Maintaining semantic stability across decades
Collaboration across suppliers, contractors, and internal teams requires shared traceability, configuration control, and consistent interpretation of system information — even when each actor maintains its own tools and data structures. The case is grounded in long-lifecycle system development where a shared fictional reference system (e.g. a vessel) lets multiple partners apply their perspectives across lifecycle phases and subsystems such as hull, propulsion, and mission functions.
The SDR challenge concerns semantic continuity and governance over extended lifecycles. When systems span decades, meanings drift: terms change, standards evolve, organisational boundaries shift. SDR in this context is not only about data integration, but about maintaining stable, interpretable system semantics across time, versions, and stakeholder transitions. This includes rights management, security constraints, and the need for interoperable but distributed knowledge structures.
How can Semantic Data Readiness enable traceable and semantically stable collaboration across organisations over long industrial system lifecycles?
A governance-supported semantic layer, with explicit lifecycle concepts and controlled evolution of meaning, is critical for maintaining interoperability, traceability, and trust in long-lived system ecosystems.
Lifecycle collaboration scenarios will be modelled using a shared reference system structure (a vessel with multiple subsystems) and synthetic or open datasets representing configuration changes, versioned system evolution, and distributed information ownership. Experiments will explore how semantic frameworks support consistent interpretation across lifecycle stages and organisational handovers.
Practical insight into how semantic governance can be introduced in environments with strong confidentiality, complex supplier networks, and long-term operational responsibility. The case enables exploration of what semantic 'minimum structures' are needed to support collaboration without forcing uniform tools or full data sharing.
Provides the long-horizon governance perspective for distributed ontology cases (UC009), DPP ecosystems (UC007), and circular traceability over long lifecycles (UC002).