At the core of the platform lies a common data model to enable interoperability between the different components. In order to interact with the platform, a component should know how to interact with at least a subset of the CDM. The model describes all the commonly used data that is dealt with in the platform, and therefore covers at least taxonomic names and concepts; literature references; authors; (type) specimen; structured descriptive data; and species related content of any kind like economic use or conservation status. Nearly all this data has already been described by existing or upcoming TDWG standards. Unfortunately, there are still major gaps in compatibility, so a new integrated data model has to be developed in order to quickly yield results.