Semantic Interoperability Community (SEMIC)

The Semantic Interoperability Community (SEMIC) develops solutions to help European public administrations perform seamless and meaningful cross-border and cross-domain data exchanges.

Semantic interoperability is a fundamental enabler of such exchanges. It is crucial to agree on the use of common semantic standards, promote transparent and well-documented metadata policies and increase the visibility and reuse of existing semantic interoperability solutions.

Since its inception, SEMIC has contributed to the simplification of the environment in which EU countries exchange data for the delivery of electronic public services, addressing the issues and barriers related to semantic interoperability in the EU.

The Semantic Interoperability Community is supported by the Action on Promoting semantic interoperability amongst the European Union Member States of the former Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA²) Programme, which is now called Interoperable Europe. The SEMIC team facilitates the SEMIC community and coordinates the design and development of technical solutions enabling semantic interoperability.

SEMIC's Objectives

SEMIC provides a forum enabling semantic interoperability practitioners and experts to:

• Align and agree on common definitions and specifications at the semantic layer for public administrations in the Member States and the EU institutions.
• Promote the use of ISA² specifications, such as e-Government Core Vocabularies, Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS) and DCAT Application Profile for Data Portals in Europe (DCAT-AP) at the European, national and local level and, thereby, increase the visibility of existing data standards
• Capture and identify needs for developing new common data models.
• Explore, deploy and implement semantic specifications by participating in the execution of pilots.
• Share best practices, experiences and lessons learnt in the area of semantic interoperability.
• Raise awareness on the importance of semantic interoperability and appropriate metadata management policies.
• Discuss latest technological and policy trends and exchange views and insights at events organised by the community.

SEMIC's Benefits

A community of practitioners that supports the adoption of semantic interoperability standards through collaborative efforts and the sharing of knowledge and good practices.	Free access to an European repository of reusable semantic interoperability assets, including technical specifications and knowledge on the domain of semantic interoperability.	A central point of reference for collecting, organising, storing and making available semantic interoperability assets created by various EU entities.	Practical support and expert advice to the implementation of semantic interoperability solutions through the execution of pilots that implement ISA² specifications.