Europe’s excellence in research, education, and innovation depends on the integrity and interoperability of its digital foundations.
At the opening panel of the EOSC Symposium 2025 from 3 to 5 November in Brussels, Mattias Björnmalm (Secretary General of CESAER), joined Robbert Dijkgraaf (President-elect of International Science Council), Maria Leptin (President of European Research Council), Klaus Tochtermann (President of EOSC Association), and Simon Pickard (Network Director at Science|Business) for a thought-provoking discussion on how the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and data sovereignty.
In his contribution, Björnmalm emphasised that Europe’s data and digital sovereignty in research and innovation must be grounded in the fundamental principles of research integrity — reliability, honesty, respect, and accountability. He underlined that this is the European approach, and that these principles are not abstract ideals but essential conditions for excellence and trust in science and technology, and for the societal and economic benefits they deliver.
Recent developments have shown how vulnerable Europe remains when its digital infrastructures depend critically on external actors. Earlier this year, The Associated Press reported that Microsoft had “cancelled” the email address of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court following political pressure from Washington — sending shock waves across Europe. Almost every major organisation, including most universities, relies on US-based digital infrastructure for essential communication such as email.
In other recent developments, essential datasets have also been taken offline, for example due to funding cuts in the US, further underscoring the need for resilience in the scientific ecosystem.
Björnmalm stressed that this is not about closing Europe off, but about ensuring that the continent provides core digital and data infrastructures for research and innovation that are excellent in their own right — and both protected and independent.
He highlighted that scale and critical mass are essential for this, and that EOSC, done right, can lead the way by federating and interconnecting leading data and digital capacities across the continent.
Universities of science and technology are front-runners in this transformation. They build and use the infrastructures, standards, and skills that underpin advanced science and technology — and they embody reliability, honesty, respect, and accountability.
As the EU advances strategic initiatives from artificial intelligence and data spaces to research infrastructures, Björnmalm called for leveraging and building on EOSC’s experience and progress. The best outcome, he argued, will be a coherent European digital ecosystem — interconnected, interoperable, and world-class.
The worst outcome would be the development of multiple disconnected silos — duplicating effort, fragmenting resources, and weakening Europe’s overall capability.
Björnmalm concluded that EOSC can and should be the federated backbone that connects these efforts, ensuring a reliable and trusted data environment that strengthens Europe’s entire research and innovation landscape.
For more information, please contact the CESAER Secretariat.
Photographs by Nicolas Lobet, courtesy of EOSC Association.
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