Knowledge Technologies Scope & focus in 2003 NCP meeting Jan 27-28, 2003, Brussels Colette Maloney Interfaces, Knowledge and Content technologies, Applications & Information Market DG INFSO

Challenges information overload new forms of content massive, heterogeneous data sets unstructured documents (eg e-mails) new forms of content software programs, sensors, ambient devices … complex work processes collaborative work flows monitoring guidelines corporate knowledge practices the “zero-latency organisation”, shared KM blur between content & services Napster: music or P2P?

Work-programme 2003-2004 Objective: To develop semantic-based and context-aware systems to acquire, organise, process, share and use the knowledge embedded in multimedia content. Research will aim to maximise automation of the complete knowledge lifecycle and achieve semantic interoperability between Web resources and services.

Research theme #1 Semantic-enabled systems & services for the next-generation Web(s) semantic Webs within and across organisations, communities of interest … smart Web services automated, self-organising, robust & scaleable offering networked knowledge discovery multimedia content mining content-based retrieval across heterogeneous databases, platforms & networks information visualisation …

Semantic-enabled systems and services Human Human Machine-Machine Knowledge sharing Knowledge discovery Virtual Information and Knowledge Environments and the “Semantic Layer / Middleware” Documents Databases Email Web People Other Resources

Research theme #2 Knowledge-based adaptive systems reasoning over / acting on large volumes of dynamic data and information under uncertain or fuzzy boundary conditions, guidelines etc for automated diagnosis & decision support highly dynamic & time-critical applications modelling & optimisation “anytime-anywhere inferencing” 1934 2004

Knowledge-based adaptive systems Smart product development. 2000-2002 DecisionCraft Analytics Ltd. Send the snow-cats or not? for industry, science, education … applications Urban planning Accurately predicting arrival times for aircraft. - NASA - CTAS. Clinical guidelines support Modelling finance markets

KT - Basic research Foundational research formal k- models, methods & languages ontology lifecycle (“ecology”) methods & tools for creating and maintaining extensible & interoperable ontologies building domain/task specific ontologies bootstrapping broader, upper-level ontologies catering for multimedia & multilingual aspects standards for semantic interoperability between Web data, services & process descriptions between SemWeb, metadata & multimedia coding SPS - two classes are draw or win/lose, 4 instances are Ontologies can vary enormously in size. Class, Property or Instance can range from 1-1000s...

KT – Component level research Component-level research into baseline functions & toolsets across media / content types within common reference architectures automated knowledge acquisition semantic annotators intelligent Web scrapers or harvesters semantic search engines multimedia summarizers user-friendly editors visual assistants natural language tools (eg filtering & routing) …

KT – System level research System integration & validation tying together components into innovative end-to-end systems or services with enhanced reasoning capability over large-scale & multi-dimensional data sets more collaborative/community knowledge sharing addressing performance & effectiveness, user acceptance, ease of integration/customisation, impact on processes & legacy systems … additionality of applicative showcases multi-sectoral (reusability & replicability) multi-lingual & multi-cultural

KT – System level research Candidate areas - purely indicative! scientific & technical resource discovery personal & collective memory systems multimedia content mining across the Web business intelligence technology watch corporate portals & intranets … Should have multi-sector potential, in progressive areas - beyond state-of-the-art

Supporting issues Research infrastructure Socio-economic issues metrics & benchmarking, test-bed data sets public domain ontologies & open source toolsets registries & locator services training (researchers, integrators, leading users) … Socio-economic issues usability, guides & best practice new business & revenue models awareness & user/supplier dialogue … Global reach international co-operation …

Summary The vision: the Web as a semantically-annotated resource shared by humans, software agents & networked devices Two intertwined goals: basic research: “understand” content, master knowledge embedded in multimedia objects applied research: enable smarter, next-generation Web applications From long-term research through to exemplary applicative showcases Strong multidisciplinarity with many constituent disciplines & technologies; significant integration issues

What kind of project for KT?

ideal IP for KT the “ideal” IP should encompass along with genuine research work “engineering” tasks (esp. methods & tools) system integration & validation (“total system” approach) along with promotion & dissemination of results training, awareness & best practice (researchers, integrators, launching users) cooperation & exchanges with related national and international efforts (incl. standards bodies) socio-economic impact & consequences

Outcome of 2003 call fewer, bigger projects wrt. FP5 55+ meuro available: 4-5 IPs 2-3 NoEs 4-5 STRPs 1-2 SSAs 11-13 proposals likely to be retained for funding … highly selective process! proposals cutting across knowledge / content / interface technologies are welcomed

Using the new instruments do not artificially create an IP! an IP should be THE project in the target area an ambitious & progressive endeavour with clearly defined milestones & checkpoints appropriate use in this sector: not 30 Meuros, nor 3 Meuros; typically 6-12 Meuros, more where justified by scope & impact an NoE should be interdisciplinary, include an industry section and / or a user section

Partnerships consortium IPs 7-10 partners, from 3+ countries NoEs 4 “core” partners min., from 3+ countries STRPs 4-6 partners, from 3+ countries cohesive agenda; competent, committed & reliable partners complementarity: cover all areas you need duplication of competence Necessary for NoEs Acceptable for IPs where dictated by project needs industry/SME/academia/NAS participation: as dictated by project needs

Conclusion preserve your credibility: select one proposal and make it win! ensure that the proposal brings out key innovations full depth of participation rather than long list of organisation names critical mass: avoid the “1 FTE per partner” trap check relevance of your ideas with EC staff, at an early stage