1. NSF Support for Semantic Web Research
Frank Olken
National Science Foundation
CISE/IIS
Presentation to
SICOP Meeting at NSF
Jan. 16, 2007

2. What is Semantic Web Research?
Description Logic (OWL, etc.)
Resource Description Framework (RDF)
Ontologies, Ontology Building Tools, etc.
Logic and Inference Engines
Query Languages over RDF, etc. (SPARQL)
Rules Languages, Inference Engines
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

3. Semantic Web Funding at NSF
NSF is routinely funding semantic web research proposals as part of its normal research programs and solicitations.
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

4. Semantic Web Proposals Funded by NSF (active awards)
25 awards= “semantic web” in title/abstract
88 awards = “semantic” and “web” in title/abstract
86 awards = “ontology” in title/abstract
16 awards = “ontology” in title only
43 awards = “semantic” in title only
272 awards = “semantic” in title/abstract
Many of these are traditional linguistics or programming language semantics
26 awards = “knowledge representation” in title/abstract
Total IIS active awards = 1,000
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

5. Examples of NSF Supported Semantic Web Research
Marine Metadata Initiative
uses OWL encoded ontologies for metadata attributes, taxonomies, ...
Microbial Genome Sequencing: Gene Ontology Terms for Standardized Annotation of Plant- Associated Microbe Genomes
standardized terms for describing all the functions of genes in living organisms (extensions of Gene Ontology (GO))
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

6. More Examples of NSF Supported Semantic Web Research
BIOPAX
Uses OWL for data interchange standard for biopathways (metabolic, signaling, gene regulatory networks) data
Workshop on Web Service Discovery & Composition
Uses OWL-S to specify web services
Formal Theory of Distributed Ontologies for Semantic Web
QPQ: An Open Source Deductive Software Repository
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

7. More examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research
Scalable Querying and Mining of Graphs
graph query algorithms for RDF, etc.
TANGO: Table Analysis for Semiautomatic Generation of Ontologies
analyses tables in web pages to construct ontologies
Deductive Integration of Heterogeneous Biological Data Sources
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

8. More examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research
Encoding Rights, Permissions and Obligations: Privacy Policy Specification and Compliance
Uses ontologies, modal action logic, deontic action logic for privacy policy specifications and compliance checking
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

9. Funding of Semantic Web Proposals by NSF Divisions
CISE/IIS – DM, KM, IR, science informatics, ecoinformatics, AI, machine learning, ...
CISE/CCF -theory
CISE/CNS – systems
SBE/BCS – e.g., linguistics
BIO/DBI – bioinformatics
OCI – cyberinfrastructure
OCE - Oceanography
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

10. Why does NSF care about semantic web technologies?
Formalization of scientific knowledge
Facilitate sharing of scientific data
Facilitate access to scientific data and knowledge
Natural language processing (information extraction, digital libraries, ...)
Support for digital government (semantic rules languages, disaster support, ...)
Support for machine learning
Support for math/science education
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

11. Debates about semantic web research
Skepticism about adoption of semantic tagging by the masses (and the quality of the tagging)
NSF is concerned about scientific / govt uses, not MySpace.
Skepticism of semantics by most of the database research community:
Still somewhat an issue, because semantic proposals often go to to DB panels
Skepticism about scalability of semantic search and inference engines
Open research issue
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

12. More debates about semantic web research
Description Logic vs. First Order Logic
Heated debates in KR research community about whether description logics are adequate or whether FOL or other logics should be used.
Scalability and structuring of rule bases
Concerns about the software engineering of large rule bases (or collections of logic axioms). Efforts to partition such large rule bases / logic axiom collections (cf. Cyc's microtheories, etc.) This remains an open research topic.
Poor Quality Ontologies
Ontology development and assessment remains difficult, rare skill. Some progress (e.g., Ontoclean), clear need for more research and more training of practitioners.
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

13. More debates about semantic web research
Ontology Merging is very very hard:
Currently subject of research, see Ontoclean work, also work by Joslyn, et al. on use of partial orders.
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

14. Where to apply for NSF funding for semantic web research?
CISE/IIS Division
III (Information Integration and Informatics)
Funds data management, information retrieval, knowledge management, digital libraries, digital government
RI (Robust Intelligence)
Funds machine learning, artificial intelligence, speech, vision, ...
CISE CNS Division (systems)
CISE CCF Division (theory)
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

15. Where to apply for NSF funding for semantic web research?
Biology, Geosciences, ... directorates
Fund domain specific ontologies for their specific research areas
May fund software tools for particular research areas – e.g., bioinformatics sequence annotation, ...
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

16. Where to apply for NSF funding of semantic web development?
CISE/CRI
Funds infrastructure for computer science research
OCI (Office of CyberInfrastructure)
Funds software development for tools of use to broad scientific communities (biology, etc.)
Anticipates funding data exchange standards and domain specific ontologies
Note: CRI and OCI support infrastructure, not direct research support !
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

17. Proposal Deadlines for 06-572
NSF Program Solicitation
Deadline for small (<$450K) proposals was Dec. 6, 2006
Deadlines for large ($900K-$1.8M) and medium ($450K-$900K) proposals have past (Oct/Nov)
Only one solicitation for IIS division this year
Future solicitations expected annually with similar deadlines.
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

18. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web
Contact Information for NSF CISE / IIS / III
Frank Olken,
data semantics, data/ontology integration, workflow, eng./sci. informatics, metadata registries, ...
Maria Zemankova,
Knowledge management, information retrieval, workflow, vizualization, ...
Sylvia Spengler, III Cluster Leader
Ontologies, bioinformatics, ...
Steve Griffin,
Digital libraries
Larry Brandt,
Digital government
Le Gruenwald,
Data management, security and privacy, ...
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

19. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web
Contact Information NSF/CISE/IIS
Tanya Korelsky,
Natural Language Processing
Edwina Rissland,
Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

20. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web
Contact Information NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure
Chris Greer,
Data Management cyberinfrastructure, bioinformatics, data collections
Kevin Thompson,
Software / middleware cyberinfrastructure
To be hired,
Additional staff in data collections, knowledge management
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

21. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web
Contact Info for Speaker
Frank Olken
National Science Foundation
CISE Directorate / IIS Division / III Cluster
4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1125
Arlington, VA 22230
Tel: (receptionist)
Tel: (direct)
Cell: (does not work within NSF)
F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web