The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is Europe’s flagship initiative to accelerate open science. By enabling seamless access to research data, software, services, and digital environments across disciplines and borders, EOSC supports more effective, reproducible, and collaborative research. This session places EOSC in context — why it matters now, and how it strengthens the European research ecosystem. With the EOSC EU Node, the vision becomes tangible: a first step in the federation of services and resources, addressing growing demands for FAIR data, reproducibility, cross-border collaboration, team science, and digital sovereignty. We will explore the current state of EOSC, upcoming developments such as national node integration and service onboarding, and highlight the SURF EOSC Pilot Node as an example of how organizations in the Netherlands can contribute and benefit. In this interactive session, you will learn how to: Access and use the EOSC EU Node Discover and work with available services Experience the EOSC Federation in practice Contribute ideas for the SURF EOSC Pilot Node Whether researcher, policymaker, research software engineer, or support staff, join us for a concrete introduction to EOSC today — and a look at its near future.