Accessing Materials Data: Challenges and Directions in the Digital Era

Abstract

Providing better availability to materials data has recently gained new momentum. Many successes aboundlarge numbers of individual materials databases exist, powerful modeling and data analysis approaches have been developed, and Web-based technologies are available. At the same time, challenges remain: one-stop access is lacking, use of multiple databases at the same time is virtually impossible, using shared data is difficult, and understanding data quality is very hard. In this paper, we review the successes and challenges of accessing digital materials data, especially as new initiatives are starting. We also identify insights from previous work that provide guidance to future progress, including adherence to the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) principles, in achieving this dream.

Workflow Engineering in Materials Design within the BATTERY 2030+ Project

“…It remains an open challenge for the materials modeling domain due to the high heterogeneity, variety, complexity, and dynamics of materials. [ 80 ] Currently, the EMMC (European Materials Modeling Council ‐ https://www.emmc.info) makes efforts to develop a materials ontology that can help different programs to “understand” the data scheme of input data from a large variety of sources, both simulation and experimental characterization of materials. [ 9 ] In the future, such an ontology can give rise to domain‐specific languages for data in materials science, similar to, for instance, the chemical markup language developed in the past.…”