European materials industry is considered a key enabler for industrial development, and the EU has a historically strategic position in this sector. However, there is a low uptake in European materials industry for digital technologies. It is therefore crucial to provide all stakeholders of the EU with advanced digital technologies to evolve towards an agile European materials industry with intelligent enterprises that maximize and integrate the use of digital material sciences. The overarching objectives and goals of this project were:

• Support the transition towards industrial digitalization
• Increase speed of innovation by optimizing the use of existing research results and
• facilitating uptake of new projects results
• Design digital tools for industry to enhance efficiency and product quality, as well as to increase the capability for better and faster reaction to market changes.

DiMAT developed Open Digital Technologies for modelling, simulation, and optimization for each stage of the material value chain (design, processing and manufacturing) to enhance data analysis services, simulations and visualization techniques and thus data interoperability. These technologies, which are offered in particular to European SMEs and Mid-Caps, aim to improve the quality, sustainability, effectiveness and competitiveness of materials. Therefore, DiMAT developed and deployed 3 integrated Suites:

1. DiMAT Data and Assessment Suite: digital technologies for storing, sharing, representing, and assessing materials data
2. DiMAT Modelling and Design Suite: digital technologies for material design, in terms of their internal structure, properties and performance, to predict the material behaviour before manufacturing
3. DiMAT Simulation and Optimization Suite: digital technologies for creating efficient materials manufacturing simulation processes and determining the behaviour of the material mechanical characterization models to be used in the AI training and prediction.

The effectiveness of the three integrated DiMAT tool suites was demonstrated in four pilots covering textiles, composites, glass, and graphite.

DIN's role within DiMAT was standardization. DIN conducted standards search for relevant standards in the field of digital technologies for advanced materials (modelling, simulation, and optimization) and compared the standardization gaps with the needs in this area. The goal was to incorporate the project results into the development of new standards or into existing standardization activities at European and international level.

Project results

DiMAT project partners have successfully participated in updating the European standardization document CWA 17815:2025 Materials characterization - Terminology and structured documentation (CHADA) under the leadership of UNI (Italian National Institute of Standardization).

Towards the end of the project, a new CEN workshop was initiated to draw up a CWA (CEN Workshop Agreement) titled “Terminology definition for domain ontologies in materials science,” which is expected to be published in Q1 2026.

Project website: https://dimat-project.eu/

For further information please see: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101091496

Project duration

01/2023 – 12/2025

Project coordination

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGIES HELLAS (Greece)

Project partners

• UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA (Spain)
• FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV (Germany)
• ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE LA INDUSTRIA TEXTIL (Spain)
• ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION (Greece)
• CENTRO DI RICERCHE EUROPEO DI TECNOLOGIE DESIGN E MATERIALI (Italy)
• DRAXIS ENVIRONMENTAL SA (Greece)
• ADVANCED MATERIAL SIMULATION SL (Spain)
• ROPARDO SRL (Romania)
• DIN DEUTSCHES INSTITUT FUER NORMUNG EV (Germany)
• F6S NETWORK IRELAND LIMITED (Ireland)
• NATUREPLAST SAS (France)
• TECNOLOGIA REDERA SL (Spain)
• ACCELIGENCE LTD (Cyprus)
• CETMA COMPOSITES SRL (Italy)
• HEGLA GMBH CO KG (Germany)
• SCUOLA UNIVERSITARIA PROFESSIONALE DELLA SVIZZERA ITALIANA (Switzerland)
• IMERYS GRAPHITE & CARBON SWITZERLAND SA (Switzerland)

Project funding

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.