The rapid expansion of semantic artefacts in the Heritage domain, including ontologies, thesauri, metadata standards, and application profiles, has made it increasingly challenging for researchers to identify, compare, and reuse appropriate resources. As interoperability becomes a key requirement for digital heritage research, the lack of a unified access point to these tools can hinder reuse, alignment, and integration across projects and infrastructures.
To respond to this challenge, H‑SeTIS (Heritage – Semantic Tools and Interoperability Survey) has been developed as a comprehensive hub for the systematic cataloguing, description, and interconnection of semantic and interoperable resources relevant to Heritage studies. H‑SeTIS provides researchers, developers, and institutions with a structured environment to explore the semantic landscape of the domain and support informed choices in data modelling and interoperability strategies.
H‑SeTIS, created within the H2IOSC project by the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR ISPC) unit in Milan, with the involvement of E‑RIHS.it, the Italian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science and the leading research infrastructure of the H2IOSC cluster, builds on institutional expertise in semantic technologies and research infrastructure interoperability for cultural heritage.
A FAIR‑oriented catalogue of semantic tools
The platform currently hosts more than 250 records, covering ontologies, thesauri, metadata standards, and application profiles that are specifically developed for, or widely adopted in, the Heritage sector. Designed in accordance with the FAIR principles, H‑SeTIS promotes openness and reuse by providing API access to its full dataset, enabling seamless integration with external services, digital platforms, and research workflows.
An extensive curated bibliography
In addition to the semantic resource catalogue, H‑SeTIS offers a curated bibliography maintained through a dedicated Zotero library, which currently includes over 900 references. This collection brings together publications related to the surveyed semantic artefacts, alongside broader contributions addressing semantic web technologies, interoperability frameworks, and standards in cultural heritage research.
Supporting interoperability and open science
By offering a unified access point to semantic resources and related literature, H‑SeTIS contributes to strengthening interoperability across research infrastructures and digital services. The platform supports open science practices and fosters knowledge sharing within the Heritage research community, aligning with the broader objectives of H2IOSC.
Access the H‑SeTIS platform: https://h-setis.cnr.it/
H‑SeTIS represents a concrete outcome of H2IOSC – Humanities and cultural Heritage Italian Open Science Cloud, developed within WP4 “RIs Nodes and Resources Interoperability”, specifically Activity 4.10 “Resources interoperability: DIGILAB resources (E‑RIHS)”. The platform is actively developed and maintained by Erica Scarpa and Riccardo Valente (CNR ISPC), under the coordination of Irene Rossi (CNR ISPC).
