Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Onto-DESIDE (Ontology-based Decentralized Sharing of Industry Data in the European Circular Economy)
Reporting period: 2022-06-01 to 2023-11-30
Circular economy (CE) aims at reducing value loss and avoiding waste, by circulating products, materials or components before they become waste. Today, lack of support for sharing data in a secure, quality assured, and automated way is one of the main obstacles that industry actors point to when attempting to create new value networks. By using different terminologies and not having explicit definitions of the concepts that appear in data, it is very difficult to create new ecosystems of actors. The project leverages open standards for semantic data interoperability in establishing a shared vocabulary (ontology network) for data documentation, as well as a decentralised digital platform that enables collaboration in a secure and confidential manner, where value chain actors remain in control of their own data. This enables the creation of a digital shadow of the operations of a value network, and adding automated reasoning or other means of automation can in turn facilitates treating the digital network as a digital twin of a circular value chain. The project addresses several open research problems, including the development of ontologies that model a wide range of different materials and products providing both vertical and horizontal interoperability for cross-industry value networks. As well as transdisciplinary research on methods to find, analyse and assess new circular value chain configurations enabled by considering resource, information, value and energy flows as an integral part of the same complex system. Three industry use cases, from radically different industry domains (textiles, electronics, and construction), act as drivers for the research and development activities, as well as test beds for the cross-industry applicability of the results. The developed solutions will allow for automation of planning, management, and execution of circular value networks at a European scale and beyond. The project thereby supports acceleration of the digital and green transitions, automating the discovery and execution of new collaborations in the circular economy.
Impacts of the project will be within both the scientific domain, where a new application field of semantic web technologies is being opened up, as well as further societal, economic and environmental impacts. In the latter cases, by the development of new value networks in the three use case areas, the project has potential to improve circularity and reduce negative environmental impact in these areas, as well as to contribute to the transition towards CE at a broader scale. Accelerating the CE transition in turn, has the potential to reduce negative impact on climate, and increase both sustainability and resilience of European industry.
Impacts of the project will be within both the scientific domain, where a new application field of semantic web technologies is being opened up, as well as further societal, economic and environmental impacts. In the latter cases, by the development of new value networks in the three use case areas, the project has potential to improve circularity and reduce negative environmental impact in these areas, as well as to contribute to the transition towards CE at a broader scale. Accelerating the CE transition in turn, has the potential to reduce negative impact on climate, and increase both sustainability and resilience of European industry.
The project spans 3 years developing the envisioned solutions in three iterations, and has now completed the first iteration. Results include a core ontology network consisting of 9 OWL ontology modules, describing the core concepts of circular value networks. The decentralised data sharing platform is based on the Solid family of emerging W3C standards, where access to specific data can be granted at a granular level to other actors. In addition, a first version of the operationalisation of the Multi-flow Metabolism framework is being developed identifying information as one of the core aspects that supports all types of flows. Also enablers and factors that influence the successful implementation of innovative circular value networks are identified. All project results are published open access, except for research data as it is based on industry data. The initial results have been validated in our use cases, where one circular value flow for each industry sector was mapped, and then used as a frame for validating the results. The initial evaluation verifies the feasibility of the technologies, as well as the quality of the concrete solutions, while also identifying adaptations or extensions needed.
Next steps include to produce a second version of the ontology network considering the evaluation results. For instance, detailing the modelling of roles, and defining value (aligned with current CE standardization). Exploring the concept of value, is also in focus of the development of the Multi-flow Metabolism concept. For the data sharing platform, additional means of granular access control, data publishing and ingestion, as well as verifiable credentials are part of next steps.
Next steps include to produce a second version of the ontology network considering the evaluation results. For instance, detailing the modelling of roles, and defining value (aligned with current CE standardization). Exploring the concept of value, is also in focus of the development of the Multi-flow Metabolism concept. For the data sharing platform, additional means of granular access control, data publishing and ingestion, as well as verifiable credentials are part of next steps.
The project has developed new knowledge in two main scientific areas, i.e. semantic web technologies, and circular economy research. Regarding the technical results, the project is developing a new CE-focused ontology engineering methodology, enabling further extension of the ontology network. The application of the ontology network in our use case domains provides new insights into both challenges and potential solutions to large scale cross-domain modelling. In particular, we are studying how the technologies scale with the number of domains, types of data, etc. Further, the development of the Solid-based data sharing platform has generated new insights into the needs of granular access control and verifiable credentials, in order to build trust – a key enabler for scaling the CE beyond already established partnerships. Additionally, this technology is put to the test regarding efficiency and scalability in data access across a large network of actors. For further uptake of these results, they need to be properly documented and accompanied with training material, which we are currently developing. The project is also exploring potential contributions to standards based on the technical results.
Regarding CE research, the project extends previous understanding of the factors and enablers for finding and setting up new innovative value network configurations, and concretizes these into an operational methodology for use by all types of value chain actors. In addition, this leads to the development of new tools for complementing the previous Circularity Thinking toolkit, and an operationalization of the Multi-flow Metabolism concept, providing a holistic view of circular value networks. Such tools are a key enabler for the future uptake and exploitation of the project results. Similar to the technical results, also the methodological tools will be accompanied with documentation and training material, and the understanding of the CE and value networks as complex systems can contribute to the ongoing CE standardization discussions.
Regarding CE research, the project extends previous understanding of the factors and enablers for finding and setting up new innovative value network configurations, and concretizes these into an operational methodology for use by all types of value chain actors. In addition, this leads to the development of new tools for complementing the previous Circularity Thinking toolkit, and an operationalization of the Multi-flow Metabolism concept, providing a holistic view of circular value networks. Such tools are a key enabler for the future uptake and exploitation of the project results. Similar to the technical results, also the methodological tools will be accompanied with documentation and training material, and the understanding of the CE and value networks as complex systems can contribute to the ongoing CE standardization discussions.