I’ll be giving a talk on BMI next week at the PROPL 2026 workshop (organized by @dorchard!). I’ll post a link to my slides afterward.
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I’m trying to find the right one-sentence description of BMI. Here’s one from me:
The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a set of functions that describes how numerical models can be queried, modified, and run.
and one from @mcflugen:
The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a language-independent specification that makes scientific software easier to couple, reuse, and integrate with other tools.
and another from me, riffing on Eric’s:
The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a language-independent specification for model-to-model and data-to-model communication.
If anyone can think of something better, I’ll use it in my talk and credit you!
I think they’re all good! Perhaps Eric’s is best for a “general scientific audience”, and your riff on Eric’s is more suited for a modelling/systems community.
PROPL looks great - have fun! 
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I like @mcflugen’s because “makes scientific software easier to couple, reuse, and integrate with other tools” is a good, concrete goal, and I like your second one, because “a language-independent specification for model-to-model and data-to-model communication.” says what it actually specifies. Put the two together?
The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a language-independent specification for model-to-model and data-to-model communication that makes scientific software easier to couple, reuse and integrate with other tools.
Might be a bit long now, though.
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Maybe “scientific software” is too general? Would “numerical models and datasets” be better?
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Thank you, all, for thinking about this. I’ve combined comments from @wkearn and @mcflugen to get:
The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a language-independent specification for model-to-model and data-to-model communication that makes numerical models and datasets easier to couple, reuse and integrate with other tools.
which reads well and fits on a slide!
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@mcflugen and I talked a little more this morning, and we’ve trimmed the description:
The Basic Model Interface (BMI) is a language-independent specification that makes numerical models easier to couple, reuse, and integrate with other tools.
Fewer words, better!
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Another thought. I’ve been using “standardize” loosely when talking about BMI. I think I should use “regularize” (or something similar) instead. There are too many denotations of “standardize” that I don’t want to evoke.
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Agree - “standardise” means lots of different things to different people! “Harmonise” could be an alternative (even with a “z” in there 
)
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Really looking forward to seeing you - and hearing your talk!