4CH has established a model for the EU-wide infrastructure of Competence Centres, including a variety of national structures designed to fit with the requirements of individual countries as well as a range of services to be offered. One of these is training for which the TwiniT webinars were developed.
For the future, 4CH will be established as an AISBL, a non-profit organisation governed by Belgian law. The draft was approved by the Board of Directors in September and INFN two months later and procedures to establish the AISBL will start in January 2024.
Regarding national nodes, a hybrid solution will be used as each one has to be self-sustaining. This consists of contact points and networks, one of the key objectives of the AISBL being to build these networks. The first node, 4CH.it was proposed around a year ago and following a pilot, has now been established. In addition, a third level of National Communities is also being used where appropriate, being regionally based – a pilot for the Abruzzo Region has recently been launched.
There are several countries who are not represented in the current 4CH partnership but who are keen to join and during the next year, 4CH will evaluate their applications fr membership. It is envisaged that the AISBL will be finalised by mid-2024.