EPOS launches the European Portal for Open and Integrated Access to Multidisciplinary Scientific Data for Solid Earth Sciences

The platform “EPOS Data Portal” will be presented at the EGU General Assembly 2023 and will allow scientists, students and stakeholders to access multidisciplinary scientific data and products for understanding Earth dynamics

[Rome, 19ht April 2023]

After more than 20 years of research and innovation, on 25 April EPOS (European Plate Observing System), the European research infrastructure for solid Earth science, will officially present its Data Portal to the scientific community which will gather in Vienna and online for the annual General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union 2023 (EGU23).

Born in 2007 with the aim of developing a long-term integration plan for sharing scientific data and products, EPOS has integrated around 150 national research organizations from 25 European countries into a single distributed infrastructure. In 2018 EPOS obtained the legal status of ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) from the European Commission.

“The EPOS vision is to promote open science by sharing multidisciplinary solid Earth science data and products to foster research and innovation; this has guided us in the creation of the Data Portal that we will present on 25 April in Vienna”, explains Lilli Freda, Executive Director of EPOS ERIC.

“The unprecedented amount of data, products and services made available by the EPOS Data Portal for a large spectrum of users (scientific community, institutions, political decision- makers) promotes the progress of research for a better understanding of the physical and chemical processes governing natural phenomena of the Earth system such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.

“EPOS is the first and only European research infrastructure for solid Earth science”, continues Freda, “and it will help not only researchers, but also national governments in identifying tools for the mitigation of natural hazards, as well as promoting investments in research and innovation”.

EPOS Data Portal is the result of collective work. Over the last twenty years, an international team of about 600 experts has worked in synergy on the integration and harmonization of over 60 types of metadata from the various disciplines that make up the solid Earth sciences enabling interoperability.

Participants of the EGU General Assembly will be able to see the results of this commitment by visiting the EPOS stand, using the Data Portal and attending the presentation of case studies developed by young researchers.

About EPOS

The EPOS architecture is based on four main elements.

⮚ National Research Infrastructures: these are the foundations of the EPOS architecture, where the scientific data integrated in EPOS are generated.

⮚ Thematic Core Services (TCS): these represent the governance level of the various scientific communities (Seismology, Near-Fault Observatories, Volcano Observations, Satellite Data, Geomagnetic Observations, Anthropogenic Hazards, Geological Information and Modeling, Multi-Scale Laboratories, Tsunami, GNSS Data & Products), where data produced by national infrastructures are standardized to ensure integrated access.
⮚ Integrated Core Services (ICS): this is the new e-infrastructure developed by EPOS for accessing integrated data, products and services through the Data Portal.
⮚ European Consortium of Research Infrastructure EPOS ERIC: this is the legal entity established in 2018 to coordinate the entire European research infrastructure. It is based in Rome, at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), and it currently involves seventeen countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and The United Kingdom; Germany and Switzerland participate as observers.

Save the date:

EPOS ERIC Data Portal launch event

Tuesday 25 April, 19:00, Room E2 @Austria Center Vienna - EPOS Townhall “Introducing EPOS Data Portal” (further information here).

Furthermore, from 24 to 28 April, the EPOS community will meet scientists from all geoscience disciplines at the EPOS booth (Exhibition Gallery Green Level 1 - 111/112/113).

The event will be part of the initiatives organised on the occasion of the EGU23 Annual

General Meeting.

#EPOS #ERIC #EGU23 #DataPortal #research

The Data Portal User Interface — Figure 1: EPOS Data Portal functions and services

EPOS ERIC Partnerships — Figure 2: EPOS members (dark green), observers (light green), and countries included in the integration plan but not in EPOS-ERIC (red)