DBOnto: Bridging Databases and Ontologies

Sources of information and our dependence on them are increasing at a phenomenal rate. The most obvious example is the explosive growth and rapid evolution of the World Wide Web, but other projects in research, industry, healthcare and government also exhibit a critical dependence on the effective management and exploitation of large scale data. The kind of information available is also changing rapidly, and often includes unstructured and semi-structured data, streaming data, noisy and incomplete data, and linked datasets. Simultaneously dealing with the rapidly increasing size, complexity and heterogeneity of data presents a grand challenge for information systems research, and has created an urgent need for more capable information systems. Meeting this need will be critical to the UK's future competitiveness.

Information systems clearly have a key role to play in addressing these extremely complex problems, but they need to evolve to reflect the rapidly changing information landscape. This evolution is the basis for the emerging field of semantics-aware data management, which involves a synthesis of ontological reasoning and database management principles. Semantics-aware systems employ rich schemas (AKA ontologies) that allow them to deal with incomplete and semi-structured information from heterogeneous sources, and to answer queries in a way that reflects both knowledge and data, i.e., to deliver understanding from information.

We believe, however, that if such systems are to be widely applicable, then their enhanced capabilities must, be in addition to, and not instead of, the well-established features and high performance of existing database systems; moreover, we believe that they will need to incorporate techniques from many other areas of computer science, particularly those that give a complementary view of ``Big Data'' management, such as algorithms and machine learning, stream processing, and information retrieval. The goal of the Oxford Information Systems Group (ISG) is to develop next generation semantics-aware data management systems that fully realise the desired synthesis.

ISG is uniquely positioned to realise such a synthesis: the group has world-leading expertise in both data management and ontology-based systems, an extensive network of contacts with information system users and data owners in the life sciences, government and industry, and is already tackling some of the most important and challenging scientific problems in the area. A platform grant would allow us to undertake the longer term, larger scale and more adventurous research that will be required in order to fully realise our ambitious goals, and at the same time offer an enhanced range of career development opportunities to our early-career researchers.

Platform funding would be used to provide stability and continuity for the existing PDRA team, and would help us to continue to attract and retain the most talented young researchers from around the world. It would also be used to develop new intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations via support for research visits and short exploratory research projects, and to pursue new approaches to interaction with industry, building on and extending our established collaborations. The latter would include, e.g., the longer term embedding of PDRAs in industry, extending our research efforts beyond the traditional research prototype, specialising our tools for particular industries, and using them to test our research hypotheses in realistic industrial environments. Finally, platform funding would support extended outreach activities, including the development and delivery of tutorials, short courses, and a summer school.

Platform funding would thus enable us both to tackle a strategically important problem requiring a large team with a wide range of expertise, and to develop the careers of the next generation of research leaders.

Data is rapidly becoming one of our most valuable resources, and its potential value is almost impossible to overestimate. Exploiting this potential will be critical to the UK's future competitiveness. We believe that our ability to do so will depend on information systems research, that we will be a major contributor to this research, and that the initiatives supported by platform funding will greatly magnify that contribution.

Our work will benefit both data owners struggling to manage heterogeneous information collections, and a growing subset of the technology industry for which improved information management capabilities represent an important component of their products or services.

Regarding data owners, the limitations of current data management and exploitation capabilities in the face of the data explosion are already widely recognised. We are already collaborating with many organisations who have sought our help in addressing this issue, including B2i, BAE Systems, the Data Strategy Board, Kaiser Permanente, the NHS, Ordnance Survey, Roke, Siemens, Statoil and Winton Capital (see letters of support). These collaborations cover application domains ranging from government and healthcare to the aerospace, energy and finance industries, and it is our belief that our research has the potential to impact almost every sector of the economy.

Regarding the technology industry, the needs of data owners have in turn made developing new information systems that address the rapid evoluation of customer data a great commercial opportunity. For example, Oracle has recently enhanced its well-known database management system with modules that use ontologies to support `semantic data management', and their brochure lists numerous application areas that can benefit from this technology. We are actively working with Oracle in the development of advanced information systems, as well as with numerous other technology vendors, including fluidOps, Google, IBM, liXto, Microsoft and Yahoo! (see letters of support).

Our contacts with industry will ensure that our work has immediate impact on and benefits for both developers and users of information systems. Our links with technology vendors will ensure rapid adoption of our results in their products; similarly, our links with data owners and consumers will ensure rapid adoption in their systems and applications. The industry internships supported by platform funding will both strengthen these links and facilitate technology transfer. The availability of and support for more robust prototypes will further facilitate technology transfer. Extending our collaborations with the developers and users of ontology-based systems in both academia and industry will also provide channels for dissemination, and opportunities for commercialising our results.

In order to maximise the impact of our research we will disseminate our results through distribution of software via the Web, presentations at relevant national and international meetings, participation in relevant international coordination and standardisation efforts, and publications in leading conferences and journals.

The proposers have an established impact track record: they have participated in numerous research projects, many of which have had significant impact on both research and industry, leading in several instances to exploitation of IP and/or commercial spin-offs; they have taken the lead in ensuring that ontology language standards are firmly based on foundational research; and they have been the recipients of several prestigious prizes and awards in recognition of their contributions to research.