MaterialVital-Digital Kickoff
MaterialVital-Digital (MVD) project kickoff meeting on 23rd February 2026 at VDI office in Düsseldorf, Germany
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MaterialVital-Digital kickoff (23.02.2026)
MaterialVital-Digital (MVD) project had a kickoff meeting on 23rd February 2026 at VDI office in Düsseldorf, Germany that included key partners from Fraunhofer IWM, University of Freiburg, and Leibniz INM. The MVD project aims to advance digital and data-driven research for biohybrid and living material systems. Its core aim is to make scientific data better structured, semantically described, and improved reusability in Galaxy workflows. The project includes significant tasks such ontology development, user and data journeys, workflow implementation, FAIR data handling, and training activities - all centered around scientific use cases such as living therapeutic materials and biohybrid sensor materials.
Key partners
The main partners are Fraunhofer IWM, University of Freiburg, and Leibniz INM. Fraunhofer IWM. They will collaborate in areas such as ontology development, creation of user and data journeys, and semantic workflows, RAG/LLM-based tools, and execution infrastructures. The University of Freiburg contributes expertise in omics data analysis, FAIR tools and workflow development, and research data management (RDM), mainly through Galaxy platform. Leibniz INM contributes the scientific use cases from the field of engineered living and biohybrid materials and supports the practical implementation of digitization efforts.
Looking ahead
The general plan is to first refine the scientific use cases and analyze researcher needs through workshops and structured user journeys. Then translate these needs into shared metadata standards, ontologies, and interoperable workflows. A significant focus is the integration of tools and workflows into Galaxy, together with connections to RDM repositories such as CKAN and FAIR packaging of research outcomes via RO-Crate. In parallel, the consortium plans to build scientific tutorials, provide training and capacity building through the Galaxy Training Network, and later disseminate the results through workshops, collaborations, and publications with the broader MaterialVital initiative.