Developing and implementing the semantic interoperability recommendations of the EOSC Interoperability Framework
Creators: name: Nyberg Åkerström, Wolmar
name: Baumann, Kurt
name: Corcho, Oscar
name: David, Romain
name: Le Franc, Yann
name: Madon, Bénédicte
name: Magagna, Barbara
name: Micsik, András
name: Molinaro, Marco
name: Ojsteršek, Milan
name: Peroni, Silvio
name: Scharnhorst, Andrea
name: Vogt, Lars
name: Widmann, Heinrich
Publisher: name: EOSC Association AISBL
Year: 2024
Subjects: EOSC Association
OpenScience
Advancing OpenScience in Europe
EOSC
HorizonEU
Semantic Interoperability
EOSC Interoperability Framework

description: This document expands on and provides nuance to some of the concepts defined in the EOSC Interoperability Framework report from the EOSC Executive Board Working Groups (WG) FAIR and Architecture published in 2021 and the conceptualisation of an EOSC Interoperability Framework that it embodies (EOSC-IF). It accounts for a deep-dive into the landscape of semantic interoperability implementations and a wide range of interoperability scenarios focused around the Semantic Interoperability Specification, some subtypes of Semantic Business Objects, as well as the Semantic Artefact Catalogue and Mapping Repository. A small set of new concepts of relevance to this work and to EOSC at large have also been added.

The introduction provides context to the creation of this report, the basic concepts section provides and overview of the related components of the EOSC-IF, and the following four sections summarise explorations that frame the concluding set of recommendations to the EOSC community at large.

The explorations that frame the recommendations are titled as follows:



The Semantic Interoperability Specification: Implementation profiles for communities

The Semantic Artefact Catalogue: Twelve maturity dimensions

The Mapping Repository: Making a case for FAIR mappings and crosswalks

Implementation examples: Common use cases and real-world case studies


The recommendations themselves are organised under the following five broad categories:



Align emerging adaptations and implementations to the Semantic View of the EOSC-IF (pp. 39–42)  reference architecture.

Identify and consolidate different approaches to representing and exchanging (meta)data with the FAIR Digital Objects model described in the EOSC-IF (pp. 29–34).

Extend the EOSC-IF to include a research process perspective that can support convergence on solutions for common use cases.

Extend the set of Semantic Business Objects described in the EOSC-IF (pp. 40–41) to include artefacts such as mappings and crosswalks.

Recognise Semantic Artefact Catalogue component described in the EOSC-IF (p. 42) as a critical part of the long-term viability of any research data infrastructure.
description: This is a report of the EOSC Association’s Task Force Semantic Interoperability (2021–2023). The document was developed in continuous consultation with the task force membership (September 2023–March 2024), where a subgroup of the membership actively contributed to authoring the text. The document was submitted to EOSC Association’s Quality Review Committee (QRC) and an open community consultation on 18 January. The response to the reviewer’s comments was submitted on 12 March and the current version was approved with minor revisions on 27 March. 

Read more about the EOSC Association, the role of its task forces and the task forces’ membership on the eosc.eu website.