Speaker
Description
A critical gap in scientific data management is targeted by the project Operando4NeXus by investigating a standardised approach for storing sample environment and lab-based experimental data within the NeXus format. Despite being an international standard for neutron, x-ray, and muon data, NeXus presently lacks comprehensive methods for representing complex multimodal operando sample environments consistently across facilities. Modern operando setups are often modular and mobile, moving between laboratory and beamline environments, and generate time-dependent, multi-parameter records of the sample state, such as temperature, pressure, gas composition, and electrochemical potentials, that are essential for reproducibility and reuse.
Operando4NeXus is an HMC funded project (2026–2028) bringing together HZB, FZJ, HZDR, and KIT, with observers from DESY, ESS, FAIRmat, and PSI. Its objectives are to develop a unified standard ensuring compatibility between beamline and laboratory based measurements; to enhance data interoperability through comprehensive metadata schemas capturing the full complexity of experimental conditions; and to enable linking to external knowledge bases and ontologies to support semantic interoperability. The project works closely with the NeXus representatives and NFDI initiatives including DAPHNE4NFDI and FAIRmat to ensure resulting definitions are broadly usable and widely accepted.
This contribution presents the project goals, approach, and current status, and opens a discussion with the NeXus community on the requirements that multimodal operando experiments place on NeXus.
