DCAT — Data Catalog Vocabulary
Overview
DCAT is the W3C standard for describing datasets and data catalogues in RDF (Resource Description Framework). It lets a dataset described once in one catalogue be discovered automatically through others, which is how researchers find openly shared brain data spread across many separate repositories. Published as a W3C Recommendation (v1: 2014, v2: 2020, v3: 2024), it is used internationally via a growing family of application profiles that adapt it for specific sectors and catalogue networks.
Application profiles
DCAT-AP is the European application profile of DCAT, required for data discovery across EOSC data spaces. It is maintained by the European Commission’s SEMIC programme and is the base specification that sector-specific profiles extend.
HealthDCAT-AP is the health-sector extension of DCAT-AP, developed within the EHDS2 pilot and HealthData@EU projects and mandated under the European Health Data Space Regulation (Article 60, 2025) for national health dataset catalogues. It adds health-specific metadata fields covering data access conditions, permitted secondary uses, population characteristics, and consent frameworks, so that health datasets deposited in national Health Data Access Body catalogues are discoverable across the HealthData@EU cross-border infrastructure. As of 2025, national production implementations are limited: Health-RI in the Netherlands (National Health Data Catalogue) and Ireland (HealthData@IE, a government-funded project building HDAB infrastructure) are the two documented deployments, with EHDS implementing acts that will make compliance mandatory across all member states planned for 2027.
Connections
- extends: Dublin Core (builds on DC terms)
- relatedTo: EOSC (DCAT-AP is the European application profile of DCAT required for data discovery across EOSC data spaces)
- recommendedBy: 1+MG Framework (DCAT specified for the 1+MG User Portal data catalog layer for cross-border genomic data discovery)
- relatedTo: EHDS (HealthDCAT-AP, the health-sector DCAT-AP extension, is mandated under EHDS Article 60 for national health dataset catalogues)
Resources
- https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-dcat/ (W3C DCAT specification)
- https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/semantic-interoperability-community-semic/solution/dcat-application-profile-data-portals-europe (DCAT-AP)
- https://www.healthinformationportal.eu/healthdcat-ap (HealthDCAT-AP, European Health Information Portal)