The ENVRI Catalogue of Services: A Road-Test for Environmental Research Infrastructure Metadata Harmonisation and Interoperability

The European Environmental Research Infrastructures (ENVRI) community, in its pursuit of enabling seamless and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) access to environmental research data and services, has realised the ENVRI Catalogue of Services. This paper provides an in-depth look into the creation of this tool, highlighting the process, the challenges faced, and the scientific novelty it brings to the field of environmental research. From the conceptualisation of its metadata schema through the semantic enrichment processes involved, to filling it with content, we examine the steps taken to ensure that the Catalogue meets the demands of a diverse set of Research Infrastructures and we report the lesson learnt in an endeavour which involved 5 international Organizations and 6 Research Infrastructures in providing access to more than 70 multidisciplinary services from the Environmental domain.