What is EMMO (Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology)?

Materials science data is notoriously fragmented. Simulation tools, laboratory information management systems (LIMS), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and research databases all use different terminology, units, and data models for the same physical quantities.

EMMO addresses this by providing a single ontological framework grounded in physics and metrology. When two systems describe a “tensile strength measurement”, EMMO ensures they mean exactly the same thing - same physical quantity, same measurement process, same unit conventions.

For industries like automotive, aerospace, batteries, and advanced manufacturing, EMMO is becoming the foundation for digital materials passports, FAIR data initiatives, and integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) workflows.

EMMO takes a unique “multiperspective” approach - it describes materials from four complementary viewpoints:

Physics: Materials as physical objects with measurable properties (mass, temperature, stress). Every quantity is linked to its SI unit and measurement process.

Chemistry: Materials in terms of their composition - elements, compounds, phases, and mixtures.

Manufacturing: Materials as they are processed - casting, sintering, coating, assembly. Each process is formally described as an input-output transformation.

Characterisation: Materials as observed through experiments - XRD, SEM, tensile testing. Each measurement method is linked to the physical quantity it measures and its uncertainty model.

EMMO is expressed in OWL 2 DL, enabling automated reasoning. Domain-specific extensions (e.g., EMMO-Battery, EMMO-Metals) specialise the top-level ontology for specific industries while maintaining interoperability.

Battery research: The BIG-MAP European initiative uses EMMO to create interoperable data formats for battery materials research. Simulation results from VASP, experimental data from cycling tests, and manufacturing parameters from pilot lines all map to the same ontological framework.

Digital materials passport: An automotive OEM builds digital materials passports using EMMO, tracking the composition, processing history, and test results of every material in a vehicle - from raw material supplier to end-of-life recycling.

Simulation interoperability: A research consortium uses EMMO to enable data exchange between finite element, molecular dynamics, and thermodynamic simulation tools, allowing multi-scale modelling workflows that previously required manual data translation.