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EOSC Association elects first president and board of directors


17 December 2020

Karel Luyben, Rector Magnificus Emeritus of Delft University of Technology, will be the first president of the European Open Science Cloud Association. He was elected during the Association’s first General Assembly on 17 December. The General Assembly also confirmed EUA’s status as a non-voting observer.


EUA supported Luyben’s candidacy, coordinated by CESAER, together with the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), the League of European Research Universities (LERU), Science Europe and The Guild.

 “The EOSC will enable a trusted, virtual, federated environment in Europe to store, share and re-use research data across borders and scientific disciplines on a scale that has never been possible before,” said Luyben. “We will bring together institutional, national and European initiatives and engage all relevant stakeholders to co-design and deploy a European Research Data Commons where data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).”

Addressing current and future challenges - social, technological and economic - depends on the joint and coordinated efforts of a broad range of research and innovation stakeholders represented in the EOSC Association. They must jointly build a trusted, digital and federated environment that will facilitate the circulation of digital resources and services for research. The same environment must contribute to improved reproducibility in science, enhance (interdisciplinary) collaboration and catalyse innovation, all for the benefit of society.

Luyben’s presidency starts on 18 December and he will serve a two-year term. During this time, he will collaborate with EUA through his participation in the EUA Expert Group on Science 2.0/Open Science. As the largest and most comprehensive organisation of universities in Europe, representation of higher education institutions within the EOSC Association and the EOSC ecosystem is important to EUA.

The EOSC Association General Assembly also elected a Board of eight directors, three of which are affiliated with EUA members.

  • Wilhelm Widmark (Stockholm University), member of the EUA Expert Group Science 2.0/Open Science, was elected for one year.
  • Ignacio Blanquer (Polytechnic University of Valencia) will serve for two years.
  • Marialuisa Lavitrano (University of Milano-Bicocca) will serve for three years.

EUA congratulates the newly-elected EOSC Association President and Board of directors and looks forward to working with them.

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