“ESCAPE to the Future” Event Recommits CTAO and ESCAPE Partners in Collaboration for Open Science

The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), in partnership with some of Europe’s biggest facilities in physics-related disciplines, has just recommitted to a long-term deal to collaborate on Open Science topics, from science data management to developing science tools, services and research software, among others. The agreement was signed at the “ESCAPE to the Future” conference on October 25-26, 2022, where partners of the European Science Cluster of Astronomy & Particle physics ESFRI research infrastructure (ESCAPE) project, as well as members of the scientific community and the European Commission, gathered at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science in Brussels (Belgium).

ESCAPE, which began in 2019, has brought together a cluster of ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) projects and other world-class research organizations with the aim of implementing a section of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) to foster Open Science in astrophysics and particle physics. As the ESCAPE project, funded by the H2020 grant, is coming to its end, the members of the cluster came together at the conference to share their results and achievements and to discuss the next challenges and their outlook for the future. The “ESCAPE to the Future” event is also the starting point of a new era: after the successful experience of the ESCAPE project, the CTAO and a further eight core ESCAPE Research Infrastructure partners signed a new Open Collaboration Agreement, which consolidates their cross-border action towards Open Science, the implementation of the EOSC and the establishment of new collaborations on common topics in the area of data management and research software. These actions benefit the European Strategy for data and excellence in science, as well as the data management approaches of the ESFRIs, themselves.

Dr. Giovanni Lamanna, ESCAPE Coordinator, during the announcement of the new agreement at the “ESCAPE to the Future” conference. Credit: ESCAPE.

During the implementation period of the ESCAPE project, the CTAO worked with partners from the astronomy, astroparticle, particle  and nuclear physics communities on the development of software for Open Data management, in a cross-border and multi-disciplinary open environment, according to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles.

“As an open observatory, the CTAO has the responsibility to provide high-quality data as a service to the community and to work closely with other observatories,” says Prof. Federico Ferrini, CTAO Managing Director, who participated in the discussion panel of the event with representatives from other ESFRI projects and landmarks. “Thus, the ESCAPE project is well-aligned with the CTAO’s overarching goal of providing scientists worldwide easy access to the CTAO data products and high-quality science software to analyse the data.”

The CTAO’s participation in the ESCAPE Project has helped the Observatory gain experience and knowledge in key aspects of cutting-edge data management systems, such as data lake technologies and software repositories, as well as understanding how to build a science platform and developing links to the Virtual Observatory. The CTAO has also been able to test several of its use cases on ESCAPE systems, whilst also implementing example analysis workflows. The outcome of CTAO’s work within the ESCAPE project was presented during the conference by Matthias Füßling, CTAO SUSS (Science User Support System) Coordinator, and Gareth Hughes, CTAO Science Platform Developer.

“Beyond providing an excellent framework to test technologies, workflows and use cases in the real world, which is invaluable for the CTAO, ESCAPE also presents the perfect opportunity to collaborate with other ESFRIs that share some of our challenges,” says Dr. Matthias Füßling. “Thus, the CTAO looks forward to continuing the ESCAPE partnership to enhance technologies and solutions, increase interoperability, improve software and user experience, and to find new ways to collaborate in order to make that happen.”

Discussion panel with representatives from the ESFRI projects at the “ESCAPE to the Future” conference, including Prof. Federico Ferrini, CTAO Managing Director. Credit: ESCAPE

The new Open Collaboration Agreement, publicly announced during the “ESCAPE for the Future” event and signed by the Directors of all the research infrastructure partners, will take effect in January 2023 and will also help continue the synergies and joint work of all five domain-based Science Clusters involved in the implementation of EOSC. This agreement, also open to further research infrastructures to join, is expected to maintain the collaborative and human experience represented by the Science Cluster and strengthen the role and impact of astronomy and nuclear/particle physics in the field of open science and, more broadly, in the European Research Area.

“Scientific research is progressing towards the new paradigm of Open Science for more open, transparent, collaborative and inclusive scientific practices to enhance the impact of science in our society, fostered by the expansion of information and communication technologies. This is the fundamental motivation of the ESCAPE scientific community and it is also the challenge shared by pan-European Research Infrastructures (RIs) that are members of the ESCAPE science cluster,” explains Dr. Giovanni Lamanna, Coordinator of the ESCAPE project.

Read the ESCAPE announcement.