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Credentialing & Certification

NCOR provides independent, nonprofit certification services for ontologies and ontology engineering practices, grounded in formal ontology and international standards.

Our Role​

The National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR) serves as an independent, nonprofit credentialing authority for:

  • Conformance to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), including alignment with ISO/IEC 21838-2
  • Conformance to the Common Core Ontologies (CCO)
  • Ontology engineering best practices grounded in formal ontology

NCOR’s credentialing activities are independent of ontology implementers, including commercial vendors and government agencies. This independence ensures neutrality, transparency, and scientific rigor.

Experience and Stewardship​

NCOR members and leadership bring decades of experience evaluating, developing, and improving ontologies across:

  • Scientific research
  • Government and defense organizations
  • Industry and enterprise systems
  • International standards initiatives

NCOR leadership includes the original developers and long-standing stewards of BFO and CCO, and NCOR plays an active role in the governance and evolution of these standards.

Who We Serve​

NCOR’s credentialing and certification services support:

  • Enterprises adopting open ontology standards such as BFO and CCO
  • Government and defense organizations deploying semantic technologies
  • AI, data governance, and compliance teams
  • Standards bodies and auditors
  • Philanthropic donors and foundations supporting open standards and open science

Scope of Certification​

NCOR maintains credentials for:

  • Formal conformance to BFO and CCO
  • Sound ontology engineering practices beyond any single ontology framework
  • Long-term maintainability, reuse, and interoperability of ontologies

Our certifications are evidence-based, auditable, and time-bound, reflecting the evolving nature of both ontologies and the systems that depend on them.