The Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory - a European Centre of Excellence

What The Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory - a European Centre of Excellence does

The Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory is a European Centre of Excellence, established in 2015 and based in Berlin, that operates a free, open-source data management platform for materials science research. Its core technology ingests raw output from 60+ computational codes (e.g., VASP, Quantum ESPRESSO, ABACUS, LAMMPS, Gaussian) and experimental formats (NeXus/HDF5 via pynxtools), automatically extracts structured metadata through a Python plugin architecture and parsing/normalization pipeline, and exposes the resulting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) archive via REST APIs, the OPTIMADE standard, and a W3C DCAT semantic interface. The platform comprises the public NOMAD service, the self-hostable NOMAD Oasis, the NOMAD Encyclopedia, the AI Toolkit with Jupyter integration, NORTH (a containerized remote-tools hub), a built-in Electronic Lab Notebook, and a plugin system supporting custom schemas, parsers, normalizers, apps, and ELN templates.

NOMAD serves academic and research institutions, with a distributed user base that includes Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Helmholtz, the Max Planck Society, Universität Hamburg, FAU, UIUC, KIT, RWTH Aachen, IKZ, Montanuniversität Leoben, and DTU as Oasis adopters, and a 600+ member Discord community of researchers and developers. The platform is governed and developed by the FAIRmat consortium—an NFDI (National Research Data Infrastructure) consortium of over 30 partner institutions—and the infrastructure is operated by MPCDF and FHI on behalf of the Max Planck Society.

The business model is non-commercial: NOMAD is provided free of charge as a publicly funded research infrastructure with no pricing on the core service. NOMAD Oasis is downloadable open-source software that institutions self-host at their own infrastructure cost, and Glaide Data serves as the sole professional deployment partner for managed installations. There is no commercial sales motion; growth is community-led through academic networks, FAIR data advocacy, FAIRmat tutorial events, YouTube, GitHub, Discord, and the matSci.org forum.

Name

The Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory - a European Centre of Excellence

Legal name

NOMAD Laboratory

Website

https://nomad-lab.eu

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory is a Berlin-based, publicly funded research infrastructure that operates a free, open-source data management platform enabling materials scientists to upload, share, and analyze FAIR-compliant computational and experimental data from 60+ codes and formats.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Free and Open-Source Platform: NOMAD is provided entirely free of charge as an open-source service. The platform is developed and operated by the FAIRmat consortium (an NFDI initiative) with funding from German and European research institutions. There is no commercial revenue generation; the organization operates as a publicly funded research infrastructure. Revenue model is not applicable as this is a non-profit academic research data platform.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

NOMAD is a free, open-source data management platform for materials science built on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles. The platform processes files from 60+ computational materials science codes to extract structured data and rich metadata, providing researchers with a unified interface for uploading, sharing, publishing, exploring, and analyzing materials science research data. It includes Electronic Lab Notebook functionality, an AI Toolkit for machine learning analysis, and a self-hosted Oasis distribution option for institutional deployments.

Product overview

NOMAD Laboratory offers a unified platform ecosystem for materials science research data management. The core product is NOMAD, a free and open-source data management platform for making scientific research data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The platform consists of: NOMAD (main platform for data upload, sharing, publishing, and analysis with support for 60+ file formats); NOMAD Oasis (self-hosted deployment option for groups wanting local control); the Encyclopedia (materials science reference content); and the AI Toolkit (machine learning and analysis tools). Key capabilities include the Electronic Lab Notebook functionality, NORTH remote tools hub for running containerized analysis tools, and a Python-based plugin system for extensibility. The platform processes heterogeneous data from computational and experimental materials science, extracting structured metadata to enable unified search and analysis across diverse data sources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NOMAD Oasis: A distribution of the NOMAD software that can be installed locally for managing research group data and integrating with local IT environments.
• NOMAD CAMELS
• NOMAD Encyclopedia
• AI Toolkit

Products and services

• NOMAD The main open-source data management platform for materials science that enables uploading, sharing, publishing, exploring, and analyzing FAIR research data. Processes files from 60+ computational and experimental materials science formats to extract structured data and rich metadata.
• NOMAD Oasis A self-hosted distribution of the NOMAD software that research groups can install on their own resources. Provides full control over group data, local IT integration, custom analysis tools, and optional publishing of selected data to the public NOMAD service.
• NOMAD Encyclopedia A comprehensive materials science encyclopedia that enables navigation of the materials space, discovery of materials with similar properties, and access to curated materials data and properties.
• NOMAD AI Toolkit A comprehensive toolkit for applying machine learning to materials science data. Includes Jupyter notebooks for learning AI methods, querying the NOMAD Archive via API, and running containerized analysis tools directly on uploaded data via NORTH.
• NOMAD CAMELS A specialized tool for computational materials science workflows and data management, part of the NOMAD solution portfolio.

Quantifiable outcome

• 19,424,541 uploaded entries representing computational materials science data and experiments
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

AI capability6 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• FAIRmat Consortium (NFDI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFAIRmat is an open NFDI (National Research Data Infrastructure) consortium of over 30 partner institutions building a shared data structure for materials science. FAIRmat develops and operates NOMAD to build a federated data infrastructure for materials science. The consortium drives plugin development, schema standards, tutorial content, and community governance.
• Glaide DataminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerGlaide Data is the official professional deployment partner for NOMAD Oasis, providing tailored and ready-to-use research data management platforms at the group, institutional, or organizational level. Listed on the official NOMAD support page.
• MPCDF (Max Planck Computing and Data Facility)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMPCDF (Max Planck Computing and Data Facility) manages NOMAD Services together with FHI on behalf of the Max Planck Society, providing the computational infrastructure and hosting for the platform. MPCDF also hosts NOMAD GitLab repositories.
• FHI (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFHI (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society) co-manages NOMAD Services with MPCDF on behalf of the Max Planck Society. The institute is a key contributor to NOMAD's development and governance.
• Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner institution in the FAIRmat consortium that uses NOMAD Oasis for research data management.
• Max-Planck-GesellschaftminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Max Planck Society, through MPCDF and FHI, manages and operates NOMAD on behalf of its institutions. Max Planck researchers use NOMAD Oasis extensively.
• University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational research institution using NOMAD Oasis for materials science research data management. Listed among institutions with NOMAD Oasis deployments.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• eLabFTW: Open-source generic Electronic Lab Notebook integrated with NOMAD via the .eln file format. Comparable as a peer research data management tool sharing the same free academic community ethos.
• Chemotion: Open-source Electronic Lab Notebook for chemistry with native NOMAD integration. Adjacent peer that complements NOMAD's experimental data layer and shares the same NFDI/FAIR ecosystem roots.

Regional players

• MatNavi (NIMS): Japan's National Institute for Materials Science materials databases. Comparable mission and data structure but primarily serves Japanese researchers; an OPTIMADE-compatible counterpart in the global materials data network.

Direct peers

• AFLOW: Duke University's high-throughput computational materials repository with its own workflow manager. Directly comparable to NOMAD as a FAIR-adjacent materials data platform; supported via NOMAD's AFLOW parser integration.
• OQMD (Open Quantum Materials Database): Northwestern University's high-throughput DFT database of computed materials properties. Competes for the same computational materials community and is integrated as an imported source dataset in NOMAD.
• Materials Cloud: EPFL/MARVEL-led open platform for sharing computational materials science data and educational resources. Closest European peer with overlapping FAIR data principles and similar academic user base.
• Citrine Informatics: Commercial AI platform for materials and chemicals R&D. Adjacent in targeting materials data standardization and ML-driven discovery, but serves industrial customers with paid subscriptions rather than academic free use.
• Materials Project: A US DOE-funded open computational materials database that aggregates DFT calculations. Direct competitor in hosting FAIR-aligned materials data with overlapping user base in academia; large NOMAD data imports originate from Materials Project's underlying datasets.
• JARVIS: NIST's integrated materials informatics platform combining DFT, electron scattering, and ML data with a leaderboard infrastructure. Comparable as a publicly funded materials data initiative targeting standards and interoperability.

Broad incumbents

• Schrödinger: Established commercial computational chemistry and materials simulation platform (LiveDesign, Materials Science Suite). Broader incumbent serving the same R&D end market with proprietary tools versus NOMAD's open academic focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xbsky.app/profile/fairmat.bsky.social
• GitHubgithub.com/nomad-coe/nomad
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@TheNOMADLaboratory
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nomadlaboratory

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Novel Materials Discovery (NOMAD) Laboratory - a European Centre of Excellence