Setting the stage for the EPOS ERIC: Integration of the legal, governance and financial framework

Abstract

EPOS – the European Plate Observing System – is the ESFRI infrastructure serving the need of the solid Earth science community at large. The EPOS mission is to create a single sustainable, and distributed infrastructure that integrates the diverse European Research Infrastructures for solid Earth science under a common framework. Thematic Core Services (TCS) and Integrated Core Services (Central Hub, ICS-C and Distributed, ICS-D) are key elements, together with NRIs (National Research Infrastructures), in the EPOS architecture. Following the preparatory phase, EPOS has initiated formal steps to adopt an ERIC legal framework (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). The statutory seat of EPOS will be in Rome, Italy, while the ICS-C will be jointly operated by France, UK and Denmark. The TCS planned so far cover: seismology, near-fault observatories, GNSS data and products, volcano observations, satellite data, geomagnetic observations, anthropogenic hazards, geological information modelling, multiscale laboratories and geo-energy test beds for low carbon energy. In the ERIC process, EPOS and all its services must achieve sustainability from a legal, governance, financial, and technical point of view, as well as full harmonization with national infrastructure roadmaps. As EPOS is a distributed infrastructure, the TCSs have to be linked to the future EPOS ERIC from legal and governance perspectives. For this purpose the TCSs have started to organize themselves as consortia and negotiate agreements to define the roles of the different actors in the consortium as well as their commitment to contribute to the EPOS activities. The link to the EPOS ERIC shall be made by service agreements of dedicated Service Providers. A common EPOS data policy has also been developed, based on the general principles of Open Access and paying careful attention to licensing issues, quality control, and intellectual property rights, which shall apply to the data, data products, software and services (DDSS) accessible through EPOS. From a financial standpoint, EPOS elaborated common guidelines for all institutions providing services, and selected a costing model and funding approach which foresees a mixed support of the services via national contributions and ERIC membership fees. In the EPOS multi-disciplinary environment, harmonization and integration are required at different levels and with a variety of different stakeholders; to this purpose, a Service Coordination Board (SCB) and technical Harmonization Groups (HGs) were established to develop the EPOS metadata standards with the EPOS Integrated Central Services, and to harmonize data and product standards with other projects at European and international level, including e.g. ENVRI+, EUDAT and EarthCube (US).