Announcing Semantic Materials

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We are delighted to announce the launch of Semantic Materials, a new venture that delivers science- and analytics-based knowledge organisation systems to industrial and research communities across Europe.

Semantic Materials forms the semantic technologies branch of Goldbeck Consulting that brings together experts in science and engineering, and analytic philosophy to design and develop ontologies for research and innovation.

This venture is the culmination of several projects that we have been involved with. It incorporates the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO) along with many tools and developments from several EU funded projects: OntoTrans, OpenModel, NanoMECommons and BatCAT.

Learn more about Semantic Materials or get in touch with us or the Semantic Materials team directly.

EMMC2025 conference in Wien

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Today, the EMMC 2025 International Workshop — EMMC2025 — kicks off three days’ of events at the University of Vienna, Austria.

The workshop takes place every other year and this year the theme is “Accelerated Innovation and Sustainability by a Materials Modelling and Data Ecosystem”. The theme will be looked at from many angles including:

  • Advancements in modelling and integration with characterisation
  • Digitalisation and Interoperability including Materials Commons [2]
  • Software development, deployment and maintenance
  • Adoption in industrial ecosystems
  • Sustainability
  • Policy

Gerhard from GCL is attending, so please feel free to say hello and talk to Gerhard about the work that we do. He will be presenting a poster at the event, which also forms the basis for his flash talk on Wednesday 9 April.

The poster presents work that has been undertaken as part of the BatCAT project.

Gerhard’s presentation:

Logo for the EMMO

EMMO 1.0.0 released

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We are pleased to announce the 1.0.0 release of the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO). This release is a major milestone in a multidisciplinary effort to develop a standard representational framework for the materials and manufacturing sectors, and a culmination of more than seven years of development and collaboration by many projects within the EMMC community.

EMMO overcomes issues of other ontologies in rigorously representing the multi-scale nature of materials, the causal nature of interactions, and the strong connection between material properties and metrology. Furthermore, its novel “Perspectives” approach enables multiple views of the world to co-exist and enrich each other, for example enabling a microscopy image to be represented as an object, as data and as a structural representation of a material.

This collaborative work was led by Emanuele Ghedini from the University of Bologna, Jesper Friis from SINTEF, and Gerhard Goldbeck from Goldbeck Consulting.

Further details about EMMO and the release can be found on EMMO GitHub main page and in the release notes.

OpenModel project logo

Managing the complexity of multiscale modelling with semantic technologies

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Managing the complexity of multiscale modelling with semantic technologies

 

This week, Otello has been taking part in Cecam‘s Workshop on Interfacial Properties: Open Questions (28–30 January, 2025) in Daresbury, UK. This full, three-day workshop was dedicated to discussing several topical issues and problems associated with molecular modelling and simulation of vapour-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces.

The topics covered included:

  • Thermodynamic properties: Systematization and ontologization in view of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and digital materials and product passports.
  • Methods for curved interfaces, finite-size effects, and nucleation.
  • Multiscale and mesoscopic modelling of interfaces: How consistent can it become?
  • Interfacial micromechanics: Localized quantities, intrinsic interfaces, and capillary waves.
  • Surface tension, virial, and pressure tensor in simulations with rigid multi-site models.
  • Simultaneous molecular model accuracy for both interfacial and bulk properties.

Otello gave a presentation during the first session on thermodynamic properties with the talk “Managing the complexity of multiscale modelling with semantic technologies”. This presentation covers some of the work that Otello has been doing as part of the OpenModel project. He talked about how OpenModel is a management system for materials modelling workflows based on semantic technologies; the importance of a semantic layer for interoperability; workflow documentation; and FAIR data creation.

Managing the complexity of multiscale modelling with semantic technologies

was written and presented by Otello Roscioni.

Cecam_2025 presentation

Or to view the presentation, click here.

A version of record of this work is available here.

Update: See our photo gallery from the event here. Photo credits: Otello Roscioni, GCL.

 

Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 953167 (OpenModel)

 

A look back over 2024!

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It has been a busy 2024 here at Goldbeck Consulting. Thanks to all of the support from you — our clients, partners and collaborators! We look forward to many more highlights in the coming year as well.

We have had the privilege to be involved with number of EU projects. Two of these projects have now successfully completed OntoTrans and DOME 4.0. We look forward to continuing work next year as part of the OpenModel and nanoMECommons projects. We have also enjoyed getting to know all of the partners within our new project this year, BatCAT.

We participated in lots of events throughout Europe, including NMBP-35 workshop, BIG-MAP EUnified Battery Data Space Workshop, BatCAT consortium kick-off and M12 meetings, OntoTrans consortium M48 final meeting, Knowledge Graph Alliance’s (KGA) 1st KG-AI summit, Materials Week 2024, CEN Workshop, 7th Semantics@Roche, Nanotexnology 2024 International Conferences & Exhibition on Nanotechnologies, Organic Electronics & Nanomedicine, Semantics 2024, OpenModel Exploitation Workshop, International Materials Science and Engineering Congress, CONNECT-NM kick-off and the NanoMECommons Workshop on materials characterisation, data standardisation and digitalisation. Gerhard also gave an online talk with Materials Square.

We also hosted our own Semantic Materials workshop in London. It was a great meeting and we hope to run a follow up event soon.

And we have published a number of publications and reports with our partners and collaborators: 

Developing ontologies in Materials Science

OntoTrans project press release and final video

Social Media – the art nouveau of communicating research projects to citizens?

Semantic Knowledge Management for materials: the benefits of a FAIR data and model-based approach in industrial research and development

Battery testing ontology: An EMMO-based semantic framework for representing knowledge in battery testing and battery quality control

Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology: Leveraging perspectives via a showcase of EMMO-based domain and application ontologies

Operationalising materials modelling workflows in industrial R&D – a benefits analysis

Overall, a great year and looking forward to the next one! Our very best wishes to all our partners and clients for a prosperous New Year.

 

OpenModel project logo

Operationalising materials modelling workflows in industrial R&D

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Operationalising materials modelling workflows in industrial R&D – a benefits analysis

 

To round off 2024, Goldbeck Consulting, along with colleagues from SINTEF and the University of Bologna, have published a white paper that discusses the importance of materials modelling workflows within enterprises.

The article delves into the benefits, challenges and practicalities of implementing a semantic interoperability platform. These platforms integrate materials modelling more deeply into the enterprise, improves its efficiency and supports collaboration. The paper has been published as part of the OpenModel project.

Within materials science and manufacturing, the use of semantic technologies is expected to be a key priority over the next 5–10 years as industries become increasingly reliant on data-driven decision-making, innovation, and sustainability practices. So, this article, highlights how semantic technologies are transforming materials science innovation.

Operationalising materials modelling workflows in industrial R&D – a benefits analysis

was written by Francesca L. Bleken, Michele Brigadoi, Alessandro Calvio, Vikki Cantrill, Jesper Friis, Gerhard Goldbeck and Otello Maria Roscioni.

OpenModel-White-paper-Final

Or to view the paper, click here.

A version of record of this work is available here.

 

Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 953167 (OpenModel)

 

Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology paper out now

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Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology: Leveraging
Perspectives via a Showcase of EMMO-Based Domain
and Application Ontologies

 

An article outlining the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO) has been published in the Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management. This article was written by Goldbeck Consulting, along with colleagues from SINTEF, Norway, and the Univeristy of Bologna, Italy, as part of the NanoMECommons and OpenModel EU projects.

This image shows EMMO’s architecture, with its backbone based on mereocausality and its implementation of physics, chemistry
and materials, grounded in current natural science foundations (StandardModel). This figure was taken from Del Nostro, P. et al. Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management – KEOD, 135–142 (2024) published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

The paper outlines the foundations of EMMO and describes its pluralistic (multi-perspective) approach. The paper goes on to describe three application ontologies built on the EMMO: a Battery Testing Ontology, which provides a structured framework for representing knowledge related to battery testing and quality control; a Hyperdimensional Polymer Ontology, which is designed to represent the wide variety of polymeric materials focusing on manufacturing aspects; and a MarketPlace Agent and Expert Ontology, which models experts, their expertise, and the community in the field of Materials Modeling.

Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology: Leveraging Perspectives via a Showcase of EMMO-Based Domain and Application Ontologies

was written by Pierluigi Del Nostro, Gerhard Goldbeck, Ferry Kienberger, Manuel Moertelmaier, Andrea Pozzi, Nawfal Al-Zubaidi-R-Smith, and Daniele Toti.

EMMOpaper

Or to view the paper, click here.

A version of record of this work is available here.

 

Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreements No 952869 (NanoMECommons) and No 953167 (OpenModel)

News: Battery testing ontology paper

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Battery testing ontology

An EMMO-based semantic framework for
representing knowledge in battery testing and battery quality control

 

As the importance of and our reliance on batteries in our day-to-day lives continues to increase, so does the need for advanced battery management systems and test procedures. This need can become a complicated task because batteries are used in many applications, such as electric vehicles, energy storage systems and watches.

Recently, a paper has been published in Computers in Industry that describes a new Battery Testing Ontology (BTO), which has been developed in a collaboration between Goldbeck Consulting and Keysight Technologies as part of the EU NanoMECommons project. BTO provides a comprehensive framework for the representation of data and protocols in battery testing and quality control.

The BTO elucidates concepts specific to battery testing and integrates them with the Characterization Methodology Ontology (CHAMEO) (see image below) and other relevant  materials science ontologies, including the Battery Domain Ontology (BDO) and the Electrochemistry Domain Ontology (EDO). The BTO is fully aligned with the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO).

 

This image shows the core classes and properties of the Battery Testing Ontology to describe the overall battery testing process displaying the various processes, subclasses, and instances used. This figure was taken from Del Nostro, P. et al. Computers in Industry 164, 104203 (2025) published under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.

 

The BTO is able to model a variety of electrical battery cell tests, including impedance spectroscopy (current and voltage over time), self-discharge (current over time), and high-voltage tests (voltage over time). It can also integrate necessary test hardware requirements for a given set of battery cell properties, e.g. the separator layer quality in the high-voltage test.

Within the NanoMECommons project, BTO has been developed on the basis of existing Matlab and JSON files, from which metadata tables were collaboratively developed, and these were subsequently modelled in a CHAMEO and EMMO aligned ontology.

The resulting “semantic layer” on top of existing file systems offers a standardized and extendable way to detail and share testing outcomes across application scenarios.

The work has demonstrated BTO’s potential to enhance battery test design and optimise test accuracy, both of which aid continuous improvements in safety, reliability, and efficiency of battery systems.

The integration of data and concepts across battery testing, materials characterisation and other materials science domains facilitated by the alignment with the EMMO is beneficial because it fosters a collaborative and cohesive interdisciplinary approach to battery research, development and testing.

 

Battery testing ontology: An EMMO-based semantic framework for representing knowledge in battery testing and battery quality control

was written by Pierluigi Del Nostro, Gerhard Goldbeck, Ferry Kienberger, Manuel Moertelmaier, Andrea Pozzi, Nawfal Al-Zubaidi-R-Smith, and Daniele Toti.

Battery-testing-ontology-paper

Or to view the paper, click here.

A version of record of this work is available here.

 

Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 952869 (NanoMECommons)

 

Battery testing ontology paper

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Battery testing ontology

An EMMO-based semantic framework for
representing knowledge in battery testing and battery quality control

 

Goldbeck Consulting, along with partners from the NanoMECommons project and DigiCell, have published an article in Computers in Industry, that describes a new, Battery Testing Ontology (BTO) that provides a comprehensive framework for the representation of knowledge in battery testing and quality control areas that will faciliate innovations and advances in this area.

As the importance of and our reliance on batteries in our day-to-day lives continues to increase, so does the need for advanced battery management systems and test procedures. This is a complicated task because batteries are used in many applications, such as electric vehicles, energy storage systems and watches. Here, the BTO provides a standardized framework to represent battery testing knowledge, which integrates with materials science ontologies to improve testing and quality control.

The BTO is also fully aligned with the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO) and other related domain ontologies, including the Battery Domain Ontology (BDO), the Electrochemistry Domain Ontology (EDO) and the Characterization Methodology Ontology (CHAMEO), and therefore can help to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of battery systems.

Battery testing ontology: An EMMO-based semantic framework for representing knowledge in battery testing and battery quality control

was written by Pierluigi Del Nostro, Gerhard Goldbeck, Ferry Kienberger, Manuel Moertelmaier, Andrea Pozzi, Nawfal Al-Zubaidi-R-Smith, and Daniele Toti.

Battery-testing-ontology-paper

Or to view the paper, click here.

A version of record of this work is available here.

 

Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 952869 (NanoMECommons)

 

EMMC logo

CONNECT-NM kick-off meeting Madrid

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Today, as part of his work with the EMMC, Gerhard is giving a talk at the CONNECT-NM kick-off meeting that is taking place at CIEMAT in Madrid.

Coordination of the European Research Community on Nuclear Materials for Energy Innovation (CONNECT-NM) is a project that answers the Euratom WP call “Cofund HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01-04”, for a co-funded European partnership with the aim of boosting innovation in the field of nuclear materials for use in reactors ranging from light water to GenIV, by combining modern digital technologies with materials science practices.

Importantly, the handling of data, including its semantic documentation, is one of the research streams that forms part of the CONNECT-NM project. This project also includes multiscale materials modelling and testing, which makes it relevant to much of the work that Goldbeck Consulting undertakes.

Picture of lectures at the Connect-NM kick-off meeting

Picture of lectures at the Connect-NM kick-off meeting

Gerhard’s presentation is entitled: European community activities in materials modelling, digitalisation, interoperability and data standards:

EMMC_Connect-nm

Or, you can view the presentation here.

 

Acknowledgement: This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreements OpenModel (GA n. 953167) and NanoMECommons (GA n. 952869)