Semantic Data Management Maturity Survey Report

/in , , , , , /by

The first results are in!

In September of 2025, Semantic Materials launched their Semantic Data Management Maturity Assessment Service. Part of this service includes a self-assessment survey that enables materials and manufacturing businesses to investigate strengths and weaknesses and alignment with business goals when it comes to implementing effective semantic data and knowledge management systems.

This initial report appraises the results received so far. The results show that current maturity levels are relatively low, with fragmented data management preventing efficient collaboration. And although staff are often aware of the need for more efficient data integration, a lack of standardised workflows may be hindering progress.

The survey provides insights into the key issues of knowledge management:

  • Data
  • Processes
  • People
  • Tools and technologies

To take the survey for yourself and learn more, the service is free to access here – Semantic Data Management Maturity Assessment Service.

Semantic Data Management Maturity Survey – Initial Results Analysis

was written byVikki Cantrill and Gerhard Goldbeck.

MaturityServiceResults_report_FINAL

A version of record of this report is available here.

Acknowledgement

This study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 862136 (OntoTrans) and the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 101137725 (BatCAT), and from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number 10091190].

 

 

An overview of 2025!

/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

Another busy year at Goldbeck Consulting during 2025, so here we take a moment to reflect on the highlights from the last 12 months. Our sincere thanks go out to our clients, partners and collaborators, and we look forward to what 2026 will bring!

We successfully completed two EU-funded projects early in the year, OpenModel and nanoMECommons, and we are just over half-way through one of our other projects, BatCAT, for which we just completed the alignment of ontologies with the EMMO.

This year also saw the successful launch of Semantic Materials — the semantic technologies branch of Goldbeck Consulting Ltd. Semantic Materials brings together a team of experts and partner organisations in Europe to support clients in chemicals and materials industries in building science-based, data-centric knowledge management systems.

As part of the Semantic Materials initiative, we also announced a new, working collaborative agreement with Semantic Partners, known for their technology stack expertise. We look forward to continuing work with them throughout 2026.

And, we developed our Semantic Data Management Maturity Assessment Service, a self-assessment tool to give you insight into the key issues of knowledge management.

 

Our work has enabled us to take part in several events, like

Cecam’s Workshop on Interfacial Properties: Open Questions

EMMC 2025 International Workshop

PSDI Materials Community Workshop

FEMS EUROMAT 2025

The Harmonised terminologies and schemas for FAIR data in materials science and related domains WG workshop – “Data Cataloguing for Materials Science and related domains”.

RDA 25th Plenary Meeting

Semantic Materials Workshop 2025

 

Alongside the events attended, there have been numerous presentations and posters:

Managing the complexity of multiscale modelling with semantic technologies by Otello Roscioni.

Knowledge representation of battery manufacturing supported by an integrated ontology system by Gerhard Goldbeck, Silvia Chiacchiera, Martin Petit and Martin T. Horsch.

Materials knowledge and data representation with a European ontology ecosystem by Gerhard Goldbeck

EMMO Ontology: enabling AI-based innovative advanced materials development: the CoBRAIN Knowledge Base for hardmetal thermal spraying coatings by Gerhard Goldbeck and Emanuele Ghedini

EMMO: an ontology based on universal materials science concepts by Gerhard Goldbeck

 

Publications have also been key to our work this year:

Application of the CHADA Workflow (CWA 17815:2025) for High-Speed Nanoindentation Mapping on Battery Cathodes by Daniele Duranti et al.

Training for the new CHADA was published.

Published paper Easy-MODA: Simplifying standardised registration of scientific simulation workflows through MODA template guidelines powered by the Enalos Cloud Platform Iseult Lynch, Antreas Afantitis et al. This publication supports the use of Easy-MODA – a free web tool for researchers to document and register complex modelling workflows.

Knowledge organisation and intelligent R&D for chemicals and materials industries – A workshop report by Gerhard Goldbeck, Vikki Cantrill, Ferry Kienberger, and Alexandra Simperler

 

Finally, our semantic technologies work has led to an approved CEN workshop agreement and the release of two ontology versions:

A new CEN Workshop Agreement on Materials characterization – Terminology and structured documentation has been published. This new agreement provides a standardised framework, called the CHAracterisation DAta (CHADA) model that documents materials characterization processes in a structured and consistent manner.

Released Characterisation Methodology Domain Ontology (CHAMEO) v1.0 for characterisation terminology and metadata.

Released the Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology (EMMO) v1.0 as a standard representational framework for the materials and manufacturing sectors in collaboration by many within the EMMC community.

Overall, a great year and we are looking forward to 2026!

 

OpenModel project logo
EMMC logo

 

A look back over 2024!

/in , , , , , , , , /by

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.

 

Semantic Knowledge Management for Materials

/in , , /by

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

 

Goldbeck Consulting, along with partners from the OntoTrans project, have prepared a paper that highlights the benefits of using Semantic Knowledge Management (SKM) in materials research and development.

Semantic data and knowledge management, central to the Semantic Web (or Web 3.0), enables machines to analyse information based on data, metadata, and their relationships. In materials science, a key advantage to this approach is the creation of a flexible, overarching data model that improves data quality, lowers costs, and facilitates easier integration of new information. The use of these technologies in business is growing due to the need for complex data integration.

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

was written by Nadja Adamovic, Francesca Bleken, Alessandro Calvio, Vikki Cantrill, Vinicius Carrillo Beber, Seán Courtney, Anders Eklund, Gerhard Goldbeck*, Fajar Ekaputra, Luca Foschini, Jesper Friis, Emanuele Ghedini, Thomas Hagelien, Guntur Herwanto, Natalia Konchakova, Daniel Höche, Welchy Leite Cavalcanti, Alessio Mora, Michael Noeske, Florina Piroi, Peter Schiffels, Alexandra Simperler and Sean Stijven.

OntoTrans_OverviewPaper_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 862136 (OntoTrans)

 

One of the presentations at SeMatS 2024. Credit: Gerhard GoldbeckOne of the presentations at SeMatS 2024. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck
One of the presentations at SeMatS 2024. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck One of the presentations at SeMatS 2024. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck One of the presentations at SeMatS 2024. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck Gerhard presenting at SeMatS 2024 on Top Level Ontologies. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck Gerhard presenting at SeMatS 2024 on Top Level Ontologies. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck Gerhard presenting at SeMatS 2024 on Top Level Ontologies. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck Gerhard presenting at SeMatS 2024 on Top Level Ontologies. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck Gerhard presenting at SeMatS 2024 on Top Level Ontologies. Credit: Gerhard Goldbeck

SeMats 2024 photo gallery

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

Here is a gallery of photos from SeMats 2024, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photo credits: Gerhard Godlbeck, GCL.

 

Semantics 2024 conference logo. Amsterdam 2024.

Semantics 2024 conference

/in , , , , , , /by

Today, Gerhard is attending the 20th International Conference on Semantic Systems, Semantics 2024, in Amsterdam. If you are at the conference, feel free to say hello and talk to Gerhard about the work that we do.

Gerhard will be giving a presentation entitled Top Level Ontologies: desirable characteristics in the context of Materials Science, which emphasises the core role semantic technologies play in driving innovation and achieving interoperability of data. The presentation forms part of a session dedicated to “Harnessing the Power of Semantic Web Technologies in Materials Science“.

The presentation contains work resulting from several EU projects, OntoTrans, OntoCommons and NanoMECommons.

SeMatS2024-presentation

Or, you can view the presentation here.

The presentation in paper format, has since been included in the proceedings from the conference. Top Level Ontologies: desirable characteristics in the context of Materials Science was written by Pierluigi Del Nostro, Jesper Friis, Emanuele Ghedini, Gerhard Goldbeck, Daniele Toti and Francesco Zaccarini.

TopLevelOntologiesPaper
Update: See our photo gallery from the event here. Photo credits: Gerhard Goldbeck, GCL. 

Science communication in OntoTrans

/in , , /by

Science communication in the OntoTrans project

 

During the OntoTrans project, project partners used a variety of ways to communicate the project’s outcomes. In particular, social media platforms were used to disseminate results and reach out to the wider public.

Visual images on such platforms are an excellent way to convey content or to accompany text. So, over the course of the project, OntoTrans got creative with its artwork to help spread the word and help the public understand some of the technological advances from the project and how such technologies will develop in the coming years. An overview about communicating research projects to the public, with an emphasis on the current project, has been published.

Social Media – the Art Nouveau of Communicating Research Projects to Citizens?

was written by Alexandra Simperler, Laura Waslmayr, Xiran Dong, Ernst-Dieter Janotka, Gerhard Goldbeck and Nadja Adamovic.

ScienceComm_paper

Or to view the paper, click here.

ScienceComm_OntoTransArt

Or to view the accompanying artwork, 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 862136 (OntoTrans)

 

Nanotexnology 2024

/in , , , , /by

Last week, Otello attended the Nanotexnology 2024 International Conferences & Exhibition on Nanotechnologies, Organic Electronics & Nanomedicine series in Thessaloniki, Greece, and took part in a couple of events.

On Saturday 29 June, he attended the 18th International Summer Schools on “Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies, Organic Electronics & Nanomedicine” and gave a talk entitled “Organic semiconductor landscapes from molecular dynamics simulations”.

Then, on Thursday 7 July, as part of the 17th International Symposium on Flexible Organic Electronics, Otello gave an invited talk on “Structurally accurate coarse-grained model for polymers: a lesson of validation” as part of a wider workshop on open innovation and standardization and presented a post on the CHAMEO ontology.