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CDIF-4-XAS Project Final Results and Recommendations

The CDIF-4-XAS project has released its final report outlining results and recommendations: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24057167

The CDIF-4-XAS project addresses the critical challenge of data interoperability within X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS). While XAS is fundamental to diverse scientific fields ranging from physics to environmental science, the lack of standardized metadata and formats hinders the FAIR sharing of data across domains. Existing community standards like XDI and NeXus facilitate internal exchange but often lack the contextualization required for broader reuse. This document outlines the implementation of the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF) within the XAS domain to establish a lingua franca for FAIR data exchange.

The project successfully mapped XAS-specific formats to CDIF profiles, ensuring that data is accompanied by machine-actionable metadata. Technical feasibility was demonstrated through the development of prototype tools within the Galaxy workflow management system. These tools automate the generation of CDIF-compliant metadata and RO-Crates, enabling provenance tracking and metadata-driven data reuse without manual file handling. Examples showed that published plots could be reproduced by querying data through CDIF metadata rather than navigating complex file structures. Furthermore, the project acted as a test platform for CDIF itself, feeding requirements back to improve the framework for binary data descriptions.

Based on these findings, this document recommends establishing a standard XAS Community Profile to define mandatory CDIF fields and publish a community-agreed Concept Scheme. It further advises maintaining the developed mappings and tools while organizing a community liaison group to coordinate with broader FAIR initiatives like EOSC, and leveraging the work of the CDIF4EOSC project and the wider CDIF initiative to do so. Adopting these guidelines could decouple XAS data from discipline-specific silos and software platforms, enhance reproducibility, and could position the XAS community as a leader in FAIR implementation within Photon and Neutron research.

Ultimately, this work outlines how abstract FAIR principles can be transformed into practical tools and workflows that benefit both immediate users and the wider scientific community by ensuring data is understandable and reusable across domains. The recommendations provide a concrete roadmap for sustaining these efforts through community governance and continued technical development.

Summary of Recommendations

Recommendations for the XAS Community
The following recommendations are made to the XAS Community. They could be taken forward by existing collaborations, building on the work of the CDIF-4-XAS project, leveraging the work of the CDIF4EOSC project and the EOSC ecosystem.

  1. Provide a standard Community Profile for using CDIF in XAS
  2. Publish agreed Concept Scheme in CDIF-compliant form
  3. Develop and maintain mappings to/from community standards
  4. Maintain and further develop tools leveraging CDIF implementation
  5. Enhance visibility of community resources for adoption and use of CDIF to relevant domains
  6. Organise a Community for further collaboration around CDIF/FAIR, and for the development of new and maintenance of existing resources

Recommendations for the wider PaN / PaNOSC Community
The following recommendations are made to the wider PaN / PaNOSC Community. They could also be taken forward by existing collaborations, building on the work of the CDIF-4-XAS project, leveraging the work of the CDIF4EOSC project and the EOSC ecosystem.

  1. Develop a PaN community profile of CDIF, using the XAS community profile as a starting point.
  2. Expand tools and mappings covering further forms of spectroscopy.
  3. Develop and maintain a PaN glossary of agreed concepts, expressed in CDIF-conformant SKOS.
  4. Identify a PAN community collaboration with the CDIF4EOSC project and the wider CDIF initiative.

Recommendations for adopting the CDIF-4-XAS approach
The following recommendations suggest key steps for applying the CDIF-4-XAS approach can be applied to other domains. Informed by the experience of the CDIF-4-XAS project will also be used in the CDIF4EOSC project and will inform other CDIF implementation activities:

  1. Analyse the standards landscape in the community to clearly identify where there are benefits in adopting CDIF.
  2. Leverage existing metadata and semantic resources.
  3. Develop canonical terminologies and standard, formal concept definitions.
  4. Develop prototypes and tools which are familiar to the community and leverage the widely used standards recommended by CDIF.
  5. Develop and extend collaboration within the domain, in order to maintain momentum for CDIF implementation.
  6. Enhance the visibility of available resources, to encourage members of the community to adopt CDIF and to contribute to further efforts