The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Future along with the Research Data Alliance (RDA) have opened a call for Domain Ambassadors in the context of EOSC. Establishing a network of experts is a critical step for the EOSC Future project in fostering the scientific discipline and domain specific support and engagement, with the goal of explaining and clarifying the benefits of EOSC to new and underrepresented scientific communities.

Grants of a maximum of €7,500 are offered which target recognised domain experts and skilled communicators, to serve as a means of connection between the RDA, EOSC Future and the wider domain specific communities they belong to. By ensuring this communication and knowledge exchange, the grants will support the building of awareness-raising around the work and outputs of EOSC Future and also aim to help discipline experts grow their network and collaborate with like-minded people and organisations via the RDA. Successful applications should ensure that benefits are brought back to the disciplinary communities and the domain specific needs and input are streamlined into the work supporting the development of EOSC.

The Improving Global Agricultural Data (IGAD) Community of Practice members are strongly encouraged to apply, to further enable the integration and uptake of EOSC services and more widely support advancements in terms of research data interoperability, management and sharing and the adoption of Open Science best practices. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2022 at 4:00 p.m. CET.

What are the tasks involved?

• Further strengthen the outreach activities within EOSC Future, e.g. widening the user base, outreach to potential users.  
• Bring discipline expertise to EOSC Future outreach groups, to feed into activities to pilot, design and implement EOSC.  
• Act as multipliers across disciplinary networks, at regional, national and thematic level.  
• Present EOSC at community-related webinars (where applicable).  
• Assess the level of awareness and engagement of their community in the EOSC, highlighting the barriers and the potential ways bridges can be built e.g. via RDA WG / IG, RDA Communities of Practices, existing connections to Science Clusters, etc.  
• Actively contribute to defining and promoting what EOSC Future and EOSC have to offer to their specific domain / discipline community (-ies) (e.g. via RDA domain specific WG / IGs presentations, webinars, training sessions, survey, etc.).
• Document domain specific use cases that highlight the benefits of EOSC in a disciplinary context specific to the Ambassador´s community (e.g. how to address a specific need, a needed thematic service, increasing the value of disciplinary datasets if made available through EOSC, etc.).
• Document the RDA outputs and recommendations as connectors or enablers between disciplinary communities and the EOSC.  

Applicants will be asked to provide a plan for their ambassadorial work highlighting how the envisioned activities will help clarify the accessibility and benefits of the EOSC to their specific community, will support awareness raising and engagement and impact not only the community practices, but will in the longer term also help make a significant contribution in the context of EOSC.  

Criteria and conditions   

• Applicants should be working on the vanguard of data or research infrastructure activities in a specific research domain or cluster of domains;
• Be involved in RDA as active member, participant, chair, or contributor to RDA WG / IG activities, recommendations and outputs, especially in the past 12 to 18 months;
• Operate as an influencer and have the ability to recruit collaborators across different segments of the community, particularly within their domain/discipline specific community(-ies);
• Have a good understanding of the European Data Infrastructures landscape, including initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud, EOSC Association working groups, the FAIR movement, knowledge of the Open Science agenda, and how these intend to evolve in Europe;
• Reside and/or work in an EU country or associate countries.      

Learn more about the open call or apply here: https://eoscfuture-grants.eu/provider/research-data-alliance/rda-open-call-rda-eosc-future-domain-ambassadors-.