Landscape of Ontologies Standards

In the beginning years of the evolution of the semantic web and linked data, since they first entered Gartner’s Emerging Technologies report in 2001, ontology engineering made steady progress primarily through academic efforts to support the semantic web stack.

The Technical Group for ICT under the European Observatory for Standardisation (EUOS) formed a special interest group comprising domain experts, ontologists, and researchers from academia and industry with the aim of surveying the landscape of Ontology standards. After months of effort, StandICT.eu 2026 community is delighted to present this report, which contains a set of carefully curated ontologies based on their relevance to ICT domains and vertical sectors, as well as their maturity and prominence for representing of linked data in the semantic web. 

The Landscape of Ontologies Standards captures several standard ontologies, both foundational and domain-specific, published by international standardisation bodies such as ISO, IEC, and ETSI in the past few years. It serves as a tool for understanding standard ontologies and identifying priority areas for future development, which can inform policy proposals. Additionally, it acts as a guide for standardisation in the ontology landscape while emphasizing the need for the sustainability of existing ontologies to benefit communities.

Arkopaul Sarkar