The OPERAS-PLUS project will support the further development of OPERAS in its preparatory phase of new ESFRI Research Infrastructure projects. OPERAS is the Research Infrastructure dedicated to enhance open scholarly communication for the Social Sciences and the Humanities in the European Research Area (ERA). Designed as a distributed infrastructure, it was incorporated as an AISBL in 2019. OPERAS entered the ESFRI roadmap in 2021 and is now on its path to become operational as an ERIC in 2028. The OPERAS-PLUS project will serve the OPERAS community with its wide variety of small-sized stakeholders, which are committed to make open scholarly communication the default practice in Social Sciences and Humanities in the ERA. In that sense, OPERAS-PLUS will provide an operational and efficient framework to meet the needs and objectives of the OPERAS community with solutions of utmost quality, thus fulfilling the European Commission‘s expectations of scientific excellence. The project’s main objectives are 1) to develop and strengthen OPERAS governance structure, especially financial, legal, and human resource management aspects of the infrastructure central hub in a sustainable way, compliant with Research Infrastructure management best practises; 2) to support the establishment and development of OPERAS national nodes, set up and manage the workflow of bidirectional exchange with the central hub; 3) to develop OPERAS portfolio of services by providing both required technology and a monitoring system for services development via an Innovation Lab dedicated to this task; and 4) to maximise OPERAS’ impact in the ERA and at an international level by extending it beyond its current scope and onboarding new members and countries in the infrastructure.

The LUMEN project is a groundbreaking initiative aimed at revolutionizing cross-domain collaboration and discovery processes in the fields of Mathematics (Maths), Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), Earth System (ES), and Molecular Dynamics (MD), and beyond. Leveraging the successful GoTriple platform, renowned for its service to the SSH community, LUMEN seeks to extend its functionality to foster interoperability across scientific domains. Through interdisciplinary solutions spanning all four domains, LUMEN will redefine the process of discovery with radical innovations, simplifying initial research phases and facilitating access to advanced AI-powered tools for researchers. By expanding existing discovery platforms in the SSH and Maths domains and developing new platforms for other domains, LUMEN aims to fundamentally transform EOSC services, promoting innovative and customizable solutions for data discovery, attracting new users, and fostering Open Science principles. The project will also drive multidisciplinary cooperation through collaborative platforms and onboard new scientific communities into EOSC, providing them with the necessary tools. Ultimately, LUMEN seeks to revolutionize how research outputs are created, shared, and utilized across scientific domains, enhancing scientific discoveries, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and promoting innovation and trust in European scientific research.