The Beijing session meeting for the Global Open Science Cloud (GOSC) Initiative Working Group (WG) and Case Studies (CS) was held at Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on December 14, 2021. As an annual review from the Chinese side, the Beijing session invites almost 40 local representatives from China Committee for International Science Council (ISC), CAS Bureau of International Cooperation, international organizations (ANSO, IRDR, etc.), and GOSC WG, CS and research teams. Prof. LI Jianhui, Professor of CNIC and Chinese PI of GOSC Initiative, chaired this session.

GOSC WGs and CSs representatives reported the yearly progress made through communication and cooperation with the international community. During the discussion, the participants expressed their willingness to support the global open science movement endorsed by UNESCO and ISC. Most agreed GOSC initiative should play a more active role in supporting big international research activities through developing better methods and strategies for network connectivity, data and algorithm interoperability, virtual research collaboration reciprocity, as well as others. Suggestions for improvement were also discussed such as cross-group alignment activities, best practice demonstrations and sound mechanisms for encouraging sustainable engagement.

CNIC operates the CSTNet and CSTCloud which are devoted to connecting CAS and other Chinese scientists with scientific data and computing infrastructures worldwide. With initial seed funding from the CAS, the idea of GOSC has been getting down to the ground through over two years of efforts ever since the discussion during 2019 Beijing Conference of Committee on Data of ISC (CODATA). Strategic partnerships with CODATA and open science information infrastructures in different regions have been developed to make the GOSC Initiative global. So far, the CODATA GOSC Steering Group (SG) has been kept on providing general guidance, while four different WGs covering governance, policy, technology and data interoperability, are set up to implement the GOSC framework. Five typical use cases are selected for GOSC demonstration and validation, focusing on space physics, biodiversity, climate change and natural disasters, population health as well as open access related to the pandemic ( Incoherent scatter radar data fusion and computation, Biodiversity and ecology information platform, SDG-13 climate change and natural disasters, Sensitive data federation analysis model in population health and Open reproducible raw diffraction data for access in pandemics ). A cross-continent testbed supported by EGI and CNIC has been connected and will provide cloud federation services to support radar data fusion in space physics and online data federated learning in structure biology.  

Several key conferences and tens of monthly work meetings are carried out to put the GOSC yearly plan on track. The engagement of over a hundred experts for GOSC SG, WGs, and CSs extend the dialogue between open science infrastructures. The CODATA GOSC secretariat office, as well as the CODATA-CNIC International Project Office, help facilitate daily management and operation of the Initiative.

In the year 2021, we witness a very good start for the GOSC Initiative while there are still a lot of work ahead, including further study of GOSC policy and governance, exploration of cloud federation technologies, development and optimization of cross-region platforms and their adaptive demonstrations as well as international alignment under the umbrella of the UNESCO Open Science.

Welcome for further collaboration and stay tuned at https://bit.ly/3jwZHNg