Abstract. The OpenAIRE initiative is the point of reference for Open Access in Europe and aims at the creation of an e-Infrastructure for the free flow, access, sharing, and re-use of research outcomes, services and processes for the advancement of research and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. OpenAIRE makes openly accessible a rich Information Space Graph (ISG) where products of the research life-cycle (e.g. publications, datasets, projects) are semantically linked to each other. Such an information space graph is constructed by a set of autonomic (orchestrated) workflows operating in a regimen of continuous data integration. This paper discusses the principal workflows operated by the Open-AIRE technical infrastructure in its different functional areas and provides the reader with the extent of the several challenges faced and the solutions realized.
IntroductionThe OpenAIRE initiative is the point of reference for Open Access in Europe [3] [4]. Its mission is to foster an Open Science e-Infrastructure that links people, ideas and resources for the free flow, access, sharing, and re-use of research outcomes, services and processes for the advancement of research and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. OpenAIRE operates an open, collaborative, service oriented infrastructure that supports (i) the realization of a pan-European network for the definition, promotion and implementation of shared interoperability guidelines and best practices for managing, sharing, re-using, and preserving research outcomes of different typologies; (ii) the promotion of Open Science policies and practices at all stages of the research life-cycle and across research communities belonging to different application domains and geographical areas; (iii) the provision of measurements of the impact of Open Science and the return of investment of national and international funding agencies; (iv) the development and operation of a technical infrastructure supporting services for the discovery of and access to research outcomes via a centralized entry point, where research outcomes are enriched with contextual information via links to objects relevant to the research life-cycle. This paper focuses on the workflows operated by the OpenAIRE technical infrastructure for the management of the OpenAIRE information space. The