BMD workflow engine: FAIR workflows, RO-Crate and FAIR Signposting for a European biodiversity data space

What this was about

Lena Perzlmaier presented the workflow engine developed in Biodiversity Meets Data, motivated by letting a Natura 2000 site manager reuse a scientist's species distribution model. She argued that scientists should share code, containerise it, and define a workflow (BMD mainly uses Argo), described with Workflow RO-Crate (prospective provenance) and Workflow Run RO-Crate (retrospective provenance). A central RO-Crate service links user interfaces, execution engines (Workflow.earth on Destination Earth, and the BMD platform's engine at LifeWatch ERIC) and registries, and runs are exposed as FAIR Digital Objects by combining identifiers, RO-Crates and FAIR Signposting.

Why it matters. It shows a concrete path from 'share your code' to reusable, remotely executable and provenance-rich workflows, which is the practical substance behind data space rhetoric.

In the room

• Motivating example: an ecologist's species distribution model reused by a Natura 2000 site manager interested in invasive species spread.
• Steps asked of scientists: share code, containerise it, and define a workflow of inputs, steps and outputs; BMD mainly uses Argo and has considered CWL.
• Workflow runners can execute on remote infrastructure, so site managers need not run models on limited local hardware.
• Workflow RO-Crate adds licence, authorship, description, language and formal inputs/outputs (prospective provenance); Workflow Run RO-Crate adds a CreateAction with agent, actual parameter values and output files (retrospective provenance).
• A central RO-Crate service unpacks submitted crates, sends manifests to workflow engines and repackages run results as run crates that can be published to registries (BMD data space, WorkflowHub, Workflow.earth).
• Workflow.earth, deployed in Destination Earth, was the first implementation, focused on agricultural digital twins; the BMD platform's engine runs at LifeWatch ERIC.
• FAIR Signposting exposes metadata to machines in HTTP headers; combined with a unique identifier and RO-Crate, runs become W3C-style FAIR Digital Objects.

Notable moments