EOSC Profiles are metadata schemas for consistently describing EOSC Resources, so that they are accurately described and easily found in the EOSC Catalogue and Marketplace.
EOSC Profiles allow Providers and various kinds of resources to be described using consistent metadata schemas. Version 4.0 of the Provider and Resource Profiles was released to production in June 2022. Three new types of EOSC Profile, for Catalogues, Data Sources and Research Products, were released for use in October 2022.
Provider Profiles
Providers are the organisations responsible for “providing” any of the other kinds of resources, and the Provider Profile details the data required to describe each Provider.
Resource Profiles
Resource Profiles describe various research services, including compute services, storage services and application services such as analytics.
Note that (as of October 2022), the word “resource” is used in two contexts:
- Generally, to refer to research IT services, catalogues of such services, research products and assets, collections of research products (called Data Sources) and other kinds of resources that are important to EOSC but not yet formally specified with Profiles (e.g. training resources).
- Specifically, referring only to research IT services.
To reduce this confusion, it is under consideration that by March 2023, the Resource Profile will be renamed the “Service Profile”. Until then, the Resource Profile should only be used to specify research IT services, such as compute, storage and applications.
Catalogue Profiles
The Catalogue Profile allows catalogues of resources from other communities to be linked with the EOSC Catalogue and Marketplace. Adding other Catalogues to EOSC will make it possible for EOSC users to find and access resources offered from other research infrastructures that participate in EOSC.
Research Product Profiles
Research Products include publications, research data and research software, resulting from scientific efforts.
Data Source Profiles
Data Sources are special services that host and provide access to collections of Research Products (e.g. data repositories, thematic repositories, scientific databases, aggregators).
Training Resource Profiles
An EOSC Training Resource is any resource – including print and non-print materials and online/open-access resources – which supports and enhances, directly or indirectly, learning and teaching. If a learning resource is used in a training environment, for training activities that are part of a training plan and involve instructors, facilitators and students, then we speak of training materials.