The DCAT Application Profile for Data Portals in Switzerland (DCAT-AP CH) is based on Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT[1]) which is intended for describing the data recorded in Swiss data portals (e.g. opendata.swiss). Its target group is the operators of data portals in Switzerland (referred to in DCAT terminology as "Data Receivers") and the providers of these data who maintain data catalogues (referred to in DCAT terminology as "Data Senders").

As a rule, data portals do not provide the data themselves, but only metadata on the data within data catalogues. Their purpose is to make locating and reusing of data possible. Therefore, DCAT-AP CH focuses primarily on the description of metadata.

DCAT-AP CH is also intended for ensuring compatibility with the Application Profile for Data Portals in Europe (DCAT-AP). Since this ceased to be the case with Version 1, the present Version 2 has been defined within the framework of the eCH "Open Government Data" working group. This ensures the highest possible compatibility with DCAT-AP (current version 2.1.0).