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mobilityDCAT-AP v3.0.0 published – a major step towards interoperable European mobility metadata
Major update of the NAPCORE metadata specification
Increasing role of harmonised metadata
Mobility data is only as useful as our ability to discover, understand and connect it. As more European countries develop National Access Points and publish increasingly diverse mobility datasets, common metadata becomes essential for making those datasets easier to find and reuse across borders.
The major contribution of the NAPCORE Metadata Working Group to this emerging field is mobilityDCAT-AP. This metadata specification is a mobility-specific extension of the DCAT Application Profile (DCAT-AP) for data portals in Europe. Developed and governed within NAPCORE Task 4.4, the specification provides a common metadata model designed specifically for the mobility domain.
Earlier versions of mobilityDCAT-AP have already been adopted or are being prepared for adoption in 12 European countries. This creates an important foundation for cross-border metadata aggregation and improved discoverability of mobility datasets. A shared model can also simplify NAP deployment, support localisation through controlled vocabularies and make automated translation of key terms more feasible.
We are now presenting mobilityDCAT-AP v3.0.0: a major update of the popular metadata specification and one of NAPCORE’s major milestones for 2026.
Advances in mobilityDCAT-AP v3.0.0
The recent version v3.0.0 is considered a major semantic release, reflecting substantial changes and improvements throughout the data model, documentation and technical artifacts. Relevant changes and improvements can be viewed through six themes:
Enhanced cross-domain compatibility
Version 3.0.0 takes the specification further by aligning its data model with the parallel specifications DCAT-AP 3.0.1 and GeoDCAT-AP 3.0.0. This means that the mobilityDCAT-AP data model (classes/properties/controlled vocabs) is fully compatible with the parallel data models. This way, a NAP-hosted metadata record (expressed in mobilityDCAT-AP) can be easily harvested by an Open Data portal (using DCAT-AP). In addition, version 3.0.0 aligns the structure of the documentation with the latest DCAT-AP publication, thereby ensuring a more consistent user experience for users who work with various European metadata specifications
Expanded expressiveness
Version 3.0.0 introduces several new classes and properties, allowing for additional information about data catalogues, data sets and data distributions. These additions are based on a thorough review of the (geo)DCAT-AP data models, analyzing potential benefits and use cases in the mobility data domain. One prominent addition is the class Dataset Series (and complementary properties), allowing for describing multiple datasets that share common characteristics. Still, not all classes and properties are reused from (geo)DCAT-AP, to keep the data model compact and unambiguous.
Latest technology
Version 3.0.0 adopts best practices and state-of-the-art tools to host and publish its technical artifacts. Among others, it uses w3id persistent identifiers for the publication of semantic specifications on the Web. Further, it implements content negotiation to serve different RDF serializations of the specification, the examples and SHACL shapes. These SHACL shapes are now modularised and defined with versioned and dereferenceable URIs. Under the hood, the GitHub repository of mobilityDCAT-AP has been refactored to introduce automations for more consistent development and publication. Corresponding guidelines for the tool chain, procedures for publications and the repository structure are established.
Improved user orientation
User information, as long as not covered by the v3.0.0 specification, has been revised and expanded in the mobilityDCAT-AP Wiki. Users who want to upgrade from mobilityDCAT-AP v1.1.0 to the newest v3.0.0 are given a detailed Migration Guideline, indicating all necessary steps to upgrade existing metadata registries. Further, the Working Group has improved all technical artifacts, enabling a direct deployment of the metadata specification at individual metadata registries. The serialisation files have been thoroughly cross-checked, ensuring they correctly represent the model definitions in machine-readable formats. The example files have been rewritten with a minimum and maximum population, showcasing how a real-life metadata record should be formatted in mobilityDCAT-AP. Also, the SHACL files have been rewritten and restructured, denoting only constraints specific to mobilityDCAT-AP, while DCAT-AP-related constraints are referenced from the DCAT-AP repository.
Streamlined documentation
The textual information was entirely revised. Among others, each property now provides separated definitions and usage notes. Classes and properties that have been inherited from (geo)DCAT-AP are now referenced back to the original definitions. Deep-dive information on model elements, such as additional usage notes, background information and example codes, have been moved from to main specification to a dedicated Wiki section, keeping the original specification compact and easy to read.
Smoother governance
The governance processes and rules have been substantially enhanced, using the GitHub repository as the central hub for the versioning and hosting of all digital mobilityDCAT-AP products. All changes and resolutions regarding the data model and the documentation are consequently documented as GitHub issues, including votings and decisions for/against proposed changes. Workflows for new versions of the specification have been newly defined, with a high level of automatization and version control.
Together, these themes reflect an effort to make mobilityDCAT-AP not only technically compatible with the wider European data ecosystem, but also easier to understand and implement.
For mobility data users, the value of such a specification may be most visible in what happens behind the scenes. Better-aligned metadata makes datasets easier to discover, compare and connect, creating the conditions for services and analyses that can operate across national boundaries.
With mobilityDCAT-AP v3.0.0, the focus is therefore not simply on another version of a technical specification. It is on building a more consistent metadata foundation for Europe’s increasingly interconnected mobility data landscape.
Find out more
All changes in mobilityDCAT-AP v3.0.0 are explained in detail in the Version 3.0.0 Change Log.
Generic information on the Metadata Working Group in NAPCORE is found here.
Outlook
The NAPCORE Metadata Working Group continues to foster a harmonised and efficient metadata landscape across European NAPs.
To do so, the mobilityDCAT-AP specification will be further maintained, with minor updates planned during 2027. Further, additional support and guidance to deployers is planned, including a study on metadata mechanisms, concepts for AI-based metadata generation and techniques for compliance analyses.
We will inform about further advances of this Working Group at this website.
Authors: Peter Lubrich, Mert Aksaç
Visuals by: Tina Bollmann-Dodd, Sara Guerra De Oliveira
