HMC Conference 2025 | Workshop 5: CDIF-4-XAS: progress, next steps and invitation to collaborate
11:30 - 13:00
Organizer: Dr Simon Hodson, CODATA
Co-organizers: Dr Heike Gorzig, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien; Dr Markus Kubin, Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration; Dr Leandro Liborio, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, STFC; Dr Abraham Nieva de la Hidalga, Cardiff University; Dr Rolf Kraal, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien; Arofan Gregory, CODATA
Introduction: The Cross Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF) is a set of practical, implementation-level principles designed to improve data stewardship practices within any community and lower the barriers to cross-domain data reuse. CDIF offers standards and methodologies for achieving different levels of interoperability necessary for reusing data across diverse domains. The first version of CDIF is built around five core profiles that address the essential functions for implementing cross-domain FAIR principles: Discovery, Access, Controlled Vocabularies, Data Description for Integration and Universals. New profiles are now being added, along with further implementation guidelines. The OSCARS CDIF-4-XAS project will use CDIF to enhance the interoperability and reusability of X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) data. XAS data is vital for many fields, but its specialised formats and metadata conventions hinder cross-domain use. Data sharing among applications, databases, and facilities is inefficient, leading to the loss of essential experimental information. With increasing data volumes and interdisciplinary collaborations, the need for a more interoperable solution becomes urgent. The first project output, an ‘Overview of standards, vocabularies, data formats and practices in the XAS area’ has recently been published. The next deliverable will provide a semantic description of two XAS community standards (NXxas for multi-spectra raw and processed data and XDI for single spectra data) using a CDIF profile (XAS-CDIF).
Workshop: This session will introduce CDIF and the CDIF-4-XAS project; we will describe the findings of the landscape analysis and describe next steps.
These include:
- Exploration of the use of the CDIF Discovery profile and of DDI-CDI data description for variables
- Characterisation of the HDF5 data structure using DDI-CDI
- Mappings of key NXxas and XDI concepts.
In particular, we will aim to discuss and explore potential use cases: the CDIF-4-XAS project contends that increased standardisation of metadata through following CDIF recommendations will increase the reuse potential of XAS data outside the original experiment. Concrete use cases need to be identified to demonstrate that this is indeed the case.
In the interactive workshop, we welcome interested participants to join the discussion, exchange ideas, and help identify additional use cases for CDIF, to foster a broader community adoption for enhancing data interoperability across domains.
Please note: This workshop is part of the HMC Conference 2025 taking place in Cologne from 12-14 May 2025. Participation must be in person and is only possible for people who are registered for the conference.
