NFDIcore 2.0: A BFO-Compliant Ontology for Multi-Domain Research Infrastructures

TL;DR

NFDIcore 2.0 is a BFO-compliant, modular ontology designed to enable interoperability across diverse research domains within Germany's National Research Data Infrastructure, supporting cross-disciplinary research and knowledge discovery.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, BFO-compliant, modular ontology tailored for multi-domain research infrastructures, with practical validation and extensibility features.

Findings

Successful validation through diverse use cases

Enhanced interoperability across research disciplines

Effective use of SWRL rules for knowledge discovery

Abstract

This paper presents NFDIcore 2.0, an ontology compliant with the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) designed to represent the diverse research communities of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in Germany. NFDIcore ensures the interoperability across various research disciplines, thereby facilitating cross-domain research. Each domain's individual requirements are addressed through specific ontology modules. This paper discusses lessons learned during the ontology development and mapping process, supported by practical validation through use cases in diverse research domains. The originality of NFDIcore lies in its adherence to BFO, the use of SWRL rules for efficient knowledge discovery, and its modular, extensible design tailored to meet the needs of heterogeneous research domains.