This project federates efforts from 3 pan-European ESFRI infrastructures (HL-LHC, SKAO and SLICES-RI) in physical sciences, Big Data, and in the computing continuum supporting flagship instruments that will maintain and strengthen European leadership in high-energy physics and astronomy. The main goal is to enable key science projects, with the search for Dark Matter serving as a pilot program, combining the complementary capabilities of these three unique research infrastructures. ODISSEE will deliver evolutionary and revolutionary hardware and software platforms to address the corresponding digital challenges in a highly competitive international context. Developed through a joint and comprehensive R&D program with industry partners, as well as access to cutting edge experimental facilities from SLICES-RI, so as to enable HL-LHC and SKA to process and analyze the vast volumes of raw data they produce. Targeting such dataflow driven applications opens the way to a new range of technologies and services, feeding SLICES-RI with a unique yet representative set of specifications to progress their operational & experimental capacities at an unprecedented scale, increasing the dissemination potential. Bringing these 3 infrastructures to their full capacity, as well as operating and maintaining them, pose similar grand challenges across the digital continuum and require addressing the 3 dimensions of sustainability. Co-design and close partnership of academia with European companies will foster competitiveness of European industry and promote digital sovereignty. The project is deeply embedded into both regional and international R&I ecosystems, with strong connections to several major European initiatives and associated partnerships with main technology providers. Strong and lasting impact is built-in the two-fold exploitation strategy including the development of unique in-depth training for R.I. staff and extensive trans-sectoral dissemination.

The nature of invisible dark matter (DM), which constitutes ~26% of the mass-energy balance of the Universe, remains a major puzzle in physics. Despite extensive searches, DM constituents remain undetected, though experiments have significantly constrained the allowed parameter space. The NEXUS project aims to advance this research by enhancing detector performance, refining instrumentation, and expanding theoretical insights through a sustainable expert network. Partnering with world-class laboratories in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, NEXUS will tackle extraordinary experimental and theoretical challenges. This research relies on Underground Laboratories (ULs), where cosmic rays are suppressed by ~1000 meters of rock, minimizing the cosmogenic backgrounds. The proposed NEXUS initiative aims to establish a global network of ULs dedicated to ground-breaking advancements in the field. The collaborative approach undertaken in NEXUS is designed to provide a dynamic environment for advances in ultra-sensitive detectors and ultra-low radiation techniques, ready to lead innovation in both the global search for rare events and cutting-edge technological development ultimately benefiting society and industry. ULs’ support for research will provide: (i) effective radiation shielding; (ii) above-ground and underground support facilities, such as clean (radon-free) rooms, radio-purity assay equipment, and cryogenic equipment; (iii) material production and purification facilities; (iv) tools and methods to characterize underground facilities and related instrumentation; and (v) a unique environment for multidisciplinary research. In addition, efforts are being made to further increase instrument sensitivity to meet new challenges in rare-event research. NEXUS will pave the way for ground-breaking discoveries, fostering a deeper understanding of the universe while driving technological advancements with broad societal and industrial benefits.

ESCAPE (European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle physics ESFRI research infrastructures) aims to address the Open Science challenges shared by ESFRI facilities (SKA, CTA, KM3Net, EST, ELT, HL-LHC, FAIR) as well as other pan-European research infrastructures (CERN, ESO, JIVE) in astronomy and particle physics. ESCAPE actions will be focused on developing solutions for the large data sets handled by the ESFRI facilities. These solutions shall: i) connect ESFRI projects to EOSC ensuring integration of data and tools; ii) foster common approaches to implement open-data stewardship; iii) establish interoperability within EOSC as an integrated multi-messenger facility for fundamental science. To accomplish these objectives ESCAPE will unite astrophysics and particle physics communities with proven expertise in computing and data management by setting up a data infrastructure beyond the current state-of-the-art in support of the FAIR principles. These joint efforts are expected result into a data-lake infrastructure as cloud open-science analysis facility linked with the EOSC. ESCAPE supports already existing infrastructure such as astronomy Virtual Observatory to connect with the EOSC. With the commitment from various ESFRI projects in the cluster, ESCAPE will develop and integrate the EOSC catalogue with a dedicated catalogue of open source analysis software. This catalogue will provide researchers across the disciplines with new software tools and services developed by astronomy and particle physics community. Through this catalogue ESCAPE will strive to cater researchers with consistent access to an integrated open-science platform for data-analysis workflows. As a result, a large community “foundation” approach for cross-fertilisation and continuous development will be strengthened. ESCAPE has the ambition to be a flagship for scientific and societal impact that the EOSC can deliver.

The EVERSE project aims to create a framework for research software and code excellence, collaboratively designed and championed by the research communities across five EOSC Science Clusters and national Research Software Expertise Centres, in pursuit of building a European network of Research Software Quality and setting the foundations of a future Virtual Institute for Research Software Excellence. This framework for research software excellence will incorporate aspects involving community curation, quality assessment, and best practices for research software. This collective knowledge will be captured in the Research Software Quality toolkit (RSQkit), a knowledge base to gather and curate expertise that will contribute to high-quality software and code across different disciplines. By embedding the RSQkit and services into the EOSC Science Clusters, EVERSE will demonstrate improvements in the quality of research software and maximise its reuse, leading to standardised software development practices and sustainable research software. Furthermore, we will drive recognition of software and support career progress for developers, from researchers who code to RSEs, raising their capacity to guarantee software quality. The European network for Research Software Quality aims to cross-fertilise different research domains, act as a lobbying organisation, and raise awareness of software as a key enabler in research, with the overall ambition to accelerate research and innovation through improving the quality of research software and code. EVERSE ultimate ambition is to contribute towards a cultural change where research software is recognized as a first-class citizen of the scientific process and the people that contribute to it are credited for their efforts.