The role and landscape of ontologies for the ELIXIR communities

Résumé fourni par la source

This document reports on the conclusions of the workshop ‘The role and landscape of ontologies for ELIXIR communities’, held during the ELIXIR All Hands 2025 conference in Thessaloniki, Greece. The workshop brought together ontology creators, software developers, bioinformaticians and data reusers to discuss the essential role of semantic technologies, and ontologies in particular, in the discovery, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIRness) of scientific data. Three presentations were given, addressing topics such as the distinction between glossaries, taxonomies and ontologies, and the presentation of practical resources for selecting and integrating ontologies, including the ELIXIR toolkit, RDMkit, FAIR Cookbook and widely used registries such as the Ontology Lookup Service (OLS). Community case studies, such as the FNS-Harmony ontology for harmonising metadata in food and microbiome research, and the ARC framework for annotating multi-omic data, highlighted both the challenges and solutions for integration for context-rich research data management. Participant feedback highlighted persistent barriers, including landscape complexity, integration difficulties, and knowledge gaps, while emphasising the need for improved interoperability, best practices, and educational resources. The workshop identified several possible courses of action to be developed within the context of ELIXIR: promoting validated and consistent reasoning in ontology development and intensifying training efforts. The diversity of participants and the format of the discussions enabled rich exchanges between ontology purists and practitioners, who agreed on the next steps to advance the adoption of ontology within ELIXIR. The proposed creation of a FAIR Cookbook-type guide promises to support future community best practices, with follow-up initiatives planned for 2025 and 2026.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.