CDIF-4-XAS: Describing X-Ray Spectroscopy Data for Cross-Domain Use
During the 2nd OSCARS Annual General Meeting (AGM), we connected with Abraham Nieva from Cardiff University to hear firsthand how the OSCARS-funded CDIF-4-XAS project is actively breaking down barriers in data sharing and cross-domain collaboration.
X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) data is vital for research in energy, chemistry, and environmental sciences. However, its specialised formats often create "data silos" that hinder cross-domain collaboration. The Open Science challenge here is one of data annotation and shared standards—specifically, the absence of domain-agnostic frameworks to support interoperability and reusability across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
CDIF-4-XAS takes this challenge on directly. By applying the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF), the project is standardising metadata and provenance for XAS data. This makes the data truly FAIR, enabling seamless integration across research infrastructures and the broader EOSC ecosystem.
The work is already bearing fruit: a published landscape analysis of XAS standards, vocabularies, and data formats, along with a first set of mappings from community standards to CDIF, are both openly available on Zenodo.