Enhancing Ontological Standardization in Materials Science: A Collaborative Effort

DIN, Robert Blümel and Christian Grunewald

13.11.2025

In today’s fast-paced manufacturing environment, digital tools must adapt to a variety of applications, each with unique requirements. The DiMAT project has taken on the challenge of developing comprehensive solutions that can streamline diverse materials manufacturing processes. Central to this effort is the use of a common terminology/ontology, which are instruments that facilitate the categorisation and interconnection of data in a meaningful manner, thereby ensuring the efficient organisation of information.

The efficient and prudent usage of ontologies and their concepts is therefore fundamental to ensuring that materials and process data is handled in accordance with the FAIR principles.
However, the creation of terminology and ontologies presents its own set of difficulties. While the traditional top-down method for ontology development starts with broad terminological concepts and narrows them down, it often proves time-consuming.

In contrast, the bottom-up approach begins with specific examples and builds connections to broader ideas; though quicker, it lacks standardized guidelines for term definition, leading to inconsistencies. To address these challenges for terminology creation in the materials science domain, DIN and Fraunhofer IWM launched the CEN Workshop “Terminology Definition for Domain Ontologies in Materials Science” (CEN/WS OntoWF), bringing together experts from DiMAT and collaborators across Europe.

This initiative seeks to foster the development of consistent terminology for bottom-up ontology development in materials science through a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA), offering guidelines for terminology definition, review and approval workflows, and technical implementation principles.

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