ENHANCER

Their core work

ENHANCER (operating as SWING) is a Swiss association that contributes to European e-infrastructure for open science, specifically within the EGI Federation and EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) ecosystem. They participate in large-scale projects that build and integrate federated cloud computing platforms for the research community. Their role appears to be that of a supporting contributor — joining major infrastructure initiatives as a participant or third party rather than driving them. Based in Bern, they serve as a Swiss node or liaison within pan-European scientific computing networks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ENHANCER's involvement began in 2015 with EGI-Engage, a community-building project for the EGI ecosystem, then moved to EOSC-hub (2018–2021) which focused on integrating multiple e-infrastructure platforms into the European Open Science Cloud. Their most recent project, EGI-ACE (2021–2023), targets advanced computing within EOSC. The trajectory shows a consistent deepening within the same domain — from community engagement to service integration to advanced computing delivery — rather than a pivot to new areas.

ENHANCER is moving from broad EGI community participation toward more technical roles in EOSC compute and data commons delivery, suggesting growing operational involvement in federated research infrastructure.

How they like to work

ENHANCER has never coordinated an H2020 project, participating instead as a partner or third party in very large consortia. With 135 unique partners across 39 countries, their network is vast — but this reflects the massive scale of EGI/EOSC projects (often 70+ partners each) rather than ENHANCER's own hub status. They are a small contributor within flagship infrastructure initiatives, not a consortium builder.

Their 135 partners across 39 countries come from participating in pan-European infrastructure mega-projects (EGI-Engage, EOSC-hub, EGI-ACE), each of which involves dozens of national research and education networks, universities, and computing centres across Europe and beyond.

What sets them apart

ENHANCER offers a Swiss institutional anchor within the EGI/EOSC ecosystem, which may be relevant for projects needing Swiss participation or access to Swiss research infrastructure connections. However, with only EUR 21,318 in total EC funding and no coordinator experience, their capacity for leading or heavily contributing to new consortia is unproven. They are best approached as a lightweight contributor or national liaison rather than a technical workhorse.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EOSC-hub
  A flagship EOSC integration project bringing together EGI, EUDAT, and INDIGO-DataCloud — ENHANCER participated as a third party, indicating a secondary support role.
• EGI-ACE
  Their most recent and only funded project (EUR 21,318), focused on advanced computing for EOSC, representing their most concrete financial involvement in H2020.