Heritage institutions use different terminologies to describe their collections. To connect collections to one another, these terminology resources need to be as open and accessible as possible, without Financial, technical or Legal boundaries. To help dissolve these boundaries, a common Vocabulary and Alignment repository is built in CATCHPlus.

The CATCHPlus Vocabulary and Alignment Repository can be used for a number of purposes. First of all, SKOS resources can be publicized easily in a number of ways, simply by uploading them to the repository. The repository may then be used to select concecpts for the description of collection items (using auto completion), or for browsing and searching for concepts or collection items described with these concepts. Connections between concepts can be used to translate queries or search results from one terminology set to another, to refine them or make them more general.
The repository offers subprojects the option to set up their software independent of thesauruses.

Currently, the repository has been realised based on a so-called RDF Store. A first version of the REST web service was developed in CATCHPlus and is available online. Source code is available as well, under open source license. CATCHPlus also developed a webbased browse and search tool to make the repository and its content accessible for end users as well.
An annotation repository is being developed for the joint storage and management of annotation data.
In some subprojects services are developed that are widely applicable or that may gain value from usage between institutions. The project office participates in realizing these services.