The I-ADOPT Framework

The core members of the RDA I-ADOPT Working Group developed a systematic and FAIR way to represent variable descriptions, endorsed by the Research Data Alliance.

Variables define which properties are observed and represented in data. They are central to observational science. However, variable descriptions are often not FAIR: they rely on free text, lack consistent structure, and are difficult to understand, compare, and reuse, especially by machines.

I-ADOPT acts as a semantic broker by enriching existing variable descriptions with human- and machine-readable semantics. It enables interoperability without requiring changes to existing data structures and supports language-independent representations.

To support researchers, FAIR2Adapt and NFDI4Earth are developing the embeddable I-ADOPT Annotator, an LLM-enabled service for creating FAIR variable descriptions. This I-ADOPT service will enable cross-domain interoperability and will add scientific and economic value to observational data

Learn more:

• I-ADOPT website

• RDA I-ADOPT WG

• I-ADOPT ontology

• I-ADOPT RDA recommendations: Magagna, B., Moncoiffé, G., Devaraju, A., Stoica, M., Schindler, S., Pamment, A., & RDA I-ADOPT WG. (2022). InteroperAble Descriptions of Observable Property Terminologies (I-ADOPT) WG Outputs and Recommendations (1.1.0). Zenodo.https://doi.org/10.15497/RDA00071

• I-ADOPT Corpus