specification, including unclear documentation and undefined field requirements.

The model’s scope was also extended to support a broader range of research products by introducing new product types aligned with community needs: literature, research data, and research software. Hackathon contributions fed directly into the roadmap of the RDA SKG-IF Working Group, supporting the finalisation of the specification.

 Hands-on collaboration during the SKG-IF Hackathon

FAIR-IF Hackathon: Making FAIR Assessments More Interoperable 

Running in parallel, the FAIR-IF Hackathon brought together developers from various FAIR-related tools, including those onboarded in the project as well as several external platforms. The focus was on aligning assessment services and harmonising API formats to improve interoperability across FAIR tools.

In the first part of the hackathon, participants discussed how key components of the FAIR-IF, such as benchmarks, could help ensure consistent outcomes with minimal or no manual curation. They also emphasised the need to harmonise APIs through standards such as OpenAPI and highlighted transparency and record provenance as essential for trust and reproducibility.

The second part of the hackathon was hands-on, building on these earlier discussions. It focused on API functionality and tool alignment, showing that the proposed common API structure provided a solid foundation for implementation, integration, and mapping across existing tools—advancing interoperability within the FAIR-IF ecosystem.

Insights from the FAIR-IF Hackathon

 Looking Ahead 

These hackathons not only advanced technical developments but also reaffirmed OSTrails' commitment to open collaboration across diverse research domains and settings. By bringing together experts from across Europe and beyond, OSTrails is setting the stage for truly interoperable research infrastructures.

Learn more about the OSTrails Architecture and Interoperability Frameworks by exploring our blog, reading the documentation, and watching the Interoperability Webinar Series

Stay tuned for upcoming events and learn more about future OSTrails hackathons by visiting our page: OSTrails Hackathons.

On 15 April 2024, OSTrails hosted its first public webinar, bringing together over 100 participants from across the research community. The session introduced the project’s goals, early results, and ways to get involved in shaping how research planning, tracking, and assessment can be improved.

"This first webinar was an important milestone for us. After months of work, we were finally able to share early results and open the door for others to get involved."
— Elli Papadopoulou, Athena Research Center / OSTrails Deputy Coordinator

Plan-Track-Assess (PTA) Framework: Addressing the Silos in Research Data Management

Research today relies on many separate systems. The same information is often re-entered in different tools, and outputs are difficult to follow or assess. OSTrails addresses these issues by connecting workflows, reducing duplication, and supporting reuse and visibility of research outputs.

The project builds a unified framework that:

• Assists researchers in reducing repetitive tasks and improving data management.
• Supports institutions in ensuring compliance and facilitating data reuse.
• Enables funders and policymakers to obtain consistent and reliable metrics on FAIR and Open Science practices.

Elli Papadopoulou presenting the OSTrails toolkit.

Two Pilots, One Message: This Works!

Two pilot initiatives were featured during the webinar to show what the PTA Framework looks like when in action for different organisations:

• In the Dutch National Pilot, led by CWTS and SURF, institutions are working with dynamic Data Management Plans (DMPs) embedded in their systems, cutting repetition and improving coordination across teams. The pilot highlights the Netherlands’ diverse and decentralised research data management (RDM) landscape, and the need for machine-actionable (ma)DMP tooling that meets both broad Open Science goals and basic local administrative needs. The pilot focuses on aligning stakeholder interests at national and institutional levels—supporting researchers with domain-specific templates and administrators with integrated workflows that include RDM, privacy, and ethics reviews. It also explores different technical pathways to publish and connect maDMPs with other research outputs, including the use of Research Activity Identifiers (RAiDs) and links to local repositories or Zenodo.

Andrew Hoffman (CWTS) showcasing the Dutch National Pilot.

• In Photon and Neutron Science, researchers at ESRF are combining DMPs, metadata services, and FAIR assessment tools to better describe and evaluate their datasets.

Assessing and sharing datasets from ESFRIs using the PTA Framework, as presented by Renaud Duyme.

Those are only two examples of the twenty-four use cases through which OSTrails is testing and adapting the PTA Framework to streamline and automate processes.

From Design to Adoption: Supporting the People Who Make It Happen

The webinar also launched the OSTrails Mentorship Programme, which provides support for those already working on improving research workflows by helping them apply OSTrails tools in practice: IT staff, research support professionals, and policy officers.

Insights into the OSTrails training roadmap by Pedro Principe (UMinho).

Community Discussions

The discussion during the webinar showed strong interest in the work OSTrails is doing. Participants highlighted shared challenges like scattered tools, manual processes, and inconsistent planning, and welcomed the focus on making systems work better together. The event opened space for future collaboration and real-world application.

There were also many questions about how to get involved, especially through the OSTrails Mentorship Programme. The team shared resources on training opportunities, the mentorship call for mentees, and other upcoming events. As one participant put it:

“This is a great initiative—thank you for this mentoring programme.”

Check out the full webinar here.

The OSTrails Interoperability Reference Architecture V1 marks a major milestone in the project. It provides the foundation for making research tools interoperable, not just in theory but in practical, actionable ways that support real-world research workflows.

Key Takeaways

• Flexible architecture for connecting research tools 

• Three main components: DMP-IF, SKG-IF, FAIR-IF

• Useful for developers, system architects, and researchers 

• Built on the PTA Framework

• Ready for testing in real-world settings 

• Future updates informed by pilots and community feedback 

What is It?

The architecture defines a reference model, a technical blueprint for how tools involved in research data management, such as Data Management Platforms, Knowledge Graphs, FAIR Assessment Tools, and repositories should communicate. Rather than prescribing a fixed implementation, it offers a flexible framework that enables different tools to connect within a shared, interoperable ecosystem.

Who Is It For?

The architecture is intended for technical stakeholders, including tool developers, system architects, and research infrastructure teams, particularly those working within EOSC and Open Science environments. Its greatest benefit, however, lies with researchers, by improving how tools work together, reducing manual tasks, and simplifying the management, sharing, and reuse of research data.

Why Does It Matter?

When research tools use different standards, they are unable to interoperate effectively, slowing progress and increasing effort. The OSTrails architecture solves this by offering a shared way for systems to connect, which also helps avoid vendor lock-in. It supports automation for common tasks, like linking datasets or updating metadata, and is flexible enough to handle future needs, such as automatically updating a Data Management Plan when data is published.

What’s Inside Architecture?

The architecture is built around three core interoperability frameworks (IFs) that enable research tools to work together:

• DMP-IF simplifies the creation and updating of machine-actionable Data Management Plans using shared standards and APIs.

It leverages the existing RDA standard and adds an application profile to cover funder and community needs more precisely. OSTrails also introduces a new API that lets systems talk to each other in real time, for example, automatically updating a DMP when a dataset is published in a repository.

• SKG-IF enables knowledge graphs to exchange and enrich metadata in a consistent and structured way.

Using RDA SKG-IF Core Data Model as a foundation, OSTrails enhances it with a flexible extension mechanism to capture domain-specific entities like instruments and provenance information. A dedicated API is also being developed to enable seamless discovery and integration of graph data, helping connect research outputs, trace metadata evolution, and support automated updates to Data Management Plans.

• FAIR-IF defines how FAIR assessments are carried out and shared across systems, supporting quality checks between platforms such as DMP tools, repositories, and knowledge graphs.

Built on widely adopted standards like DCAT and DQV, OSTrails brings consistency to existing FAIR assessment tools by introducing a common output model for test results and a shared API structure. This ensures results can be easily compared across tools and reused in other systems.

OSTrails Reference Architecture and the Three Interoperability Frameworks: Orange: Elements covered by DMP-IF; Blue: Elements covered by SKG-IF; Green: Elements covered by FAIR-IF; Grey: Relevant elements not covered by OSTrails IFs (may follow existing or external standards).

Visit the official OSTrails documentation hub!

How Does It Work in Practice?

Imagine a researcher who wants to publish a dataset in an open-access repository to make it public, reusable, and properly documented. A number of helpful actions can be triggered automatically through the repository using the OSTrails IFs.

Diagram depicting interaction between components used in the example.

• To check the quality of the data and metadata, the system runs a FAIR assessment and provides useful feedback to the researcher by connecting to a FAIR Assessment Tool via FAIR-IF.

• To improve discoverability, the repository links the dataset to related publications by connecting to Knowledge Graphs through SKG-IF.

• Once the dataset is published, key details such as its location, identifier, and licence are automatically added to the project’s Data Management Plan using DMP-IF.

Diagram depicting communication between components used in the example.

With the support of the OSTrails Interoperability Frameworks, all of these steps happen seamlessly, enabling researchers to share high-quality, well-connected data with less effort.

What Stage Is It At?

The architecture has been collaboratively developed on top of the PTA Framework presented in Deliverable D1.1, which outlines practical steps and decision points for how different tools and services can adopt it. The reference model is now fully established. The next phase will focus on refinement through real-world applications, including collaborative work in Research Data Alliance Working Groups, OSTrails hackathons, and pilot implementations. These activities will inform updates scheduled for the first and third quarters of 2026, ensuring the architecture evolves based on practical experience and community input.

Read the full architecture deliverable!

Explore the PTA Framework!

Watch OSTrails webinars on interoperability!