Using ontology to support scientific interdisciplinary collaboration within joint sustainability research projects

A multitude of different perspectives and scientific disciplines have to be regarded considering research in sustainable development. Each discipline usually has its own understanding of sustainability and uses different vocabulary. Nonetheless, they have to work together to make a progress. To get a complete picture within the field of production, for example to evaluate the sustainability of a product or a process, different disciplines such as environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, mathematics or social sciences must be combined. In the Collaborative Research Center 1026 â Sustainable Manufacturing an ontology is developed in order to link the different disciplines considering sustainable value creation networks. The ontology assists in exchanging information and data and thus fosters collaboration. The paper presents and discusses an extract of identified requirements and the approach on developing the ontology for collaborative research.