DRIADE (Digital Repository of Information and Data for Evolution) is a project being developed for the acquisition, preservation, sharing and re-use of heterogeneous data in support of published research in the field of evolutionary biology. Metadata is a fundamental part of DRIADE’s information architecture. This paper reports on DRIADE’s overarching goals. We describe our phased approach to developing an application profile, which supports three phases of DRIADE's development. We present a multi-method approach to developing the application profile. Our methods included a requirements assessment, content analysis, and crosswalk analysis. The paper concludes by identifying next steps and discussing the applicability of DRIADE’s work to other initiatives seeking to tightly couple published research and data.