The EOSC-hub project, funded by the European Commission (EOSC-hub Grant Agreement no. 777536 2017), contributes to the development of the European Open Science Cloud, as described in the EC Communication on European Cloud Initiative. The scope of the project is to create the integration and management system (the Hub) of the European Open Science Cloud in such a way that it complies with the FAIR principles and hence accelerates the generation of research and innovation products. The Hub brings together major European research infrastructures and e-Infrastructures, national e-Infrastructure providers, SMEs, and academic institutions, and delivers a catalog of services, software, and data in collaboration with them. The project collaborates closely with the peer Horizon2020 projects OpenAIRE-Advance, eInfraCentral, EOSCpilot, and GÉANT project GN4-2 and GN4-3. This document represents Deliverable 2.1 of the EOSC-hub project: The First EOSC-hub Strategy Plan. It is a high-level description of the strategic direction and ambition of EOSC-hub, serving as strategic guidance for the project as a whole. Additionally, it makes the project’s intentions publicly available in a transparent way. Based on consultative interviews with e-Infrastructure and research infrastructures representatives and thematic service providers contributing to the project, the deliverable presents the strategic positioning of EOSC-hub within EOSC and outlines the first set of strategic goals to be pursued within the period of 2018-2019.