A new publication in Bausteine Forschungsdatenmanagement presents an approach developed in the AIMS project that is now also at the heart of the NFDI4ING Metadata Profile Service (MPS). It addresses a challenge relevant across engineering research: how can researchers create structured, interoperable metadata that reflect the specific needs of their research while building on established terminologies and standards? The approach uses flexible metadata profiles to bridge this gap, making semantic metadata easier to define, reuse and integrate across research data services.
Bridging the gap between standards and research practice
High-quality metadata are essential for making research data FAIR – findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. In practice, however, researchers face a dilemma: generic metadata standards are often not specific enough to adequately describe individual experiments, processes and datasets, while highly specialised schemas can become difficult to reuse and maintain.
The approach developed in AIMS addresses this gap through modular, RDF-compliant metadata profiles. Terms from existing terminologies and ontologies can be combined and constrained for a particular application, for example by defining expected data types, cardinalities or relationships. A hierarchical approach makes it possible to reuse and extend existing profiles instead of developing new schemas from scratch.
From AIMS to an NFDI4ING service
The work presented in the publication is closely connected to NFDI4ING. AIMS and NFDI4ING share contributors and have worked on closely related challenges around semantic metadata and interoperability. The software developed in the DFG-funded AIMS project now provides the basis for the NFDI4ING Metadata Profile Service (MPS).
The Metadata Profile Service makes the approach available through a browser-based graphical interface. Researchers and data stewards can search existing terminologies, assemble terms into application-specific profiles and define the necessary constraints without requiring extensive expertise in RDF, SHACL or ontology modelling. Profiles can subsequently be shared and reused and can serve as templates for creating consistent, machine-readable metadata.
The service is already part of NFDI4ING’s portfolio and can connect these profiles with further research data infrastructures and services, including the NFDI4ING Knowledge Graph Environment Explorer and Coscine.
Making semantic metadata usable
The publication highlights an important step from conceptual metadata standardisation towards tools that researchers can use in their everyday work. Development continues within AIMS, with NFDI4ING benefiting directly from these advances through the Metadata Profile Service. As the profiles evolve, they also provide a common semantic foundation for more closely integrating NFDI4ING services and connecting them with researchers’ existing environments, including electronic laboratory notebooks.
The full publication by Jürgen Windeck, Max Schröder, Ingo Barke, Lukas Böttcher, Mirco Wendt, Sylvia Speller, Jacquline Wormstädt, Sebastian Schick, Ilona Lang, Moritz Kern, Marius Politze, and Marc Fuhrmans is available here: https://bausteine-fdm.de/article/view/9035/8699
Thorsten Schwetje