1. NSF Support for Semantic Web Research Frank Olken National Science Foundation CISE/IIS Presentation to International Semantic Web Conference Athens, GA Nov. 7, 2006

2. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web2 Semantic Web Funding at NSF NSF is routinely funding semantic web research proposals as part of its normal research programs and solicitations.

3. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web3 Semantic Web Proposals Funded by NSF (active awards) 25 awards= “semantic web” in title/abstract 92 awards = “semantic” and “web” in title/abstract 91 awards = “ontology” in title/abstract 16 awards = “ontology” in title only 48 awards = “semantic” in title only 280 awards = “semantic” in title/abstract Some of these are traditional linguistics or programming language semantics 28 awards = “knowledge representation” in title/abstract Total IIS active awards = 1,000

4. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web4 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

5. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web5 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

6. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web6 Debates about support of semantic web research Skepticism about adoption of semantic tagging by the masses  NSF is concerned about scientific / govt uses, not My Space Skepticism by 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

7. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web7 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)

8. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web8 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,...

9. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web9 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 !

10. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web10 Proposal Deadlines for 06-572 NSF 06-572 Program Solicitation  Deadline for small (<$450K) proposals is Dec. 6, 2006  Deadlines for large ($900K-$1.8M) and medium ($450K-$900K) proposals have past  Only one solicitation for IIS division this year  Future solicitations expected annually with similar deadlines.

11. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web11 Contact Information for NSF CISE / IIS / III Frank Olken, folken@nsf.govfolken@nsf.gov  data semantics, data/ontology integration, workflow, eng./sci. informatics, metadata registries,... Maria Zemankova, mzemanko@nsf.govmzemanko@nsf.gov  Knowledge management, information retrieval, workflow, vizualization,... Sylvia Spengler, sspengle@nsf.gov, III Cluster Leadersspengle@nsf.gov  Ontologies, bioinformatics,... Steve Griffin, sgriffin@nsf.govsgriffin@nsf.gov  Digital libraries Larry Brandt, lbrandt@nsf.govlbrandt@nsf.gov  Digital government Le Gruenwald, lgruenwa@nsf.govlgruenwa@nsf.gov  Data management, security and privacy,...

12. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web12 Contact Information NSF/CISE/IIS Tanya Korelsky, tkorelsky@nsf.govtkorelsky@nsf.gov  Natural Language Processing Edwina Rissland, erissland@nsf.goverissland@nsf.gov  Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation

13. 2006-11-06F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web13 Contact Information NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure Chris Greer, cgreer@nsf.govcgreer@nsf.gov  Data Management cyberinfrastructure, bioinformatics, data collections Kevin Thompson, kthompso@nsf.govkthompso@nsf.gov  Software / middleware cyberinfrastructure To be hired,  Additional staff in data collections, knowledge management