Project Context:
LifeWatch Italy required a structured semantic framework to register and organize the research assets that comprise its data corpus, forming the foundation for future semantic integration into a large-scale knowledge network. The project involved analysing existing metadata structures and designing reusable semantic templates to support data presentation, search, and transformation strategies.
TAKIN’s Role:
Takin.solutions delivered conceptual modelling, ontology engineering, and semantic documentation services, including:
- Analysing the LifeWatch ERIC metadata profiles and existing data structures.
- Designing a suite of semantic data models structured using CIDOC CRM, CRMdig, CRMpe, and CRMsci.
- Developing primary models for Service, Site, Project, and Dataset.
- Developing secondary models for Person, Group, Textual Work, Software, Period, and Type.
- Structuring models as reusable templates to guide data mapping, transformation, presentation, and search strategies.
- Documenting the models in structured technical documentation environments (Airtable and Zellij).
The modelling strategy also evaluated the distinction between VREs and Workflows and determined that, at a semantic level, they could be treated as a single entity class, with differentiation handled at the presentation layer through typology.
Outcome:
The project delivered a coherent and extensible semantic modelling framework for LifeWatch Italy, establishing a standardized ontological foundation for future data integration, transformation, and semantic network development across the LifeWatch research infrastructure.
