The context of data is important in understanding its appropriate use in research, including an understanding of the dependencies between different parts of the data, and the purpose and methods of the scientific experiment which produced it. While there is a strong parallel here with provenance, in CDIF we choose to approach these two aspects of data separately, in part because the standards most commonly used to describe context are different from those describing the historical process which has produced the data. Among the standards which are commonly encountered in FAIR descriptions of context is the Research Data Alliance’s I-ADOPT. This specification supports the description of a variable within its scientific setting, to support the appropriate use of the corresponding data.
There is also a strong relationship between the description of variable context in I-ADOPT and the description of the structure of variables, as we see in the CDIF Data Description and Data Structure profiles. The overlap between these models has been examined, and as a CDIF profile for context is developed, these two aspects of the metadata will be fully aligned. Examples of the use of I-ADOPT are part of some CDIF implementations under the WorldFAIR+ umbrella, and these will also provide concrete input for the development of a profile.