Abstract:
Where databases and platforms using different data structures and file formats interoperate, or where data from various sources are combined, an agreement on semantics becomes a necessity. To facilitate the advance of computational molecular engineering in process engineering data technology, community-governed standards need to be established to ensure the interoperability of models, numerical solvers, and databases.
In addition to CAPE-OPEN, another line of standardization efforts, which is based on semantic technology, has emerged from the activities of the European Materials Modelling Council (EMMC). Ontologies can formalize the relationship between entities from a particular domain, such as materials modelling. Thereby, they can guide the data ingest into platforms, including relational and non-relational databases, and extend the possibilities of data extraction and evaluation by automated logical reasoning.
The present contribution reviews the ongoing ontology development work from the point of view of the Virtual Materials Marketplace (VIMMP) project and discusses the relation between marketplace-level ontologies, focused on service and workflow descriptions, and the European Materials & Modelling Ontology (EMMO), the top-level ontology developed by the EMMC.
VIMMP has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 760907.