Periodic Reporting for period 3 - DOME 4.0 (Digital Open Marketplace Ecosystem 4.0)
Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2024-11-30
The aim in the DOME 4.0 project was to be a robust semantic industrial data ecosystem, that turns heterogeneous datasets into accessible data via a single portal, facilitating their use across several industrial sectors to boost common intelligence. DOME 4.0 has delivered a multisided and secure marketplace, open to everyone, and that facilitates trusted transactions for data providers, data consumers and service providers. The DOME 4.0 ecosystem provides a solution to information systems’ incompatibility and silo problems with the help of ontology-based semantic data interoperability and modern data processing technologies. Furthermore, the proposed semantic architecture of DOME 4.0 is flexible, so that it can absorb emerging technology developments and the scale-up of the ecosystem to data, tools and services applicable to wider sectors of the European economy.
DOME 4.0 is unique in two ways. Primarily, it opens a wider market, and engages more stakeholders. The DOME 4.0 ecosystem will aggregate a critical mass that individual marketplaces have not been in a position to achieve by themselves. In parallel, the DOME 4.0 enables novel business models and adds value to the individual marketplaces, data repositories and platforms by complementing them with transparent and fair compensation schemes, thus improving their operations and effectiveness. Concretely, the DOME 4.0 goals were twofold. Firstly, to develop the core technology including platform, ontologies and interfaces with other marketplaces and data spaces. Secondly, to develop the services to connect the data providers with the data consumers to help demonstrate nine business-to-business (B2B) showcases in the materials and manufacturing domains.
DOME 4.0 is unique in two ways. Primarily, it opens a wider market, and engages more stakeholders. The DOME 4.0 ecosystem will aggregate a critical mass that individual marketplaces have not been in a position to achieve by themselves. In parallel, the DOME 4.0 enables novel business models and adds value to the individual marketplaces, data repositories and platforms by complementing them with transparent and fair compensation schemes, thus improving their operations and effectiveness. Concretely, the DOME 4.0 goals were twofold. Firstly, to develop the core technology including platform, ontologies and interfaces with other marketplaces and data spaces. Secondly, to develop the services to connect the data providers with the data consumers to help demonstrate nine business-to-business (B2B) showcases in the materials and manufacturing domains.
The technical development work in DOME 4.0 was focused on working towards delivering an alpha version of the core platform. This work included the development of the back-end (underlying technology) as well as the front-end (user interface). The alpha version was successfully demonstrated at the second hackathon (11th –12th October 2023) in Leuven, Belgium. The beta version was demonstrated at the third hackathon (11th + 12th September 2024) in London, UK. The final platform was demonstrated on to the EC representatives on December 10th 2024, with all functionality integrated (including provenance, etc).
The technical work has been complex given the numerous heterogeneous data sources, a variety of open source and commercial (including 3rd party) software, as well as models of varying digital maturity associated with the individual cross-domain showcases. At the same time, the technical team also focused on semantically enriching the back-end and improving the front-end. Individual showcase connectors were developed, and these connectors were successfully demonstrated at the hackathon in Leuven, Belgium. In the last period, the showcases were fully integrated into the platform.
Regarding the nine (9) B2B showcases, the main focus in the first 18 months of the project has been on collecting data requirements, meta data, data acquisition and curation as well as preliminary execution of these showcases without depending upon the technology readiness level (TRL) progression of the DOME 4.0 technical platform. Every showcase has been systematically categorised into data inputs and data outputs and the showcase owners have been consulted to populate this information, often in an iterative manner. In the second 18 months, the nine B2B showcases were demonstrated in an offline (i.e. off the DOME 4.0 platform) mode. Workshops were organized in early 2023 to better understand the requirements in terms of connectors and onboarding of each showcase to the DOME 4.0 platform. There is now a roadmap for the offline and online execution per showcase, and on the configurations and developments for the DOME 4.0 execution.
The DOME 4.0 consortium engaged deeply with the sister project OntoCommons as well as other European initiatives in the digitalisation, data engineering, materials, and manufacturing fields. The key highlights included the invitation to join an international alliance, KGA (Knowledge Graph Alliance), interacting with other marketplace projects regarding minimum viable prototypes, as well as sharing key lessons learnt from a wide range of DOME 4.0 showcases involving cross-domain data sharing.
Dissemination and communication activities were further extended, with social media posts, website updates, newsletters and blog posts. Two hackathons and industrial engagement open days were also successfully organised in this period.
Finally, the value offering has been studied, including value streams, business architecture and business models, along with a market size study and sustainability action plan.
The technical work has been complex given the numerous heterogeneous data sources, a variety of open source and commercial (including 3rd party) software, as well as models of varying digital maturity associated with the individual cross-domain showcases. At the same time, the technical team also focused on semantically enriching the back-end and improving the front-end. Individual showcase connectors were developed, and these connectors were successfully demonstrated at the hackathon in Leuven, Belgium. In the last period, the showcases were fully integrated into the platform.
Regarding the nine (9) B2B showcases, the main focus in the first 18 months of the project has been on collecting data requirements, meta data, data acquisition and curation as well as preliminary execution of these showcases without depending upon the technology readiness level (TRL) progression of the DOME 4.0 technical platform. Every showcase has been systematically categorised into data inputs and data outputs and the showcase owners have been consulted to populate this information, often in an iterative manner. In the second 18 months, the nine B2B showcases were demonstrated in an offline (i.e. off the DOME 4.0 platform) mode. Workshops were organized in early 2023 to better understand the requirements in terms of connectors and onboarding of each showcase to the DOME 4.0 platform. There is now a roadmap for the offline and online execution per showcase, and on the configurations and developments for the DOME 4.0 execution.
The DOME 4.0 consortium engaged deeply with the sister project OntoCommons as well as other European initiatives in the digitalisation, data engineering, materials, and manufacturing fields. The key highlights included the invitation to join an international alliance, KGA (Knowledge Graph Alliance), interacting with other marketplace projects regarding minimum viable prototypes, as well as sharing key lessons learnt from a wide range of DOME 4.0 showcases involving cross-domain data sharing.
Dissemination and communication activities were further extended, with social media posts, website updates, newsletters and blog posts. Two hackathons and industrial engagement open days were also successfully organised in this period.
Finally, the value offering has been studied, including value streams, business architecture and business models, along with a market size study and sustainability action plan.
One example of a step beyond the state-of-the-art, is the implementation of a software platform based on semantic knowledge representation using ontologies, for example, EMMO, which is first-of-its-kind.
Regarding the potential impact, the cooperation with non-DOME 4.0 initiatives was focused on engaging with OntoCommons CSA, DG-RTD and DG-CNECT projects as well as other relevant initiatieves. Regular online meetings have been conducted with OntoCommons; and DOME 4.0 participated in workshops organised by the OntoCommons CSA.Throughout the discussions with other initiatives, other technical, dissemination and cooperation opportunities were identified, and as and when appropriate, further next steps were planned for. DOME 4.0 has also been represented in more than a dozen dissemination events organised by these relevant initiatives.
Regarding communication and dissemination, the project website and social media communication channels have been set up. Eleven newsletters have been sent out, and six peer-review scientific article and sixteen conference proceedings have been published.
Finally, in terms of business exploitation, B2B showcases were targeted first and business canvases have been developed via one-to-one discussions and project-wide workshops. The partners’ plans are diverse, which is expected given the varied nature of their activities ranging from Academia to RTOs, and businesses of different sizes. Despite this diversity, commonalities have been found between all the showcases, and a sustainability plan was built, to be further elaborated with specifics of showcases once the plan takes shape. Through the disussions, potential value of the DOME 4.0 for these showcases and the value of showcases for DOME 4.0 is also elaborated, and will be covered in business architecture and sustainability plans for the project which is currently ongoing.
Regarding the potential impact, the cooperation with non-DOME 4.0 initiatives was focused on engaging with OntoCommons CSA, DG-RTD and DG-CNECT projects as well as other relevant initiatieves. Regular online meetings have been conducted with OntoCommons; and DOME 4.0 participated in workshops organised by the OntoCommons CSA.Throughout the discussions with other initiatives, other technical, dissemination and cooperation opportunities were identified, and as and when appropriate, further next steps were planned for. DOME 4.0 has also been represented in more than a dozen dissemination events organised by these relevant initiatives.
Regarding communication and dissemination, the project website and social media communication channels have been set up. Eleven newsletters have been sent out, and six peer-review scientific article and sixteen conference proceedings have been published.
Finally, in terms of business exploitation, B2B showcases were targeted first and business canvases have been developed via one-to-one discussions and project-wide workshops. The partners’ plans are diverse, which is expected given the varied nature of their activities ranging from Academia to RTOs, and businesses of different sizes. Despite this diversity, commonalities have been found between all the showcases, and a sustainability plan was built, to be further elaborated with specifics of showcases once the plan takes shape. Through the disussions, potential value of the DOME 4.0 for these showcases and the value of showcases for DOME 4.0 is also elaborated, and will be covered in business architecture and sustainability plans for the project which is currently ongoing.