The JIDEP (Joint Industrial Data Exchange Platform) Project is a collaborative research initiative focused on advancing digital solutions for a circular economy. Bringing together academic institutions, industry leaders, and technology providers, the project aims to develop innovative frameworks that improve how material and product data is structured, shared, and utilised across value chains.
As part of this ongoing work, the JIDEP consortium has published a new research paper titled:
“A Material Passport Ontology for a Circular Economy”
This publication addresses a critical challenge in circular economy implementation: the lack of standardised and interoperable material data. Without consistent data structures, stakeholders struggle to share information, assess material flows, and make informed decisions about reuse and recycling.
With global resource consumption exceeding 100 billion tonnes annually, improving how material data is structured and utilised is essential for reducing waste and enabling circular practices
Contributing Authors from Technovative Solutions Ltd and the JIDEP Consortium
As an active consortium member of the JIDEP Project, Technovative Solutions Ltd (TVS) contributed to the development of this publication by supporting the design and validation of the Material Passport Ontology. Our work focused on ensuring that the framework aligns with real-world industrial data requirements and supports practical implementation across diverse use cases.
The following team members from Technovative Solutions Ltd contributed to the paper:
- Farhadur Arifin (Senior Control Engineer, Technovative Solutions Ltd)
- Rasel Ahmed (Senior Software Engineer, Technovative Solutions Ltd)
- Miah Raihan Mahmud Arman (Chief Technology Officer, Technovative Solutions Ltd)
- Tanvir Islam (Technical Lead, Technovative Solutions Ltd)
The paper was co-authored with the following contributors from the JIDEP consortium:
- Md Hanif Seddiqui (PostDoc (Research Associate), University of Cambridge)
- Feroz Farazi (Research Associate (Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology), University of Cambridge)
- Fausto Giunchiglia (Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento)
- Mayukh Bagchi (Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI), University of Trento)
- Simone Bocca (Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science (DISI), University of Trento)
- Jethro Akroyd (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge)
- Sebastian Mosbach (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge)
- Laura Di Cesare (Almas Partecipazioni Industriali S.p.A.)
- Andrea Pipino (Centro Ricerche FIAT)
- Ural Halaçoğlu (R&D Department of Zorlu Enerji Elektrik Üretim A.S.)
- Zeynep Korkmaz (R&D Department of Zorlu Enerji Elektrik Üretim A.S.)
- Kasparas Kižys (Adscensus, MB)
- Donatas Gendvilas (Adscensus, MB)
- Aydogan Berkay (TPI Composites)
- Sema Yildiz (TPI Composites)
- Markus Kraft (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge)
A Brief Overview of the Paper
The paper introduces a Material Passport Ontology (MPO), a structured framework designed to organise and share detailed information about materials, components, and products across the value chain.
Using semantic technologies and knowledge graphs, the MPO enables digital systems to interpret complex datasets and ensure interoperability between stakeholders such as manufacturers, suppliers, and recyclers.
A key feature of the framework is its ability to integrate multiple types of data within a single model, including physical properties, material composition, environmental indicators, lifecycle attributes, and circularity metrics. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of products throughout their lifecycle.
The ontology also supports the calculation of circularity indicators such as the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) and the Linear Flow Index (LFI), enabling stakeholders to assess recyclability, resource efficiency, and overall sustainability performance.
Its effectiveness has been demonstrated through industrial use cases in sectors such as automotive manufacturing and wind turbine production, showing how structured data can improve material recovery and support circular decision-making.
Read the full paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166361526000321
Closing Thoughts
This new publication marks an important milestone for the JIDEP consortium and highlights the value of collaborative innovation in addressing complex sustainability challenges.
At Technovative Solutions Ltd, we are proud to contribute to this work and to support the development of digital frameworks that make circular economy principles practical, scalable, and data-driven.
The JIDEP project has received funding from Horizon Europe Research and Innovation under grant agreement number 101058732.
