Semantic Interoperability icon
Semantic Interoperability

The digital transformation of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) results in highly heterogeneous data formats and terminologies – at the same time, process, material, and provenance information have to remain interpretable and actionable across workflows, tools, and organizational boundaries. The PMD working area “Semantic Interoperability” addresses this by establishing a shared, machine-actionable layer of meaning: we develop and maintain semantic representations as a backbone, foster bottomup, community-driven curation, and provide tools and guidance so that semantic modeling becomes practically usable in projects. The focus is on three core products/offers:

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PMDco
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Application Ontologies
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PMD Ontology Playground

1) PMD Core Ontology (PMDco) – semantic backbone for MSE

The Platform MaterialDigital Core Ontology (PMDco) is a mid-level ontology for the MSE domain. It provides semantic concepts to describe processes, experiments, workflows, and simulation consistently – supporting reproducibility, reuse, and data interoperability. PMDco is based on BFO and reuses further BFO-aligned ontologies (e.g., RO, IAO, OBI) to achieve interoperability within an established ecosystem. The ontology is implemented in a modular manner (ODK-based release management) and complemented by semantic patterns and SHACL shapes to standardize recurring modeling needs and facilitate quality assurance/validation.

2) Application Ontologies – domain-specific extensions + support

Building on PMDco, application ontologies are created to model specific subdomains (e.g., the domains: manufacturing, testing, analysis, simulation) in a precise way while staying semantically compatible with the PMD backbone. We develop exemplary ontologies and support projects methodologically and technically – ranging from best practices and collaborative workflows to repository structure. To make getting started easier, we provide a preconfigured template repository (including workflows/ODK setup and automated documentation via Widoco/GitHub Pages) that supports clean, sustainable further development.

3) PMD Ontology Playground – exchange, community & “help to help yourself”

The PMD Ontology Playground is our community offering for exchanging knowledge on semantic technologies – especially PMD solutions. It brings together discussions/interaction (forum), materials/links, and a regular exchange format (“Playground” meetings). This creates a low-threshold space in which domain experts and ontology engineers can clarify modeling questions, share experience, and feed requirements back into the continued development of PMDco and application ontologies.