Digital transformation in materials science depends on a shared foundation across disciplines. NFDI-MatWerk plays a central role in building this foundation by clarifying key concepts such as data and metadata structures, FAIR principles, semantics, and ontologies. According to Dr.-Ing. Marek Smaga, this collective understanding is essential for connecting fields like mathematics, engineering, and computer science.
At the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering at RPTU Kaiserslautern, electronic laboratory notebooks are already integrated into everyday research. This structured documentation ensures that experimental data remain accessible and usable for both humans and machines in the future. Smaga notes that achieving this level of interoperability and long-term usability would have been far more difficult without the frameworks and community agreements developed within NFDI-MatWerk.
His contribution illustrates how coordinated approaches to research data management are becoming increasingly relevant for the MSE community. NFDI-MatWerk combines methodological guidance with practical tools that directly support scientific work. The project’s showcase offers additional insights into applications, workflows, and experiences from the community.
More examples of NFDI-MatWerk’s impact can be found at: https://nfdi-matwerk.de/outreach/showcase