Life Science in EOSC: Summary of EOSC-Life impact and key results

"EOSC-Life is building a digital space for the life sciences" with the following project goals:

1. Establish EOSC-Life by publishing FAIR life science data resources for cloud use
2. Create an ecosystem of innovative life-science tools in EOSC
3. Enable ground-breaking data driven research in Europe by connecting life scientists to EOSC

This deliverable summarises the results across all work packages in EOSC-Life achieved in the first two years. The three goals have been addressed by activities across all work packages in the first half of the project:

• Populating the EOSC with data
  • EOSC-Life is supporting in total 16 projects (8 pre-selected and 8 granted following an Open Call for proposals) to deploy their datasets in the cloud implementing FAIR metrics.
  • A call across Life Science Research Infrastructure (LS RI) facilities selected 8 major data resources for "cloudification" and incorporation into EOSC.
  • In answer to the COVID-19 crises two newly added work packages in EOSC-Life are extending the COVID-19 Data Portal and are developing a COVID-19 Clinical Trial Data Repository.
  • The project is developing supporting tools to ensure that data publication meets ethical and legal requirements. Existing solutions and requirements have been documented and form the basis of the continually developed "Sensitive data toolkit" for the LS RI and their users.
  • Access to data and cloud services will be underpinned by a shared federated authentication and authorisation infrastructure (Life Science AAI) including step-up security for controlled data access.
• Packaging tools and workflows for use in the cloud
  • The WorkflowHub has been developed, which is a registry of scientific workflows to make them more findable. In response to the pandemic the focus has been shifted to COVID-19 workflows.
• Cloud deployment and cloud resources
  • A helpdesk system for cloud deployment and cloud resources has been set up, following a support procedure to offer consistent answers to all users.
• Providing access
  • The Life Science Login (LS AAI) has been initiated, giving access and access management rights built on existing identities.
• Connecting users
  • 2 Open Calls for user projects have been published, offering support for researchers to deploy their data, tools and workflows in the cloud.
• Informing & training users
  • Guidelines and tools have been developed to support researchers and RI staff to go FAIR.
  • Open Calls have been organised to fill gaps in existing training courses by offering support for the creation of training material and the development and implementation of training activities.
  • Training events and a remote learning series have been organised supporting RIs in transferring their face-to-face training to a remote setting.

The legacies of EOSC-Life—parts of the future EOSC—include skills, new capabilities and networks of experts as well as the experience and processes for consolidated RI service delivery.