Launch of EOSC-ENTRUST – Driving European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis
March 26, 2024

On 18-19 March, the kick-off of the EOSC-ENTRUST initiative was held in Amsterdam, connecting different partner organisations to drive forward European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis. The EU-funded ESOC-ENTRUST project is led by ELIXIR and the EUDAT Collaborative Data Infrastructure (CDI), bringing together partners from 15 European countries, during its three-year-span. The initiative is funded by a €4.2M EU contribution.

“EOSC-ENTRUST brings together two major data centric infrastructures, EUDAT and ELIXIR. With our experience and international networks, we will address the growing multidisciplinary demand for secure digital environments by orchestrating European-wide coordination and interfaces with other EU organisations and initiatives like EOSC and the European Data Spaces,” explains Yann Le Franc, Head of the EUDAT secretariat.

Building a European netwo`rk of Trusted Research Environments

EOSC-ENTRUST will build a European network of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) for sensitive data and develop a common blueprint 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.

The current landscape of TREs in Europe is fragmented, which presents 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. EOSC-ENTRUST brings together providers of operational TREs from 15 European countries. Their shared goal is to implement, validate and promote their capabilities through a common European framework using shared standards and common legal, operational and technical language.

“ELIXIR Luxembourg will participate in the TREs Provider Forum to exchange expertise and good practices for the common interoperability blueprint, to advance convergence of TREs implementations and to contribute to an updated set of requirements for the architecture and technology team,” details Dr Wei Gu, Scientific Coordinator and Deputy Head of Node at ELIXIR Luxembourg

A reference architecture for interoperability

The EOSC-ENTRUST initiative aims to 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 and social science, as well as 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 TREs framework within EOSC. To provide trusted environments for sensitive data management in EOSC, this initiative will work closely with two other projects, SIESTA and TITAN, funded in the same call.

Value in cross-border networks and initiatives

“We are delighted to launch the EOSC-ENTRUST project and look forward to working with Europe’s TREs providers and wider sensitive data community to produce an interoperability blueprint to enable biomolecular and biomedical research involving sensitive data,” concludes Peter Maccallum, ELIXIR’s Chief Technical Officer and Coordinator of EOSC-ENTRUST.

Find out more on the EOSC ENTRUST website

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