The European science cloud: Who will pay?

A new Science|Business report finds costs may be lower than expected for the EU’s ambitious plans to better connect researchers and their data across the continent – and examines ways to fund it

How should Europe fund its lofty plans for an open science cloud?

A far-reaching and multi-faceted undertaking, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative aims to provide Europe’s 1.7 million researchers and 70 million students and professionals in science and technology with easy access to other researchers’ data, and to a wide range of computing resources.

But bringing about this open science nirvana will cost money and someone will have to pay. And it won’t be the taxpayer: The Commission has promised EU member states that they won’t need to find new money and the EOSC will be self-sustaining by 2020.

Read the original article here.