The second OSCARS Open Call for Open Science Projects and Services has concluded, with 12 projects selected for funding from 710 eligible applications, a strong response that underscores the research community’s engagement with the OSCARS programme.

Despite a residual budget of €3 million, the call attracted 746 submissions (compared to 264 in the first call), requesting a total of €173 million. This demonstrates the high demand for funding opportunities supporting Open Science and FAIR data practices.

Proposals came from 67 countries, with 25% of coordinating organisations based outside the EU. The selected projects span the five scientific domains represented in the OSCARS consortium; astronomy and particle physics, environmental sciences, life sciences, photon and neutron science, and social sciences and humanities. Nine projects are linked to a Science Cluster, two are cross-cluster, and one comes from a new domain.

In total, 31 organisations across 11 countries will participate in the funded projects, most of them from academia and research institutions. All projects will run for 24 months, with the majority requesting contributions above €200,000.

The evaluation was conducted by an Independent Evaluation Committee composed of scientists and FAIR data experts, following strict conflict-of-interest procedures. The OSCARS Project Management Board verified the process and finalised the ranking, with the Science Clusters Board confirming the final selection.

Funding agreements are expected to be completed by late November or early December 2025.

Together with the 58 projects funded through the first call, OSCARS has now supported 70 initiatives driving data-intensive research and advancing Open Science across disciplines. The high interest and diversity of proposals confirm the relevance of small- to medium-scale, low-overhead grants in enabling researchers to contribute to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

All funded projects are available and browsable here.