Towards the European Open Science Cloud

The objective of this paper is to propose the establishment of the European Open Science Cloud that will

enable digital science by introducing IT as a Service to the public research sector in Europe. The rationale calls

for a hybrid model that brings together public research organisations and e‐Infrastructures with commercial

suppliers to build a common platform offering a range of services to Europe’s research communities. The

exploitation platform will make use of, and cooperate with, existing European e‐infrastructures by jointly

offering integrated services to the end‐user. This hybrid public‐commercial cloud model represents a

significant change from the status‐quo and will bring benefits for the stakeholders: end‐users, research

organisations, service providers (public and commercial) and funding agencies. A time‐line for a pilot and its

subsequent expansion together with a funding model engaging all stakeholder groups is described.