Launch of EOSC-ENTRUST - driving European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis
The EU-funded EOSC-ENTRUST project was launched on 1 March 2024, with the aim of enhancing European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis. Led by ELIXIR and the EUDAT Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI), the project brings together partners from 15 European countries and will run for three years, with an EU contribution of €4.2M. CESSDA is proud to be a part of this endeavour!
EOSC-ENTRUST Mission
EOSC-ENTRUST will build a European network of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) for sensitive data and develop a common blueprint, or reference architecture, for federated data access and analysis. TREs provide secure platforms for handling sensitive datasets, enabling data privacy and legal compliance in research involving confidential information.
Europe's landscape of TREs is currently fragmented, presenting challenges in access and management for researchers and providers. The variety of systems and procedures complicates research efforts, and there is a pressing need for a unified approach to managing federated access across differing technologies and governance frameworks.
Collaborative Approach of EOSC-ENTRUST
EOSC-ENTRUST brings together providers of operational TREs from 15 European countries with a shared goal to implement, validate and promote their capabilities through a common European framework using shared standards and common legal, operational and technical language.
Creating an Interoperability Blueprint
The project will create a reference architecture for interoperability, based on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Interoperability Framework, to address legal, organisational, technical and semantic interoperability aspects. It includes driver projects in genomics, clinical trials, social science, and public-private partnerships to test and refine this blueprint and facilitate secure data analysis through federated workflows.
Targeted outreach activities will expand the provider network and develop policy papers and guidelines to create a long-term operational TRE framework within EOSC.
EOSC-ENTRUST will work closely with the SIESTA and TITAN projects, funded in the same call, to provide trusted environments for sensitive data management in EOSC.
Peter Maccallum, ELIXIR’s Chief Technical Officer and Coordinator of EOSC-ENTRUST, said “We are delighted to launch the EOSC-ENTRUST project, and look forward to working with Europe’s TRE providers and wider sensitive data community to produce an interoperability blueprint to enable biomolecular and biomedical research involving sensitive data”.
CESSDA Contribution to the project
CESSDA, along with its Service Providers from Hungary (TARKI), Germany (GESIS), and the UK (UKDS), represents the Social Sciences sector and will provide their trusted research environment capabilities and expertise to inform legal, operational, and technical specifications. They will also identify and promote common standards to enable sensitive data sharing by testing and expanding the framework set in past and present transnational projects such as SSHOC.
Contact Information and Further Details
Contact: grants@elixir-europe.org
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