All Horizon Europe Partnerships must formulate a reference monitoring framework, based on the general, specific, and operational objectives of their strategic agendas, allowing the progress to be tracked, towards achieving the specific Partnership goals.
Such monitoring frameworks focus on Partnership-specific objectives and indicators, while being comparable, in terms of standards and methodology. The proposed frameworks are meant to allow for a low-burden assessment of the community achievements and their impact, over time, as well as the potential need for corrective measures.
Progress towards EOSC-specific policy objectives and deliverables is tracked through a series of monitoring systems, including:
- Additional Activities planning and reporting, which anticipates the annual in-kind contributions of the EOSC-A membership to the EOSC Partnership, and reports on their delivery; and
- Monitoring of the EOSC Partnership’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as defined in the Monitoring Framework.
Full Monitoring Report, June 2021-June 2023
Approved by the EOSC Partnership Board December 2023
Additional Activities: Planning and reporting
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Co-Programmed European Partnership for EOSC, Additional Activities are defined as the in-kind or financial contributions from EOSC Association members towards the objectives described by the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). The contributions should cover only these activities which are not funded by the European Union (except for EC Structural funds as well as Recovery and Resilience Facility funds).
As the MoU highlights, contributions of EOSC-A Members to Additional Activities are subject to continuous monitoring and periodic reporting. The Association is committed to establish every year:
- An Additional Activities Plan (AAP), which is subsequently approved by the Partnership Board; and
- To report annually on the previously agreed and provided contributions in order to produce a Partnership Board-certified Additional Activities Report (AAR).
Information obtained on the EOSC-A Members’ in-kind financial contributions to Additional Activities is essential to shape data-driven policy and to demonstrate that the Members of the Association are progressing towards the objectives set out by the SRIA.
Additional Activities Plan 2024
Value: €335 million
Status: Approved by the 5th Partnership Board meeting, December 2023
The AAP 2024 brings the total amount of planned and actual in-kind contributions between 2022-2024 to €1 billion.
Additional Activities Plan 2023
Value: €383 million
Status: Approved by the 4th Partnership Board meeting, December 2022
Additional Activities Report 2022
Value: €292 million
Status: Approved by the 5th Partnership Board meeting, December 2023
Additional Activities Plan 2022
(superseded by AAR 2022)
Value: €312 million
Status: Approved by 3rd Partnership Board meeting, April 2022
KPI Monitoring
A monitoring framework of the KPIs for the EOSC Partnership was pre-defined in the EOSC Partnership’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and committed to in the EOSC Partnership’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This initial monitoring framework was further refined through iterations between the Association and the EC.
The official EOSC Partnership’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MF) was adopted on 7 April 2022, during the 3rd EOSC Partnership Board meeting. The MF addresses three General Objectives, nine Specific Objectives and 14 Operational Objectives from those pre-defined in the SRIA 2021 and committed to in the MoU.
KPIs
In the MF, each operational and strategic objective is accompanied and to be monitored by a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), against KPI-specific target values and timelines. In total, there are 15 KPIs related to the Specific Objectives and 19 KPIs associated with the Operational Objectives. Each KPI is also accompanied by the description of the identifiable sources of information, as well as of the potential information provider/s. Each table thus identifies a data stream, from data source to data collection, including data reporting responsibilities.
The MF also includes the EOSC Partnership Glossary.
Implementation
The monitoring of the EOSC Partnership KPIs was carried out for the first time in November 2022. A survey was distributed among EOSC-A Members, with the aim to establish the baseline value for all the KPIs, referred to the year 2021.
The information collected returns the picture of a resourceful environment, with institutional policies on data sharing and reuse either aligned with EU priorities or progressing in this direction. As an outcome, the partners demonstrate an advanced “EOSC-readiness” in terms of documented standards and protocols for data sharing and reuse, and rapid progress towards immediate open access to publications.
On the other hand, during the reporting period there have been no operational MVE core functions implemented (the EOSC EU node is planned to become operational in 2024), and the interoperability framework is still fragmented.
The desired impact is starting to materialise in terms of making open science the new normal, with Research Infrastructures acting as “champions”, and countries starting to insert the Open Science dimension into their educational curriculum offerings.
The fuller impact of the EOSC initiative can only materialise once the EOSC EU Node is operational, with a federation of service providers and users benefiting from it.
For any questions regarding the EOSC Partnership’s Additional Activities and Monitoring Framework, please contact our Monitoring Team.
Reports
