OPEN SCIENCE INFRASTRUCTURE IN SLOVAKIA AND ITS USE IN THE LIFE SCIENCES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62405/osiconf.2026.55Keywords:
Open Science infrastructure, EOSC, Life Sciences, Antimicrobial Resistance, NarCoS.Abstract
Open Science infrastructure provides researchers with digital services, computational resources and data environments supporting the FAIR principles and enabling effective sharing and reuse of research outputs. This paper presents the development of Open Science infrastructure in Slovakia and demonstrates its application in the life sciences through pathogen genomics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance. Particular attention is paid to the Slovak node of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the NarCoS bioinformatics platform and their role in processing and analysing large-scale genomic datasets. The paper describes a federated approach to cross-border cooperation between the Slovak and Polish EOSC nodes, in which harmonised workflows enable analysis while sensitive data remain under local control. The presented use case demonstrates how federated Open Science infrastructure can support interoperable genomic analysis, strengthen data sovereignty and contribute to more effective cross-border surveillance of infectious pathogens and antimicrobial resistance.
References
UNESCO (2021). UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. DOI: 10.54677/ MNMH8546
Wilkinson, M.; Dumontier, M.; Aalbersberg, I. et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 3, 160018 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18
Zendulková, D.; Gavurníková, G.; Turňa, J. (2026). The Ecosystem of State Support for Science in Slovakia and Scientific Data. In O. Azeroual (Ed.), Technical Foundations and Applications of Trustworthy AI Systems (pp. 225-262). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-2600-1433-2.ch008
VAIA. (2023). Národná stratégia výskumu, vývoja a inovácií. [National Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation.] https://vaia.gov.sk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/01_Narodna-strategia-vyskumu-vyvoja-a-inovacii _vlastny-material _V2.pdf
VAIA (2026) Akčný plán pre otvorenú vedu 2026 – 2028. [Open Science Action Plan 2026-2028] https://otvorenaveda.cvtisr.sk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Akcny_plan_2026-2028.pdf
Tsipouri, L; Liarti,S; Vignetti, S et al. The Economic Impact of Open Science: A Scoping Review. Royal Society Open Science, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250754
Rosemberg, C; Murray, A; Holmes, A. et al. (2026)The Economic Benefits of Open Science. Independent report. Technopolis Group, Commissioned by PLOS , March 2026 https://explore.plos.org/open-science-economic-benefits
Caputo, A., Catalano, G., Duvaud, S., et al.. (2025). The role of open data in driving innovation: insights from UniProt. Workshop on Open Citations & Open Scholarly Metadata 2025 (WOOC-2025), Bologna, Italy. https://zenodo.org/records/16364279
United Nations (Vibhu Mishra). Antibiotic resistance surges globally, UN health agency warns 2025. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166087 .
World Health Organization (2024) (Bhanu Bhatnagar). Global leaders set first targets to control antimicrobial resistance crisis 2024. https://www.who.int/europe/news-room/27-09-2024-global-leaders-set-first-targets-to-control-antimicrobial-resistance-crisis
Mestrovic T; Robles Aguilar G; Swetschinski LR, et al. (2022) The burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in the WHO European region in 2019: a cross-country systematic analysis. Lancet Public Health 2022 (7) 11:e897–913. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00225-0 .
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Antimicrobial consumption in the EU/EEA (ESAC-Net). 2025. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/antimicrobial-consumption-eueea-esac-net-annual-epidemiological-report-2024
Štefkovičová M, Litvová S, Meluš V, et al. (2016) Point prevalence study of antimicrobial usage in acute care hospitals in the Slovak Republic. Journal of Hospital Infection 2016;93:403–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2016.02.017 .
Tkadlec, J., Le, AV., Brajerova M., et al. (2023) Epidemiology of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Slovakia, 2020 – Emergence of an Epidemic USA300 Clone in Community and Hospitals. Microbiol Spectr 2023;11. https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.01264-23.
Jalali, Y., Kološová, A., Liptáková, A. et al. (2024) Is It Time to Start Worrying? A Comprehensive Report on the Three-Year Prevalence of ESBL-Producing Bacteria and Their Trends in Antibiotic Resistance from the Largest University Hospital in Slovakia. Pharmaceuticals 2024;17:1517. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph17111517.
Garabasova, M., Brnova, J., Betkova. M. et al. (2015) Two-year prevalence study of hospital-acquired bloodstream infections in university hospital Trnava, Slovakia. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2015;4:P203. https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-2994-4-S1-P203.
EOSC Association AISBL. EOSC Federation use case: Federated analysis of pathogen genomes 2026. https://eosc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/EOSC-Federation-scientific-use-case-Pathogen-genomes.pdf