NFDIcore 3.0: A Mid-Level BFO2020-Compliant Ontology for Sustainable Research Data Interoperability Across Consortia

This poster is presented at CoRDI 2025 in Aachen, Germany. 

The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) initiative has led to the creation of consortia spanning all scientific disciplines in Germany. Each consortium develops customized research data infrastructures tailored to its domain-specific requirements. While addressing these individual needs, achieving interoperability remains an important objective of the NFDI, as it ensures a cohesive and sustainable approach to research data management across disciplines.

To support cross-domain interoperability, NFDIcore has been developed as a mid-level ontology designed to represent metadata about NFDI resources, including research data, persons, organisations, projects, standards, services, and guidelines. Aligned with NFDI's objectives, NFDIcore provides a structured, unified framework to streamline the management, organisation, and integration of research data across diverse scientific fields. By adhering to recognised data standards, NFDIcore enhances data accessibility, facilitates effective sharing, and promotes reuse, fostering more efficient collaboration and sustainable data practices within the broader research community. Furthermore, NFDIcore represents the NFDI community structure, including projects, services, and partnerships, and allows for consistent description and referencing of data generated by NFDI partners.

The following main concepts are represented in NFDIcore v3.0:
Organisational and Research Structure: Institutions, consortia, projects, researchers, and their roles within NFDI.
Data and Information Management: Datasets, data portals, collections, publications, and intellectual outputs to support research.
Geographical and Contextual Information: Cities, countries, and regions relevant to NFDI activities.
Technology and Standards: Software, programming languages, specifications, standards, and ontologies for interoperability.
Services and Licensing: Resources, service processes, licenses, and web-based platforms supporting data sharing and collaboration.

NFDIcore is built upon the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO 2020), a foundational framework essential for enhancing knowledge representation, data exchange, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Further ontologies being reused include the Information Artefact Ontology (IAO), the Ontology of Data Analysis and Management (EDAM), the Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT), the Software Ontology (SWO). Furthermore, mappings to schema.org have been published as part of the latest NFDIcore release.

With its modular architecture, NFDIcore provides the basis for various application and domain ontologies, allowing for a focused approach to domain-specific research questions through flexible extensions. The NFDI4Culture Ontology (CTO) is a domain-specific module of NFDIcore that represents the research data of the NFDI4Culture community within a research data index, i.e., a single point of access to decentralised cultural heritage research resources. The ontology supports the integration of research (meta)data, harvested using a dedicated ETL pipeline.

The NFDI-Matwerk Ontology (MWO) module establishes a digital infrastructure for Materials Science and Engineering. This includes the NFDI-MatWerk community structure, covering task areas, infrastructure use cases, projects, researchers, and organisations. It describes essential NFDI resources such as software, workflows, ontologies, publications, datasets, metadata schemas, instruments, facilities, and educational materials, as well as services, academic events, courses, and international collaborations. Further examples for domain-specific modules of NFDIcore include the NFDI4Memory Ontology (MemO) and the NFDI4DataScience Ontology (NFDI4DSO).

The development and release of NFDIcore are supported by the Ontology Development Kit (ODK), ensuring adherence to state-of-the-art practices in ontology engineering, promoting sustainability, and enabling consistent, reproducible workflows. The ongoing development of NFDIcore is intended to be an increasingly community-driven effort. Therefore, a dedicated discussion forum has been established to facilitate active engagement and collaboration.