The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) aims to develop a web of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data and services for science in Europe. One of the main objectives of the FIDELIS project is to Strengthen the upskilling of repositories and expansion of the Network through an active training and support programme.
At the end of 2025, the project organised three pilot training offers for provisional members of the FIDELIS Network, bringing together a total of 34 participants from several countries (see figure 1). The goal of pilot training was to support repositories to implement and adopt good practices, tools, services, and other solutions to increase their trustworthiness. From the perspective of the FIDELIS project, a key objective was to prepare and develop the necessary logistics, materials, and processes for this type of support for the training planned for 2026.
Figure 1: Countries represented by the participating repositories. Source: D8.1 - Implementation report on support for "early adopters" and training interventions.
The pilot round includes three different support offers. The first instructed participants to the TTRAM tool developed within the project. The second offered participants the opportunity to receive support for CoreTrustSeal certification. The third one, in turn, provided participants with the opportunity to explore the FAIR EVA tool.
The TTRAM (Enhancing Repository Transparency and Trustworthiness) training highlighted the benefits TTRAM brings organisations, particularly in assisting repositories with managing digital objects, strengthening organisational infrastructure, and technology and security management. Participants considered the goals of the pilot training as important and perceived TTRAM as being able to serve as a practical guideline for self-assessment, helping participants examine their practices more critically. You can read more about the implementation and experiences in the Implementation Story.
The aim of the second pilot training, an Explorer & Pathfinder track for CoreTrustSeal, was to help organisations explore and apply the CoreTrustSeal requirements. By the end of the support offer, participants had strengthened their understanding of CoreTrustSeal requirements and learnt to relate the current state and maturity of their repository to the requirements of the core criteria. You can read more about the implementation and experiences in the Implementation Story.
The third training, FAIR EVA (Evaluator, Validator & Advisor) plugin, introduced repository managers and technical staff to the FAIR EVA evaluator, validator and advisor tool and guided them through the development of a custom plugin tailored to their repository. Through the training participants started the creation of their own plugin, or at least a proof of concept as customising the tool to work with all metadata schemas and controlled vocabularies takes some effort to define. You can read more about the implementation and experiences Implementation Story.
The project will continue to provide training and support. You can read more about it on FIDELIS Training & Support programme | Eden-Fidelis.
Henna Kaartinen
Project Assistant
firstname.surname [at] tuni.fi
