Data standardization and integration in NFDI4Objects

This talk introduced NFDI4Objects, the consortium of the German National Research Data Infrastructure dealing with the material remains of human and environmental history, and the processes of data standardization and integration. The task is to build a sustainable, interoperable research data infrastructure capable of integrating the highly heterogeneous datasets produced across archaeology, collections, cultural heritage studies and related disciplines. At the core of this effort lies the concept of the digital object biography. This is an event-based data model that systematically links information about an object’s origin, use, collection information, contextual shifts, research or conservation acitivities. The information is linked with actors, places, time spans and sources. Using established standards such as CIDOC CRM and LIDO (Lightweight Information Describing Objects), this initiative enables consistent modelling of complex object histories, the documentation of uncertainties, and the interoperability of data across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. The digital object biography functions as a “maximum dataset” that brings together diverse research information and makes it reusable in a FAIR-compliant way.