1. 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

2. Challenges information overload new forms of content
massive, heterogeneous data sets
unstructured documents (eg s)
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?

3. 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.

4. 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 …

5. 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
Web
People
Other
Resources

6. 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

7. Knowledge-based adaptive systems
Smart product development 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

8. 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 s...

9. 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) …

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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 …

13. 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

14. What kind of project for KT?

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. Partnerships consortium
IPs 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

19. 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