On the 26th of January 2023 a Collaboration Agreement was signed between the Sweden-based Industry Commons Foundation (ICF) and the US-based Open Applications Group (OAGi). ICF works on a series of data-driven systems for cross-domain interoperability with European project consortia that include Airbus, Bosch, Siemens and IKEA. OAGi promotes interoperability for both inter & intra enterprise business processes, inc­­­luding through its organisational unit Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF). The OAGi and IOF board leadership include representatives from Lockheed Martin, NIST, Airbus, Engineering Semantics, The University of Buffalo, EPFL, and Oracle.

The collaboration aims to focus on alignment of data-driven systems for industry, leading to common standards.

“OAGi’s IOF ontology work aligns well with ICF’s vision for what industry can accomplish when companies collaborate on pre-competitive initiatives,“ remarked Jim Wilson, OAGi CEO. “OAGi’s proven track record of delivering well-engineered interoperability resources will be highlighted within ICF’s highly active network of collaborators.”

Michela Magas, Chair of the Industry Commons Foundation, said:
“To enable agile, sustainable and value-building data-driven supply and distribution networks, we need systems for common understanding across industrial domains and geographical zones. Alignment of key functionalities, such as ontologies, data assets and IP tracking, will allow us to run off the same ‘railway tracks’ on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Todd Schneider, Co-Chair of IOF Technical Oversight Board, said:
“This collaboration will help accelerate the development of shared common ontologies which will aid communications and power the next generation of information systems used in engineering and industry. Having a larger pool of diverse participants will ensure the agreement needed for acceptance, use, and expansion of the ontologies.”

The collaboration will evolve with a series of mutually-beneficial activities for the advancement of cross-domain industrial data standardisation and data-driven systems for the optimisation of industrial value networks.

Date of publication: 31 January 2023