Highlights of the 2nd Interdisciplinary NFDI Metadata Workshop

The German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) unifies activities across all scientific disciplines, represented by NFDI consortia, to realise an overarching research data management. Interdisciplinary domain analysis  and agreement on common metadata standards for the description of research outputs are key elements for a successful FAIR implementation. The Taskforce Metadata within the NFDI Section (Meta)data, Terminologies, Provenance coordinates the community process of assessing existing cross-disciplinary terminologies and metadata schemas as suitable candidates for NFDI-agreed recommendations. A first workshop was held in Dresden in January 2025 to begin alignment on metadata [1].

Here, we present the results of the second interactive workshop organized by the Taskforce at the TIB Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology in June 2025. The goal was to identify and evaluate suitable existing generic metadata schemas and provide recommendations on how to apply these schemas in the individual disciplines. Altogether, 61 participants from 25 NFDI consortia discussed common metadata schemas, disciplinary needs, and standardisation approaches. The recommendation from the first workshop supporting the registration of repositories in re3data was reaffirmed. Thus, the consensus is now being translated into the official NFDI recommendation document. Additionally, breakout sessions facilitated cross-disciplinary discussions on using the metadata schemas identified in the first workshop – DCAT-AP, DataCite and schema.org – and how to connect these to disciplinary schemas. The Taskforce Metadata recommends that NFDI consortia adopt at least one of these three standards, thereby advancing interoperability on an international level, e.g. in the EOSC  context. 

[1]  A. Czerniak, L. J. Castro, H. Fliegl, J. Grieb, C. Henzen, O. Koepler, J. Moore, E. Söding, U. Stervbo, T. Trippel, C. Wiljes, Building Bridges through Metadata within the NFDI, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17195542 and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16735955