5th Ontologies4Chem Workshop
November 2 , 18:00 – November 6 , 10:00 CET
We are pleased to announce that the registration is open and share the preliminary agenda for the 5th Ontologies4Chem Workshop 2026 in Limburg an der Lahn (Hesse, Germany, 30 min by train from Frankfurt Airport), which will be jointly organized by TIB, Beilstein-Institut, NFDI4Chem, NFDI4Cat, and PSDI.
Registration
Registration is open and free of charge, i.e. participants only have to cover the costs for their travel and accommodation.
Deadline for on-site registration: 06.10.2026*
Registration for online participation is still open!
*Please note:
The workshop is designed as a small, hands-on event built around intensive hacking sessions, and the number of on-site places is deliberately kept limited to preserve the collaborative working atmosphere that has made previous editions so productive. Should demand exceed the available places, we may therefore not be able to confirm every on-site registration. We appreciate your understanding.
Preliminary Agenda: Overview & Detailed Information
The core program of the workshop will be held from Tue, Nov 3 to Thu, Nov 5, with a “Welcome Dinner” on Monday evening (Nov 2) and departure on Friday morning (Nov 6) after breakfast. Each of the three workshop days will feature morning presentations (live-stream available) to inspire engaging discussions and hands-on hacking sessions in the afternoon.
| Time/Day | Mon, Nov 2 | Tue, Nov 3 | Wed, Nov 4 | Thu, Nov 5 | Fri, Nov 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00 – 09:00 | Breakfast | ||||
| 09:00 – 12:00 | Talks around the topic “Chemistry related Projects & Ontology Development” | Talks around the topic “Reactions & Process Chemistry” | Talks around the topic “Chemical Entities – Classification and Design Patterns” | Departure | |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch | ||||
| 13:00 – 18:00 | Arrival | Flash Talks & Hacking Sessions | Hacking Sessions (13:00 – 15:00) Social Event (15:00 – 18:00) | Presentation of Hacking Session Results & Closing | |
| 19:30 | Welcome Dinner | Dinner | |||
DAY 1 (Tue, Nov 3): Chemistry related Projects & Ontology Development – Ontologies4Chem Canon Status Update
Focused on projects developing, curating, or implementing ontologies within a FAIR data management context.
| 09:00 – 09:10 | Welcome Oliver Koepler & Carsten Kettner |
| 09:10 – 10:00 | Opening Keynote N.N. |
| Ontologies4Chem Canon Status Updates | |
| 10:00 – 10:15 | NFDI4Chem’s Ontology Curation Status Updates: CHMO, RXNO & MOP Noura Rayya |
| 10:15 – 10:30 | NFDI4Cat Updates Alexander Sommer-Behr |
| Coffee break (15 min) | |
| 10:45 – 11:00 | PSDI Updates Samantha Pearman-Kanza & Aileen Day |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Beilstein Updates Carsten Kettner |
| 11:15 – 11:30 | Presentation: Ontology Mapping and SSSOM Updates Charles T. Hoyt |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | Discussion Session: Community Strategy for Archiving Orphaned/Defunct Chemical Ontologies (REX, FIX, Gainsville Core) Philip Strömert |
| Lunch Break (60 min) | |
| 13:00 – 13:15 | PlasticO: An ontology for plastic and plastic pollution Giorgio Ubbiali |
| 13:15 – 14:35 | Flash Talk Session around the use of chemical ontologies in applications: – MOLSIM: an OBO-aligned ontology for describing molecular simulation data Fathoni Musyaffa – Ask Wol: A one-stop tool for reviewing ontologies Dani Metilli – Using ChemDCAT-AP in .eln exports from Chemotion ELN Shashank Shekhar Harivyasi – Terms are the easy part: Editorial rules, tooling and review in Voc4Cat David Linke – Hiding ontologies in user-oriented interfaces: 15 years of research in the life sciences Egon Willighagen – Enhancing Reproducibility in Computational Workflows: Linking Semantics, Metadata, and Ontologies Pavan Veluavali – Use of Ontologies for Annotation of Catalysis Research Data Abraham Nieva De La Hidalga – Ontology routed generic process and procedure description language: PythonLab Mark Doerr |
| Coffee break (15 min) | |
| 14:50 – 15:15 | Intro to the parallel running hacking sessions TBD |
| Parallel Hacking Sessions (15:15 – 18:00) | |
| 15:15 – 18:00 | Hacking Session: Prototyping a data model for the IUPAC/CIAAW Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights Session Chair: Egon Willighagen |
| 15:15 – 18:00 | Hacking Session: Building a SKOS representation of the IUPAC Gold Book Session Chair: David Linke / Leah McEwen |
| 15:15 – 18:00 | Hacking Session: Draft computational chemistry ontology Session Chair: Mario Wolter |
| 19:30 | Dinner |
DAY 2 (Wed, Nov 4): Reactions & Process Chemistry
Focused on ontologies for chemical reactions and their usage in classifying reactions in databases.
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Presentation: A high-level ‘Context’ ontology – providing more context for reactions Alexei Lapkin & Laura Fadler based on this previous work: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2011.06.005 |
| 09:30 – 10:30 | Analysing and discussing Alexei’s high-level “Context” ontology proposal Alexei Lapkin & Jerven Bolleman |
| Coffee break (15 min) | |
| 10:45 – 12:00 | Discussion Topic: Instantiating reaction ontologies Jerven Bolleman, Alexander Sommer-Behr |
| Lunch Break (60 min) | |
| 13:00 – 15:00 | Hacking Sessions continue |
| 15:00 – 18:00 | Social Event |
| 19:30 | Dinner |
DAY 3 (Thu, Nov 5): Chemical Entities – Classification and Design Patterns
Focused on classifying substances (samples) and material via their chemical composition.
| 09:00 – 09:15 | Presentation: ChEBI Update Noel O’Boyle |
| 09:15 – 09:45 | Presentation: Rule-based ChEBI extension Simon Flügel |
| 09:45 – 10:15 | Presentation: Explainability of chemical language models Charlotte Tumescheit |
| Coffee break (15 min) | |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Presentation: ChEBI-N – An Updated Ontology-Based Chemical Enrichment Analysis Tool Miranda Carlsson |
| 11:00 – 11:15 | Presentation: Design Patterns for Chemical Composition of Substances and Materials Philip Strömert |
| 11:15 – 11:30 | Presentation: Description of compositions of metallic materials using PMDco Philip von Hartrott |
| 11:30 – 12:15 | Discussion Topic: Agreeing on a shared design pattern to describe chemical substances via their molecular composition and how to use the tools we have for autoclassification Philip Strömert & Evan Bolton |
| Lunch Break (60 min) | |
| 13:15 – 14:30 | Preparing final presentation of results of the hacking/breakout sessions |
| Coffee break (15 min) | |
| 14:45 – 16:30 | Presenting hacking/breakout session results |
| Coffee break (15 min) | |
| 16:45 – 18:00 | Closing of the Workshop Oliver Koepler |
| 19:30 | Dinner |
This year, we are using a new, highly interactive approach to organize the workshop. We have set up a public GitHub repository to discuss topics we would like to tackle during the workshop: https://github.com/NFDI4Chem/Ontologies4Chem2026/discussions
Please feel free to browse the suggested topics, join the discussion, and upvote your favorites!
Accommodation & Contact
The Dom Hotel Limburg is offering a limited room contingents for registered workshop participants at a price of 125 EUR per person and night (incl. breakfast). More detailed information on room reservations at the conference hotel will be provided in the confirmation email after your registration has been confirmed by the Workshop Organization Team.
Additional hotel recommendations:
– Frankfurter Hof (right around the corner from the event hotel)
– Nassauer Hof (ca. 10 min walk from the event hotel)
– Weinhaus Schultes (ca. 10 min walk from the event hotel, located in the old town)
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at ontologies@nfdi4chem.de.
We look forward to welcoming you to Limburg in November!
Best regards,
The Workshop Organization Team
