2025 proved to be an eventful year. Now that we close up shop for the holidays, let’s look back on this year and look ahead at what is in store for 2026.
ETIM UK becomes ETIM UK and Ireland
ETIM International and ETIM UK had reached an agreement that from January 1st 2025, ETIM UK will expand their local chapter services into Ireland. As Nico van der Merwe said: “ This is a logical step to formalise what is already happening in practice in the market.”
ETIM 10.0 published in the buildingSMART Data Dictionary
We managed to publish our latest ETIM Release in the buildingSMART Data Dictionary. And we were delighted to be labelled as one of the few verified dictionaries. Over the course of 2025 usage statistics on bSDD have shown that ETIM is consistently the second ontology used right after IFC.
This ETIM publication also contains links to IFC and other ontologies as well as a test-set of linked data around the concept of doors.
ETIM International meets Asia
In March Benjamin Sjölander gave a well-attended presentation on ETIM and ETIM MC in the context of Building Information Modelling during the buildingSMART Summit in Singapore.
SERCOMATED joins METEL and ANGAISA in ETIM Italy.
In April we were pleased to learn that ETIM Italy expanded their chapter services to the construction materials sector. SERCOMATED, supported by the Edilportale and Dprice platforms represents the construction sector for ETIM Italy.
ETIM Forum 25 in Valencia
This year we had the 4th edition of the ETIM Forum. Looking at the packed program of sharing ideas and use cases we now feel the pressure of having to match the standards in 2026 that were set in what we consider the most successful edition to date. Preparations have already started for the first anniversary edition!
During the General Assembly we welcomed Grégoire Morineaux as our new board member and Thorsten Ludewig got re-elected for another term of three years.
All ETIM classes now contain a definition
Following up on the AI-generated definitions that we added to the bSDD publication, we decided to humanly validate them, meaning that over the year 5600+ definitions were read and double checked by the ETIM staff before uploading them into the ETIM Model.
ETIM Belgium to support the ETIM Modelling Classes governance project in 2026
Techlink is the official representative for ETIM in Belgium. By joining the ETIM MC open standard initiative, they are committing to align their platform called TechBIM with the ETIM MC standard.
ETIM Austria now also supports services for HVAC, plumbing and sanitary supplies.
In October the members of ETIM Austria agreed to expand their representation into the sector of HVAC, plumbing and sanitary supplies. With now a third sector added they automatically qualify to support all sectors in the ETIM Model.
ETIM xChange V 2.0 released
In November we proudly announced the release of ETIM xChange Version 2.0, with lots of new features and improvements. The adoption and implementation of is ever increasing.
ETIM MC standardization guidelines version 2.0 released
In September the ETIM Modelling classification Management tool received a major overhaul which added a lot of functionality to the platform.
And earlier this month we took an important step in the history of ETIM MC (Modelling Classification) with the release of the ETIM MC Guidelines version 2.0. This new set of guidelines is the result of extensive collaboration withing the Technical Committee of ETIM MC. You can download the document here.
2026 Outlook
We are thrilled to have secured budgets and roadmap for next year that contains a lot of exciting projects. Just to name a few:
- We have started building the ETIM Ecosystem register, that gives an overview of all organizations, companies that contribute, support and use the ETIM Standards. Besides that we want to provide a comprehensive list of platforms and solutions that are built around the ETIM standards.
- Soon we will launch the ETIM Academy, an online training platform that forms a knowledge base for anyone who is interested in learning about the ETIM Standards: its purpose, its governance and its implementation.
- 2026 will be the year for yet another ETIM release, ETIM 11.
- ETIM MC will have a major change in release systematics. Based on feedback and experiences from users, the Technical Committee decided to vote for installation of fixed releases like in regular ETIM to accommodate for more stability and to enable clear contract clauses on information delivery specifications.
- In 2026 we will start hosting a couple of online webinars. Benjamin will kick off the series on February 4th with : ETIM MC: The Masterclass | Part 1: The core.
As we look ahead to 2026, we do so with confidence and enthusiasm, driven by the continued collaboration of our members, partners, and community worldwide. Thank you for your trust, engagement, and commitment to the ETIM standards throughout the year. We wish you a restful holiday season and a healthy, successful start to the new year. We look forward to continuing the journey together in 2026.
Take care,
The ETIM International Executive Team