OCRE adoption funding available for researchers, institutions or buyer group

One of the main goals of OCRE is to encourage the uptake of commercial cloud services across the European research landscape. Armed with better tools, researchers will be well prepared to take on Europe’s societal challenges.

Launched in January 2019, OCRE , is being funded by the EU to also support the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by providing mechanisms to involve private sector service providers in the EOSC. 

Following the completion of the requirements gathering activities for researchers, OCRE  moved to encourage the adoption of cloud services across research communities. It’s in this context where different funding options are made available. 

Funding for researchers

To encourage uptake at the grassroots level, € 400,000 will be made available for individual researchers through vouchers. Researchers can apply for these vouchers through the EOSC-hub Early Adopter Programme where € 100,000 in vouchers is available or if they are part of an individual institution that has signed up to procure under the OCRE tender, for which € 150,000 is available.

Earlier, OCRE also partnered with the Marie Curie Alumni Association and Eurodoc to engage researchers on the grassroots level where more than 80 applications for vouchers were received. 

Funding for Individual Institutions

Individual Institutions that have signed up to the tender before the deadline passed can apply for receiving part of the € 2.5 million in adoption funding budgeted for individual institutions. These adoption funds can be used on the resulting cloud and digital Earth Observation services selected from the upcoming OCRE Tender. 

As mentioned earlier as well, researchers affiliated with individual institutions listed in the OCRE tender can apply for part of the € 150,000 distributed through the voucher mechanism.

Funding for Buyer Groups

Buyer Groups are entities where individual institution aggregate their demand and acquire the services through the OCRE Tender. Buyer Groups signed up to the tender, can access a co-funding mechanism and benefit from the €4.5 million made available by OCRE to subsidise bulk cloud and EO service procurements.

Adoption funding for digital Earth Observation services. Digital Earth Observation services from Earth Observation companies are also part of the scope of the adoption funding available for individual institutions and buyer groups. €1.5 million and €2.25 million have been set aside for individual institutions and buyer groups, respectively - almost half of the adoption funding available. The application process for these are the same as those for commodity cloud.. 

Want to get all the updates regarding adoption funding and vouchers? Join the OCRE Community Network now!