On 17 March 2021, EOSC Enhance hosted a virtual meeting to collect feedback from the end-users of the EOSC Portal Catalogue & Marketplace, a key activity on the road to the next iteration of the EOSC Portal.
The meeting featured an introduction of the main updates by Bartosz Wilk (CYFRONET), followed by an interactive poll session led by Roksana Wilk (CYFRONET), asking the audience for opinions and insights on the latest changes and for their expectations towards the future developments of the Marketplace.
Q&A session
We have collected some of the most relevant questions and answers from sli.do and Zoom below:
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Q: A functionality that is missing is a personalised dashboard that can be adapted by each user gathering all services relevant to them out of the full set.
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A: We are currently working on a “favorites” functionality. In addition, there are two interesting updates coming up in this respect: we are finalising the development of recommendations, which will work with the search function in order to better match resources to users’ needs; secondly, in the next phase of EOSC, lots of effort will be dedicated to develop AI and machine learning methods for the EOSC Portal.
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A: There is also a Marketplace functionality called “My Projects” which has a similar scope and can be further enhanced: https://marketplace.eosc-portal.eu/projects
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Q: It would be nice to be able to register resources to the EOSC Portal directly from a service catalogue of a project.
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A: This is already possible, as an API is provided for registering resources directly. The provider needs to register first via the Providers Dashboard. https://providers.eosc-portal.eu/provider
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A: If you want to register a project, you need to register a hosting legal entity which represents the project on a legal basis. When that is done, you can then finalise the registration via the API.
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Q: If an R&D project wants to include their project results into the EOSC Portal Marketplace, which are the conditions regarding TRL or technological aspects?
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A: We consider TRL 7, 8 and 9 as valid services to be onboarded in the Catalogue & Marketplace. TRL 7 is considered as a beta service, while 8 and 9 are considered as production level services. The resource maturity classification according to TRL levels is described on https://eosc-portal.eu/providers-documentation/eosc-provider-portal-resource-maturity-classification.
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Q: Where can we see the volume of activity going through the Marketplace?
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A: If you are a provider and want to see statistics for your resources, there is a dedicated dashboard for you. https://providers.eosc-portal.eu/provider
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A: If you are an executive user, there are also functionalities that allow you to determine how the project is progressing, but a specific role in the Portal is needed to consult these statistics.
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Q: Do we need to enter a user project to have access to the resources?
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A: No. As users we CAN use projects to collect resources in the user space. We NEED to use projects when placing resource orders in the Marketplace (to give information about the purpose of usage). For the Open Access / Fully Ocen Access resources all we need to do is to click on the link provided by a provider
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Q: Our communities typically use several different resources by creating a workflow of the resources. So, instead of a resource, typically a group of resources are requested by a single scientific project. Maybe this could be supported by the portal? Request for a group of resources instead of a single resource.
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A: Apparently, we need to enhance the project functionality. Next to the possibility to put resources in one scientific scope, there is also a message going out to EOSC providers: if resources are onboarded into one project, this is interpreted as the will to use them together. This can trigger several paths, one of them being resource providers interacting with each other to see if they are interoperable. The Interoperability Framework is also one of the key topics for the current stage of EOSC. The functionality to order these groups of resources at the same time is also currently being analysed.
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Q: As a project, we are onboarding available resources from our region, and it can be helpful for us to group all these (by project onboarded) resources within the portal - some kind of project page at the portal. Can we expect something like this?
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A: To support these requests, you can create a project in the marketplace and request multiple services resources ces in a single request.
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Q: External communities will utilize resources onboarded by our project. After peer review by independent scientific experts, we will choose such communities and approve access to resources. This will be organized as an open call, and applications will be submitted via a dedicated questionnaire. Can such or a similar workflow be somehow supported by the marketplace?
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A: Currently, this workflow (the open call approach) is not supported per se but it can fit in the process implemented in the MP. Everything depends on the acceptance criteria of such a workflow. MP supports the possibility to define a specific form for the resource access request (if the form is complex, the system could have been extended to support pdf attachment etc.), it implements a workflow for the resource access request/order (so it can be expressed if the request is pending/accepted/rejected) the exchange of messages/notification is also there.
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A: We are currently in the process of gathering such use-cases and organising dedicated meetings to discuss them, so we kindly suggest you to contact us at contact@eosc-portal.eu if you are interested in meeting with us and showcasing your use-case.
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Q: NI4OS-Europe hosts the Agora-based catalogue, and this is the central place where we keep information about on-boarded resources. At the moment, there is no front-end for the Agora-based catalog. Can we expect some development from your side in this area? Would you support external catalogs by producing an open-source, easy deployable portal/marketplace?
- A: It should be possible to onboard this service in the marketplace, for example PRACE has done this for the PRACE DECI calls, see https://marketplace.eosc-portal.eu/services/prace-deci-access . But you need to think about how to define the services, we should be able to discuss this.
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