Launch of EOSC-ENTRUST – driving European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis
This week, the kick-off of the EOSC-ENTRUST initiative was held in Amsterdam, connecting 35 different partner organisations to drive forward European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis. Since October 2023, LNDS is part of the ELIXIR structure as a part of the ELIXIR Luxembourg node, actively working to enhance trustable data interoperability across Europe.
The EU-funded ESOC-ENTRUST project launched Friday 1 March 2024. Its aim is to enhance European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis. The 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.
Building a European network of Trusted Research Environments (TRE)
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. The blueprint is also known as a reference architecture. 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.
Representing Luxembourg, LNDS will participate in the Trusted Research Environment (TRE) Provider Forum to exchange expertise and good practices for the common interoperability blueprint, to advance convergence of TRE implementations, and to contribute to an updated set of requirements for the architecture and technology team.
Wei Gu, Head of Service at LNDS and Scientific Coordinator and Deputy HoN 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, social science, and 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 TRE 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
In their press release, ELIXIR’s Chief Technical Officer and Coordinator of EOSC-ENTRUST, Peter Maccallum shares the excitement and value of the project for the community who work with sensitive data.
We are delighted to launch the EOSC-ENTRUST project, and look forward to working with Europe’s TRE providers and wider sensitive data community to produce an interoperability blueprint to enable biomolecular and biomedical research involving sensitive data.
Peter Maccallum, ELIXIR’s Chief Technical Officer and Coordinator of EOSC-ENTRUST
On the other hand, Head of the EUDAT secretariat, Yann Le Franc enhances the importance of bringing together two major European data centric infrastructures, EUDAT and ELIXIR through EOSC-ENTRUST.
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.
Yann Le Franc, Head of the EUDAT secretariat
Also for LNDS as one of the many organisations participating in this initiative, the European-level thinking is essential.
As we are developing our Secure Processing Environment service at LNDS, participating in the EOSC-ENTRUST initiative will support our services in technical interoperability with the EOSC ecosystem.
Wei Gu, Head of Service at LNDS and Scientific Coordinator and Deputy HoN at ELIXIR Luxembourg
Conclusively, driving European interoperability for sensitive data access and analysis is crucial for enabling value creation from secondary use of data, across nations.
This article is based on the press release by EOSC-ENTRUST.
Find out more: ESOC-ENTRUST website