GovGDS is not built on marketing claims. Its thesis — that a digital product passport is, at bottom, a data-governance infrastructure — comes from peer-reviewed academic research. This page links that research and explains, in plain terms, what it found.
Published: AI and digital product passports (Journal of Cleaner Production)
Our peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Cleaner Production argues that the DPP’s value is not the label but the governed data underneath it. On its own, a passport is a compliance record; combined with analytics and the dynamic capabilities of a firm, it becomes the foundation for circular business-model innovation — verified resale, take-back, re-certification and product-as-a-service.
Bravo-Fabian, M. A., López-Pérez, S. D. J., & Vence, X. (2026). Artificial intelligence and digital product passports: Data governance infrastructures enabling circular business model innovation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 571, 148875.
Read on the publisher → doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2026.148875
Accepted & forthcoming: the DPP as institutional infrastructure (Journal of Innovation Economics & Management)
A second peer-reviewed paper, accepted and forthcoming in the Journal of Innovation Economics & Management, examines the DPP as an institutional infrastructure for innovation, drawing on transaction-cost economics and the problem of information asymmetry. The full citation and link will be published here once the article is out.
From research to platform
These ideas are the reason GovGDS focuses on open standards and portability rather than a closed database. The approach is proven today in an operating jewellery demonstrator that issues GS1 EPCIS 2.0 events and exportable, self-describing passport files; profiles for other categories are on our roadmap.
The researcher behind GovGDS
Marco A. Bravo-Fabian is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Santiago de Compostela, researching data sharing across supply chains and the digital circular economy. He brings more than 15 years in digital products, digital transformation and digital government, including founding and directing a state innovation-and-technology agency and co-founding a software company. He also advises organisations on DPP implementation through McBravos. LinkedIn · ORCID.
Put the research to work
See how an evidence-based DPP distribution layer fits your use case.