A new opinion paper on EOSC as a common good by the EOSC Steering Board expert group has been published today.
In this opinion paper, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Steering Board reflects on whether EOSC truly embodies the ideal of a common good. In this respect, EOSC appears to have a hybrid nature. It brings together both excludable and non-excludable services – some accessible to all users, others restricted. Furthermore, despite the non-rivalrous nature of FAIR datasets, the infrastructures and technologies required to access and interpret them impose certain usage limitations. This can lead to disparities within the potential user community, limiting the broader impact of EOSC on Open Science. The opinion paper therefore concludes with recommendations to adopt measures that will increase the inclusiveness of EOSC.