As part of the EN/NAS9300 series of standards, the LOTAR Basic and Common Parts Working Group are developing a new recommended practices document concerning metadata requirements for a LOTAR archival package, which will be published as Part 021 of the EN/NAS 9300 series of standards.

The LOTAR standards are developed from the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model (ISO 14721), which provides a conceptual framework for Archive systems. Using the OAIS reference model and the LOTAR basic and common Parts (EN/NAS 9300-001, 002, 003, 005, 007, …) as a process guideline, Part 021 establishes a minimum set of metadata for an archive in support of business and regulatory requirements for long-term archiving of digital product data. In particular it establishes the metadata requirements common to all domains (3D Mechanical CAD and PMI, Composites, MBSE, Electrical Harness, PLM) and establishes the framework for a common approach in the individual domain parts (100, 200, etc.).

OAIS defines certain minimum classes of metadata that should be held in an archive which support the trust in, the access to, the context of and the relationships between the elements of the content information (model data).

The new Part 021 has been developed by the Basic and Common Parts Working Group led by Jeff Klein (Boeing), together with Torben Lindeman (Airbus), Jochen Boy (PROSTEP) and Stephen Mackey (Penwern), an archiving and digital preservation consultant.

Part 021 is currently in external ballot with ASD-STAN and AIA and it is anticipated that it will be published in the second half of 2026.