Welcome to SEMIC! The Semantic Interoperability Community (SEMIC) is a vibrant network of experts and practitioners dedicated to advancing semantic interoperability across Europe. Our mission is to enhance the sharing and reuse of data and services, supported by SEMIC specifications, innovative pilots, and a rich knowledge hub. Join us in shaping the future of seamless data exchange!
The SEMIC action started under the former ISA and ISA² Programme, which evolved into the Interoperable Europe programme, an initiative by the European Commission.
- SEMIC Specifications, Pilots and Proof-of-Concepts
- The SEMIC Style Guide & the SEMIC Core Vocabularies Handbook
- Usage Guidelines
- SEMIC Support Centre
Use the dropdown menus to display the content within each category.
Core Vocabularies and their Application Profiles
| Specification | Description |
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The Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a legal entity, e.g. the legal name, the activity, address, etc. |
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The Core Criterion and Core Evidence Vocabulary (CCCEV) is a simplified, reusable, and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of criterion and evidence, and is designed to support the exchange of information between organizations. |
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The Core Location Vocabulary (CLV) is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a location, represented as an address, a geographic name, or a geometry. |
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The Core Person Vocabulary (CPV)is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a person, e.g. their name, their gender, their date of birth, their address, etc. |
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The Core Public Event Vocabulary (CPEV) is a simplified, reusable and extensible data model that captures the fundamental characteristics of a public event, e.g. the title, the date, the location, the organiser etc. |
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The Core Public Organisation Vocabulary (CPOV) provides a common data model for describing public organisations in the European Union. |
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The Core Public Service Vocabulary Application Profile (CPSV-AP) is a reusable and common data set to describe European public services. |
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The Core Vocabulary glossary is the name space containing all the terms defined and used in the Core Vocabularies. |
DCAT-AP & its extensions
| Application Profiles | Description |
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The Data Catalogue Vocabulary Application Profile (DCAT-AP) is a specification for metadata records, enhancing semantic interoperability across European data portals. Based on W3C's DCAT, it supports standardised dataset descriptions, enabling efficient data exchange and reuse. |
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The annex DCAT-AP for High-Value Datasets provides guidelines on how to use DCAT-AP taking into account the requirements imposed by the High-Value Dataset Implementing Regulation (HVD IR). |
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BRegDCAT-AP is an extension of DCAT-AP for describing base registries. It interconnects public services with base registries and their associated services. |
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GeoDCAT-AP is an extension of DCAT-AP for describing geospatial datasets, dataset series and services. |
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MLDCAT-AP is an extension of DCAT-AP for describing machine learning models, together with their datasets, quality measured on the datasets and citing papers. |
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STATDCAT-AP is an extension of DCAT-AP for describing statistical datasets. |
Other semantic specifications
| Other semantic specifications | Description |
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ADMS is a vocabulary for describing interoperability assets, enhancing their discoverability for ICT developers by standardising metadata for easier exploration and access. |
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ADMS-AP extends the use of ADMS for the description of other types of interoperability solutions, meaning solutions covering the political, legal, organisational and technical interoperability layers. |
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A DCAT-AP Feed is a Linked Data Event Stream with containing ActivityStream entities Create, Update and Delete, about the DCAT-AP entities in a catalog. |
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Linked Data Event Streams (LDES) is a technical standard that applies linked data principles to data streams. |
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The SDG Search Service model enables competent authorities to use common metadata to structure their public services, independently from the level of granularity or complexity of these services. |
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The Short-Term Rental Application Profile (STR-AP) harmonises and streamlines the framework for data generation and data sharing on short-term accommodation rental services across the EU. |
Pilots & Proof-of-Concepts
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Name |
Description |
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| A proof-of-concept on retraining Large Language Models (LLMs) with domain-specific data from the European public sector can enhance the performance and interpretability of AI in clustering pledges related to the Transition Pathway for Tourism. |
Ongoing |
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A software development kit for the Solid protocol. |
Ongoing |
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A proof-of-concept on the use of text mining for the analysis of pledges on the Transition Pathway for Tourism. |
Ongoing |
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A proof of concept for the transformation of ISO:19139 to GeoDCAT-AP compliant metadata. |
Updated in 2024 |
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A pilot to convert existig Word-based NIFO factsheets into structured data following the Resource Description Framework (RDF). |
Completed in 2023 |
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A proof-of-concept for the HTML+RDFa representation of metadata based on DCAT-AP, and related extensions (as GeoDCAT-AP). |
Completed in 2021 |
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A a proof-of-concept for the RDF representation of the OGC EPSG register of coordinate reference systems, extending the RDF mappings for reference systems defined in GeoDCAT-AP. |
Completed in 2021 |
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A proof-of-concept for the RDF representation of the IANA registry, generated from its XML distributions. |
Completed in 2021 |
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A proof-of-concept API designed to expose a CSW endpoint in a Web-friendly way, and enabling the exploration of its content without the need of specific client applications. |
Completed in 2020 |
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A proof-of-concept for automated testing based on CPSV-AP Creator. |
Completed in 2019 |
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A federal catalogue of public services, compiling public service descriptions at the Walloon, Flemish and federal levels, all displayed on a user-friendly and easily searchable webpage. |
Completed in 2018 |
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A cross-border catalogue of public services, i.e. a catalogue of public services at European level. Public service descriptions from Estonia and Finland are harvested, transformed and displayed on a user-friendly webpage. |
Completed in 2018 |
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A cross-border catalogue of public services, i.e. a catalogue of public services at European level. Public service descriptions from Spain and Portugal are harvested, transformed and displayed on a user-friendly webpage. |
Completed in 2018 |
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Configurations for OpenRefine to transform Excel Epirus data into CPSV-AP. |
Completed in 2018 |
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Pilot to develop a reusable proof of concept, to demonstrate the benefits of publishing legal information as (linked) open data, using the ELI ontology. |
Completed in 2016 |
The SEMIC Style Guide defines the style guide to be applied to the SEMIC’s semantic data specifications, notably to the eGovernment Core Vocabularies and Application Profiles. It provides rules on naming conventions, syntax, artefact management and organisation. It is meant to be complemented with technical artefacts and implementations that enable automatic conformance checking and transformation of conceptual models into formal semantic representations. The HTML representation of the SEMIC Style Guide can be found here.
The SEMIC Core Vocabularies Handbook explains the usage of the SEMIC Core Vocabularies (CV) in a easy and transparent way. It is meant for business users who want to understand where the Core Vocabularies can be useful, and for semantic engineers who seek straightforward guidance suitable to specific use cases.
This GitHub page contains all the SEMIC repositories. This includes the semantic assets such as Core Vocabularies & Application Profiles, but also internally developed tools, pilots, and much more.
The Governance repository is used to share policies, governance, maintenance, and communications with the community. What is expressed in this repository is applicable to all repositories, unless equivalent documents are explicitly mentioned or included in the respective repository.
The issue sections of the relevant repositories can be used to post questions regarding certain semantic assets, tools, etc. However, if these sections are not suitable, the SEMIC email address can be used to make inquiries ([email protected]).
The SEMIC Support Centre is a centralised place where documentation on SEMIC specifications, their releases, pilots, tooling, blog posts, webinar recordings, events, … and much more SEMIC related content can be found. Visit the SEMIC Support Centre and explore everything SEMIC has to offer.