NFDI MatWerk Ontology (MWO) V3.0.0

The National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is a German initiative aimed at establishing a sustainable and standardized ecosystem for research data management across scientific disciplines. Within this context, the NFDI-MatWerk consortium focuses on developing a digital infrastructure tailored to the needs of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), with the goal of integrating diverse data types, workflows, and ontologies.

A key objective of NFDI-MatWerk is the creation of a domain-specific knowledge graph that links FAIR digital objects to enable digital representation of materials, processes, and related parameters. To support this vision, a standardized ontology for materials science is essential to ensure the seamless integration of decentralized data and workflows, fostering interoperability and reproducibility.

The NFDI MatWerk Ontology (MWO) serves as a foundational semantic framework for the MSE community. It enhances the structuring, accessibility, and reusability of research data by providing a shared vocabulary and formal structure. Earlier versions of MWO captured core elements of the MSE research environment, including actors, organizations, infrastructures, repositories, publications, and datasets.

The latest version, MWO V3.0.0, adopts the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as its upper-level structure. This provides a robust conceptual foundation and promotes alignment with a broader range of ontologies. MWO V3.0.0 also incorporates a modular mid-level layer inspired by NFDIcore ontology design, allowing it to represent metadata in a consistent and extensible way. This structure supports integration with other domain ontologies such as the Platform MaterialDigital Core Ontology (PMDco).

As a backbone for the MSE knowledge graph, MWO significantly advances data integration and retrieval. It fosters collaboration across disciplines, supports the digital transformation of materials research, and facilitates innovation by improving data discoverability, reusability, and semantic interoperability.