Building a Global Open Science Cloud
Global Open Science Cloud (GOSC) aims to connect various international, national and regional research infrastructures to create a global digital environment for borderless research and innovation. It aims to make it easy for scientists to access cross-continent digital resources in order to resolve global challenges, such as pandemics, the climate and biodiversity crises, and challenges identified in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The idea to co-design and co-build a Global Open Science Cloud (GOSC) was proposed during the International Science Council’s CODATA Beijing Conference in 2019. Later, seed funding from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was granted to the Computer Network Information Center of CAS for international collaboration. To further help make the initiative global, the GOSC was taken as one of the first elements of the ISC CODATA Decadal Program ‘Making Data Work for Cross Domain Grand Challenges’.
A GOSC Steering Group has been established to provide continuous guidance for the initiative. Four thematic Working Groups address strategy, governance and sustainability,policy and legal factors,technical infrastructure,and data interoperability. There are five selected Case Studies covering space physics, biodiversity, Earth Sciences, population health and pandemic-related topics.
Techniques and platform development include CSTCloud AAI and CSTCLoud federation to facilitate the flow of research resources to support science discovery. CNIC, CODATA and their strategic partners will provide integrated cloud services adaptive to disciplinary scenarios and will continue to collaborate with major existing infrastructures and international organizations, research institutions and universities to help further enrich the GOSC framework and to support global research cooperation based on mutual trust and mechanisms for an open-ended global research ecosystem.
The international community will jointly promote the construction of the Global Open Science Cloud, realize the interconnections between local and international open science clouds, and build the Global Open Science Cloud into an accelerator and multiplier supporting global scientific and technological innovation ().
Contributed by Jinxia Huang, National Science Library of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jianhui Li, Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences.